Related papers: Cooling classical particles with a microcanonical …
A heat engine is a machine which uses the temperature difference between a hot and a cold reservoir to extract work. Here both reservoirs are quantum systems and a heat engine is described by a unitary transformation which decreases the…
Thermodynamics is traditionally concerned with systems comprised of a large number of particles. Here we present a framework for extending thermodynamics to individual quantum systems, including explicitly a thermal bath and work-storage…
A suitable sequence of sharp pulses applied to a spin coupled to a bosonic bath can cool its state, i.e., increase its polarization or ground state occupation probability. Starting from an unpolarized state of the spin in equilibrium with…
We implement a Szilard engine using a 2-bit logical unit consisting of inductively coupled quantum flux parametrons (QFPs) -- Josephson-junction superconducting circuits with applications in both the classical and quantum information…
There are many exotic thermodynamic processes that are hard to study in nature. Here, we synthesize a structured environment to explore the extremes of thermodynamics. We present an engine running at extreme temperatures of above ten…
We propose an experimental scheme to realize a nano heat engine with a single ion. An Otto cycle may be implemented by confining the ion in a linear Paul trap with tapered geometry and coupling it to engineered laser reservoirs. The quantum…
We consider a relativistic quantum heat engine that goes through a thermodynamical cycle consisting of stages involving laser-assisted cooling of electrons and the generation of Xray radiation. Quantum treatment of the processes makes it…
We study the performance of quantum thermal machines in which the working fluid of the model is represented by a many-body quantum system that is periodically connected with external baths via local couplings. A formal characterization of…
The study of thermal heat engines was pivotal to establishing the principles of equilibrium thermodynamics, with implications far wider than only engine optimization. For nonequilibrium systems, which by definition dissipate energy even at…
The microcanonical ensemble is a natural starting point of statistical mechanics. However, when it comes to perturbation theory in statistical mechanics, traditionally only the canonical and grand canonical ensembles have been used. In this…
A cyclic thermodynamic heat engine runs most efficiently if it is reversible. Carnot constructed such a reversible heat engine by combining adiabatic and isothermal processes for a system containing an ideal gas. Here, we present an example…
We consider a quantum system weakly coupled to a large heat bath of harmonic oscillators. It is well known that such a boson bath initially at thermal equilibrium thermalises the system. We show that assuming a priori an equilibrium state…
Quantization of energy is a quintessential characteristic of quantum systems. Here we analyze its effects on the operation of Otto cycle heat machines and show that energy quantization alone may alter and increase machine performance in…
We experimentally study the motion of a colloidal particle, translated back and forth within a viscoelastic, i.e. non-Markovian bath. The particle starts in equilibrium before the forward motion, but only partially relaxes at the turning…
The design and operation of an electronic cooler based on a combination of superconducting tunnel junctions is described. The cascade extraction of hot-quasiparticles, which stems from the energy gaps of two different superconductors,…
We review a series of experimental studies of the thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes at the microscale. In particular, in these experiments we studied the fluctuations of the thermodynamic properties of a single optically-trapped…
We studied the efficiency of two different schemes for a quantum heat engine, by considering a single Dirac particle trapped in an infinite one-dimensional potential well as the "working substance." The first scheme is a cycle, composed of…
Brownian information engines can extract work from thermal fluctuations by utilizing information. So far, the studies on Brownian information engines consider the system in a thermal bath; however, many processes in nature occur in a…
Motivated by recent studies on models of particle and heat quantum pumps, we study similar simple classical models and examine the possibility of heat pumping. Unlike many of the usual ratchet models of molecular engines, the models we…
We develop a geometric framework to describe the thermodynamics of microscopic heat engines driven by slow periodic temperature variations and modulations of a mechanical control parameter. Covering both the classical and the quantum…