Related papers: Universal efficiency at optimal work with Bayesian…
We establish a theory of optimal efficiency and power for three-terminal thermoelectric engines which have two independent output electric currents and one input heat current. This set-up goes beyond the conventional heat engines with only…
In a quantum Stirling heat engine, the heat exchanged with two thermal baths is partly utilized for performing work by redistributing the energy levels of the working substance. We analyze the thermodynamics of a quantum Stirling engine…
We treat a quantum mechanical system with certain general properties which are expected to be common in macroscopic quantum systems. Starting from a PURE initial state (which may not describe an equilibrium) in which energy is mildly…
Continuous particle exchange thermal machines require no time-dependent driving, can be realised in solid-state electronic devices, and miniaturised to nanometre scale. Quantum dots, providing a narrow energy filter and allowing to…
We study the modification of the second law of thermodynamics for a quantum system interacting with a reservoir regarding quantum coherence. The whole system is isolated so that neither energy nor information is lost. It is discovered that…
The performance of quantum heat engines is generally based on the analysis of a single cycle. We challenge this approach by showing that the total work performed by a quantum engine need not be proportional to the number of cycles.…
A unified thermodynamic formalism describing the efficiency of learning is proposed. First, we derive an inequality, which is more strength than Clausius's inequality, revealing the lower bound of the entropy-production rate of a subsystem.…
In a stochastic heat engine driven by a cyclic non-equilibrium protocol, fluctuations in work and heat give rise to a fluctuating efficiency. Using computer simulations and tools from large deviation theory, we have examined these…
We generalize Anderson's orthogonality determinant formula to describe the statistics of work performed on generic disordered, non-interacting fermionic nanograins during quantum quenches. The energy absorbed increases linearly with time,…
Observed efficiencies of industrial power plants are often approximated by the square-root formula: $1-\sqrt{T_-/T_+}$, where $T_+ (T_-)$ is the highest (lowest) temperature achieved in the plant. This expression can be derived within…
Recent understanding of the thermodynamics of small-scale systems have enabled the characterization of the thermodynamic requirements of implementing quantum processes for fixed input states. Here, we extend these results to construct…
We present a mechanism for efficiency increase in quantum heat engines containing internal energy levels that do not couple to the external work sink. The gain is achieved by using these levels to channel heat in a direction opposite to the…
The full optimization of a quantum heat engine requires operating at high power, high efficiency, and high stability (i.e. low power fluctuations). However, these three objectives cannot be simultaneously optimized - as indicated by the…
We investigate the efficiency of power generation by thermo-chemical engines. For strong coupling between the particle and heat flows and in the presence of a left-right symmetry in the system, we demonstrate that the efficiency at maximum…
There is intense effort into understanding the universal properties of finite-time models of thermal machines---at optimal performance---such as efficiency at maximum power, coefficient of performance at maximum cooling power, and other…
Work extraction from a heat engine in a cycle by a quantum mechanical device (quantum "piston") is analyzed. The standard definition of work fails in the quantum domain. The correct extractable work and its efficiency bound are shown to…
We consider the optimization of a finite-time Carnot engine characterized by small dissipations. We bound the power with a simple inequality and show that the optimal strategy is to perform small cycles around a given working point, which…
A system responding to a stochastic driving signal can be interpreted as computing, by means of its dynamics, an implicit model of the environmental variables. The system's state retains information about past environmental fluctuations,…
Recent advances in applying thermodynamic ideas to quantum systems have raised the novel prospect of using non-thermal, non-classical sources of energy, of purely quantum origin, like quantum statistics, to extract mechanical work in…
We study a molecular engine constituted by a gas of $N \sim 10^2$ molecules enclosed between a massive piston and a thermostat. The force acting on the piston and the temperature of the thermostat are cyclically changed with a finite period…