Related papers: Efficiency of autonomous soft nano-machines at max…
Carnot efficiency sets a fundamental upper bound on the heat engine efficiency, attainable in the quasi-static limit, albeit at the cost of completely sacrificing power output. In this Letter, we present a minimal heat engine model that can…
The excess work required to drive a stochastic system out of thermodynamic equilibrium through a time-dependent external perturbation is directly related to the amount of entropy produced during the driving process, allowing excess work and…
The energy efficiency and power of a three-terminal thermoelectric nanodevice are studied by considering elastic tunneling through a single quantum dot. Facilitated by the three-terminal geometry, the nanodevice is able to generate…
A new theoretical approach is proposed to predict a practical upper limit to the efficiency of a very large wind farm. The new theory suggests that the efficiency of ideal turbines in an ideal very large wind farm depends primarily on a…
We study quantum transport through two-terminal nanoscale devices in contact with two particle reservoirs at different temperatures and chemical potentials. We discuss the general expressions controlling the electric charge current, heat…
Thermoelectric generators are particularly suitable to investigate the irreversible processes which govern the coupled transport of matter and heat in solid-state systems. We study the efficiency at maximum power in the strong coupling…
Robustness is often regarded as a critical future challenge for real-world applications, where stability is essential. However, as models often learn tasks in a similar order, we hypothesize that easier tasks will be easier regardless of…
Despite its idealizations, thermodynamics has proven its power as a predictive theory for practical applications. In particular, the Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency provides a benchmark for any real engine operating at maximal power. Here we…
It is well-known that proper scaling can increase the efficiency of computational problems. In this paper we define and show that a balancing technique can substantially improve the computational efficiency of optimal control algorithms. We…
We derive general trade-off relations among the power, efficiency, and constancy for two-terminal thermoelectric systems in the linear response regime. Constancy, which quantifies the steadiness of the heat engine, is measured by its…
While strong system-bath coupling produces rich and interesting phenomena, applications to quantum thermal engines have been so far pointing mainly at detrimental effects. The delicate trade-off between efficiency loss due to strong…
Brownian particles placed sequentially in contact with distinct thermal reservoirs and subjected to external driving forces are promising candidates for the construction of reliable thermal engines. In this contribution, we address the role…
The past few years have seen great strides in our ability to build synthetic microscopic machines. However, the function of such machines is often controlled directly by externally applied fields that deterministically specify the…
Soft heat engines are poised to play a vital role in future soft robots due to their easy integration into soft structures and low-voltage power requirements. Recent works have demonstrated soft heat engines relying on liquid-to-gas phase…
Accurate performance estimation of future many-node machines is challenging because it requires detailed simulation models of both node and network. However, simulating the full system in detail is unfeasible in terms of compute and memory…
It is now widely accepted that the CMOS technology implementing irreversible logic will hit a scaling limit beyond 2016, and that the increased power dissipation is a major limiting factor. Reversible computing can potentially require…
We consider offline scheduling algorithms that incorporate speed scaling to address the bicriteria problem of minimizing energy consumption and a scheduling metric. For makespan, we give linear-time algorithms to compute all non-dominated…
Many complex systems satisfy a set of constraints on their degrees of freedom, and at the same time, they are able to work and adapt to different conditions. Here, we describe the emergence of this ability in a simplified model in which the…
Machines enabled the Industrial Revolution and are central to modern technological progress: A machine's parts transmit forces, motion, and energy to one another in a predetermined manner. Today's engineering frontier, building artificial…
Within a unified formulation, encompassing self-electrophoresis, self-diffusiophoresis, and self-thermophoresis, we provide a simple integral kernel transforming the relevant surface flux to particle velocity for any spheroid with…