Related papers: Democritus and the motive power of fire

The ideal gas laws are derived from the democritian concept of corpuscles moving in vacuum plus a principle of simplicity, namely that these laws are independent of the laws of motion aside from the law of energy conservation. A single…

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…

Building on the fundamental equation, this study revisits key thermodynamic concepts in a cohesive and innovative manner. It demonstrates the consistency of thermodynamic theory while addressing and clarifying common misconceptions and…

A simple and effective approach to thermodynamics is suggested, which solves the major difficulties in the traditional presentation of the subject. The internal energy is introduced from the behavior of deformable bodies, whereas the…

In this paper, the foundations of classical phenomenological thermodynamics are being thoroughly revisited. A new rigorous basis for thermodynamics is laid out in the main text and presented in full detail in the appendix. All relevant…

The Carnot theory is unique among the theories of heat developed before the emergence of thermodynamics because it considers the relationship between heat and work. The theory is contained in Carnot's book published in 1824, which includes…

We propose a simple classical dynamical model of a thermoelectric (or thermochemical) heat engine based on a pair of ideal gas containers connected by two unequal scattering channels. The model is solved analytically and it is shown that a…

The triumph of heat engines is their ability to convert the disordered energy of thermal sources into useful mechanical motion. In recent years, much effort has been devoted to generalizing thermodynamic notions to the quantum regime,…

The concept of thermal energy was only fully formulated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The search for the understanding of calorific phenomena was what provided the construction and development of the concept of thermal energy.…

We present a formalism to study the heat transport and the power developed by the local driving fields on a quantum system coupled to macroscopic reservoirs. We show that, quite generally, two important mechanisms can take place: (i)…

In his ninth memoir Clausius summarizes the two principles of thermodynamics as follows: "The whole mechanical theory of heat rests on two fundamental theorems: that of equivalence of heat and work, and that of equivalence of…

One of the fundamental questions in quantum thermodynamics concerns the decomposition of energetic changes into heat and work. Contrary to classical engines, the entropy change of the piston cannot be neglected in the quantum domain. As a…

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, to make clear (and de-mystify) the basic concepts of classical thermodynamics, and thus to enable the integration of thermodynamics within systems modeling and control. Second, to demonstrate…

We formulate a thermodynamic theory applicable to both classical and quantum systems. These systems are depicted as thermodynamic system-bath models capable of handling isothermal, isentropic, thermostatic, and entropic processes. Our…

The available enthalpy is an early form of the modern thermodynamic concept of exergy, which is the generic name for the amount of work obtainable when some matter is brought to a state of equilibrium with its surroundings by means of…

In the present note, we discuss a simple example of a macroscopic quantum many-body system in which the approach to thermal equilibrium from an arbitrary initial state in the microcanonical energy shell is proved without relying on any…

Macroscopic cyclic heat engines have been a major motivation for the emergence of thermodynamics. In the last decade, cyclic heat engines that have large fluctuations and operate at finite time were studied within the more modern framework…

We present the exact theory of quantum engines whose working medium is a network of driven oscillators performing an arbitrary cyclic process while coupled to thermal and nonthermal reservoirs. We show that when coupled to a single…

We consider a class of quantum heat engines consisting of two subsystems interacting via a unitary transformation and coupled to two separate baths at different temperatures $T_h > T_c$. The purpose of the engine is to extract work due to…

We analyze the efficiency of thermal engines (either quantum or classical) working with a single heat reservoir like atmosphere. The engine first gets an energy intake, which can be done in arbitrary non-equilibrium way e.g. combustion of…