Related papers: Thermodynamic limits of dynamic cooling
In traditional thermodynamics the Carnot cycle yields the ideal performance bound of heat engines and refrigerators. We propose and analyze a minimal model of a heat machine that can play a similar role in quantum regimes. The minimal model…
The minimal-coupling quantum heat engine is a thermal machine consisting of an explicit energy storage system, heat baths, and a working body, which alternatively couples to subsystems through discrete strokes -- energy-conserving two-body…
The third law of thermodynamics has a controversial past and a number of formulations due to Planck, Einstein, and Nernst. It's most accepted version, the unattainability principle, states that "any thermodynamic process cannot reach the…
The minimal work principle states that work done on a thermally isolated equilibrium system is minimal for adiabatically slow (reversible) realization of a given process. This principle, one of the formulations of the second law, is studied…
We investigate the fundamental dimensional limits to thermodynamic machines. In particular we show that it is possible to construct self-contained refrigerators (i.e. not requiring external sources of work) consisting of only a small number…
A first principle reciprocating quantum refrigerator is investigated with the purpose of determining the limitations of cooling to absolute zero. We find that if the energy spectrum of the working medium possesses an uncontrollable gap,…
The minimal work principle asserts that work done on a thermally isolated equilibrium system, is minimal for the slowest (adiabatic) realization of a given process. This principle, one of the formulations of the second law, is operationally…
Refrigeration limits are of fundamental and practical importance. We here show that quantum systems can be cooled below existing incoherent cooling bounds by employing coherent virtual qubits, even if the amount of coherence is incompletely…
We have made a simple and natural modification of a recent quantum refrigerator model presented by Cleuren et al. in Phys. Rev, Lett.108, 120603 (2012). The original model consist of two metal leads acting as heat baths, and a set of…
Thermodynamics connects our knowledge of the world to our capability to manipulate and thus to control it. This crucial role of control is exemplified by the third law of thermodynamics, Nernst's unattainability principle, which states that…
We consider thermal relaxation process of a quantum system attached to a single or multiple reservoirs. Quantifying the degree of irreversibility by entropy production, we prove that the irreversibility of the thermal relaxation is…
Thermalization of isolated quantum systems has been studied intensively in recent years and significant progresses have been achieved. Here, we study thermalization of small quantum systems that interact with large chaotic environments…
In most studies for the quantification of the third thermodynamic law, the minimum temperature which can be achieved with a long but finite-time process scales as a negative power of the process duration. In this article, we use our recent…
We consider the Non-Equilibrium Steady State induced by two infinite quantum thermal reservoirs at different temperatures and derive an inequality giving the upper bound of the work extracted by cyclic operations. This upper bound tends to…
The third law of thermodynamics in the form of the unattainability principle states that exact ground-state cooling requires infinite resources. Here we investigate the amount of non-equilibrium resources needed for approximate cooling. We…
The rate of temperature decrease of a cooled quantum bath is studied as its temperature is reduced to the absolute zero. The III-law of thermodynamics is then quantified dynamically by evaluating the characteristic exponent {\zeta} of 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 minimal model of a quantum refrigerator (QR), i.e. a periodically phase-flipped two-level system permanently coupled to a finite-capacity bath (cold bath) and an infinite heat dump (hot bath), is introduced and used to investigate the…
Recent progress in the synthesis and processing of nano-structured materials and systems calls for an improved understanding of thermal properties on small length scales. In this context, the question whether thermodynamics and, in…
Landauer's limit on heat dissipation during information erasure is critical as devices shrink, requiring optimal pure-state preparation to minimise errors. However, Nernst's third law states this demands infinite resources in energy, time,…