Related papers: Clock-Driven Quantum Thermal Engines
Thermal machines are physical systems designed to convert thermal energy into practical work through cyclic state transformations. A key component in such a machine is a clock-equipped control element that dictates which interaction…
Time remains one of the least well understood concepts in physics, most notably in quantum mechanics. A central goal is to find the fundamental limits of measuring time. One of the main obstacles is the fact that time is not an observable…
Processes such as quantum computation, or the evolution of quantum cellular automata are typically described by a unitary operation implemented by an external observer. In particular, an interaction is generally turned on for a precise…
We propose quantum engines powered entirely by the quantum measurement process. Our theoretical construction of the engine requires no work from the system Hamiltonian, and takes energy only from the process of observation to move a…
Here we explore the possibility of precise time-keeping in quantum systems using athermal resources. We show that quantum measurement engineered reservoirs can be used as athermal resources to drive the ticks of a quantum clock. Two and…
The resource theory of quantum thermodynamics has been a very successful theory and has generated much follow-up work in the community. It requires energy-preserving unitary operations to be implemented over a system, bath, and catalyst as…
This chapter presents autonomous quantum engines that generate work in the form of directed motion for a rotor. We first formulate a prototypical clock-driven model in a time-dependent framework and demonstrate how it can be translated into…
We study the unitary time evolution of a simple quantum Hamiltonian describing a heat engine coupled to two heat baths. The engine is modeled as a three-level system. Each heat bath consists of a single harmonic oscillator. The engine is…
There are both practical and foundational motivations to consider the thermodynamics of quantum systems at small scales. Here we address the issue of autonomous quantum thermal machines that are tailored to achieve some specific…
The inexorable miniaturisation of technologies, the relentless drive to improve efficiency and the enticing prospect of boosting performance through quantum effects are all compelling reasons to investigate microscopic machines. Thermal…
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,…
Quantum heat engines provide attractive means in quantum thermodynamics for studying the fundamentals of the flow of heat and work. Previous experimental implementations of heat engines operating at the level of a few excitation quanta have…
We propose an autonomous quantum heat engine based on the thermally driven oscillation of a single electron shuttle. The electronic degree of freedom of this device acts as an internal dynamical controller which switches the interaction of…
We analyze an autonomous micro-engine as a closed quantum mechanical system, including the work it performs and the fuel it consumes. Our model system shows by example that it is possible to transfer energy steadily and spontaneously…
A cyclically working quantum mechanical engine that operates at a single temperature is proposed. Its energy input is delivered by a quantum measurement. The functioning of the engine does not require any feedback control. We analyze work,…
Based on quantum thermodynamic processes, we make a quantum-mechanical (QM) extension of the typical heat engine cycles, such as the Carnot, Brayton, Otto, and Diesel cycles, etc. The temperature is not included in these QM engine cycles,…
Quantum coherence has been shown to impact the operational capabilities of quantum systems performing thermodynamic tasks in a significant way, and yet the possibility and conditions for genuine coherence-enhanced thermodynamic operation…
One of the principal objectives of quantum thermodynamics is to explore quantum effects and their potential beneficial role in thermodynamic tasks like work extraction or refrigeration. So far, even though several papers have already shown…
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.…
We present a model for an autonomous quantum thermal machine comprised of two qubits capable of manipulating and even amplifying the local coherence in a non-degenerate external system. The machine uses only thermal resources, namely,…