Related papers: Solar cell as self-oscillating heat engine
The thermodynamic limit for the efficiency of solar cells is predominantly defined by the energy bandgap of the used semiconductor. In case of organic solar cells both energetics and kinetics of three different species play role: excitons,…
A central building block of a heat engine is the working fluid, which mediates the conversion of heat into work. In nanoscale heat engines, the working fluid can be a quantum system whose behavior and dynamics are non-classical. A…
The Sun is a magnetic plasma diffuser that selectively moves light elements like H and He and the lighter isotopes of each element to its surface. The Sun formed on the collapsed core of a supernova. It consists mostly of iron, oxygen,…
The concepts of work and heat in the quantum domain, as well as their interconversion principles, are still an open debate. We have found theoretical evidence that a single photon packet is capable of extracting work from a single two-level…
The Sun's axisymmetric large-scale flows, differential rotation and meridional circulation, are thought to be maintained by the influence of rotation on the thermal-convective motions in the solar convection zone. These large-scale flows…
To properly describe heating in weakly collisional turbulent plasmas such as the solar wind, inter-particle collisions should be taken into account. Collisions can convert ordered energy into heat by means of irreversible relaxation towards…
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…
Helioseismology has allowed us to infer the rotation in the greater part of the solar interior with high precision and resolution. The results show interesting conflicts with earlier theoretical expectations, indicating that the the Sun is…
We provide a summary of the current knowledge, theoretical and experimental, of solar neutrino fluxes and of the masses and mixing angles that characterize solar neutrino oscillations. We also summarize the principal reasons for doing new…
The X-ray emission from the Sun reveals a very dynamic hot atmosphere, the corona, which is characterized by a complex morphology and broad range of timescales of variability and spatial structuring. The solar magnetic fields play a…
Popular scientific summary -- The atmosphere of the Sun is envisioned as composed of inherently complex, non-homogeneous, and dynamic layers. A detailed understanding of the physical processes involved in these layers is still lacking. For…
We study two different models of optomechanical systems where a temperature gradient between two radiation baths is exploited for inducing self-sustained coherent oscillations of a mechanical resonator. Viewed from a thermodynamic…
The origins of the hot solar corona and the supersonically expanding solar wind are still the subject of much debate. This paper summarizes some of the essential ingredients of realistic and self-consistent models of solar wind…
Spicules are rapidly evolving fine-scale jets of magnetized plasma in the solar chromosphere. It remains unclear how these prevalent jets originate from the solar surface and what role they play in heating the solar atmosphere. Using the…
The electrostatic instabilities driven by the gradients of the density, temperature and magnetic field, are discussed in their application to solar magnetic structures. Strongly growing modes are found for some typical plasma parameters.…
The dynamics of active matter driven by interacting molecular motors has a non-potential structure at the local scale. However, we show that there exists a quasi-potential effectively describing the collective self-organization of the…
Several phenomena connected with the magnetic field of the Sun (the cool sunspots, the hot corona, solar flares, the solar wind) are collectively known as solar activity. This paper discusses how one uses the MHD equations to understand how…
Cyclic activity on the Sun and stars is primarily explained by generation of the magnetic field by a dynamo mechanism, which converts the energy of the poloidal field into the energy of the toroidal component due to differential rotation.…
A mission to view the solar poles from high helio-latitudes (above 60$^\circ$) will build on the experience of Solar Orbiter as well as a long heritage of successful solar missions and instrumentation (e.g. SOHO \cite{SOHO}, STEREO…
The Sun's internal structure and dynamics can be studied with helioseismology, which uses the Sun's natural acoustic oscillations to build up a profile of the solar interior. We discuss how solar acoustic oscillations are affected by the…