English
Related papers

Related papers: A Micrometer-sized Heat Engine Operating Between B…

200 papers

Molecular machines transduce free energy between different forms throughout all living organisms. While truly machines in their own right, unlike their macroscopic counterparts molecular machines are characterized by stochastic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-06-13 Matthew P. Leighton , David A. Sivak

Heat engines extract work by running cyclically between two heat reservoirs. When the two reservoirs are thermal and at different temperatures, the maximum efficiency of the engine is given by the Carnot limit. Here we consider a quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-02-03 Johannes Roßnagel , Obinna Abah , Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler , Kilian Singer , Eric Lutz

Quantum thermodynamics supplies a consistent description of quantum heat engines and refrigerators up to the level of a single few level system coupled to the environment. Once the environment is split into three;a hot, cold and work…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-04-17 Ronnie Kosloff , Amikam Levy

Recent theoretical and experimental studies in quantum heat engines show that, in the quasi-static regime, it is possible to have higher efficiency than the limit imposed by Carnot, provided that engineered reservoirs are used. The…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-05-26 Rogério J. de Assis , J. S. Sales , Udson C. Mendes , Norton G. de Almeida

Thermoresponsive microgels find widespread use as colloidal model systems, because their temperature-dependent size allows facile tuning of their volume fraction "in situ". However, an interaction potential unifying their behavior across…

We follow the dynamics of an ensemble of interacting self-propelled semi-flexible polymers in contact with a thermal bath. We characterize structure and dynamics of the passive system and as a function of the motor activity. We find that…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-04-14 Davide Loi , Stefano Mossa , Leticia F. Cugliandolo

The question of characterization of the degree of non-equilibrium activity in active matter systems is studied in the context of a stochastic microswimmer model driven by a chemical cycle. The resulting dynamical properties and entropy…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2024-05-27 Michalis Chatzittofi , Jaime Agudo-Canalejo , Ramin Golestanian

Heat is a physical manifestation of entropy, where the removal of entropy from a thermal energy reservoir permits the conversion of heat into work. This entropy transfer is facilitated by the cold thermal energy reservoir in typical heat…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-11-12 Liam Judd McClelland

Quantifying the flow of energy within and through fluctuating nanoscale systems poses a significant challenge to understanding microscopic biological machines. A common approach involves coarse-graining, which allows a simplified…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-03-12 Steven J Large , David A Sivak

By converting energy into mechanical work, engines play a central role in most biological and technological processes. In particular, within the current trend towards the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, microscopic engines…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-02-14 Falko Schmidt , Alessandro Magazzu , Agnese Callegari , Luca Biancofiore , Frank Cichos , Giovanni Volpe

Conventional heat engines typically require two distinct thermal reservoirs, with their efficiency strictly bounded by the Carnot limit. We present a theoretical design for a phase-change heat engine that utilizes water as the working fluid…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-03-11 Ting Peng

Molecular machines consist of either a single protein or a macromolecular complex composed of protein and RNA molecules. Just like their macroscopic counterparts, each of these nano-machines has an engine that "transduces" input energy into…

Biological Physics · Physics 2012-03-15 Debashish Chowdhury

Chemical gradients provide the primordial energy for biological functions by driving the mechanical movement of microscopic engines. Their thermodynamic properties remain elusive, especially concerning the dynamic change in energy demand in…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-04-01 Ruo-Xun Zhai , Hui Dong

The Stirling engine is a type of heat engine known as its high efficiency. It is applied in solar thermal power, cogeneration, space nuclear power, and other fields. Although there are many different types of Stirling engines, their airflow…

Applied Physics · Physics 2025-04-15 Minghao Deng

Recent theoretical research on the fundamentals of statistical mechanics has led to a remarkable discovery [2-4]: with a locally nonchaotic energy barrier, a macroscopic system may produce useful work in a cycle by absorbing heat from a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-11-10 Yu Qiao , Meng Wang

When a Brownian particle in contact with a heat bath at a constant temperature is controlled by a time-dependent harmonic potential, its distribution function can be rigorously derived from the Kramers equation with the consideration of the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2014-06-03 Z. C. Tu

We study a driven harmonic oscillator operating an Otto cycle between two thermal baths of finite size. By making extensive use of the tools of Gaussian quantum mechanics, we directly simulate the dynamics of the engine as a whole, without…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-04-19 Alejandro Pozas-Kerstjens , Eric G. Brown , Karen V. Hovhannisyan

The study of free piston Stirling engine (FPSE) requires both accurate thermodynamic and dynamic modelling to predict its performances. The steady state behaviour of the engine partly relies on non linear dissipative phenomena such as…

Classical Physics · Physics 2013-01-22 Fabien Formosa

The quantum engine cycle serves as an analogous representation of the macroscopic nature of heat engines and the quantum regime of thermal devices composed of a single element. In this work, we follow the formalism of a quantum engine…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-10-23 Oladimeji Enock , Umeh Emmanuel , Abamba Oghenetega

We investigate a stochastic heat engine based on an over-damped particle diffusing on the positive real axis in an externally driven time-periodic log-harmonic potential. The periodic driving is composed of two isothermal and two adiabatic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2014-05-28 Viktor Holubec