Related papers: Maximum Efficiency of Low-Dissipation Heat Engines…
We consider a finite time quantum heat engine analogous to finite time classical Carnot heat engine with a working substance of spin half particles. We study the efficiency at maximum $\dot{\Omega}$ figure of merit of the quantum heat…
The maximum efficiency of autonomous engines with finite chemical potential difference is investigated. We show that without a particular type of singularity autonomous engines cannot attain the Carnot efficiency. In addition, we…
The efficiency at maximum power (EMP) for tight-coupling molecular motors is investigated within the framework of irreversible thermodynamics. It is found that the EMP depends merely on the constitutive relation between the thermodynamic…
Low-temperature-differential (LTD) Stirling engines are heat engines that can operate autonomously with a slight temperature difference between low-temperature heat reservoirs and are thus expected to contribute to a sustainable society. A…
We present a detailed study of an asymmetrically driven quantum Otto engine with a time-dependent harmonic oscillator as its working medium. We obtain analytic expressions for the upper bounds on the efficiency of the engine for two…
We apply advanced methods of control theory to open quantum systems and we determine finite-time processes which are optimal with respect to thermodynamic performances. General properties and necessary conditions characterizing optimal…
Starting with Carnot engine, the ideal efficiency of a heat engine has been associated with quasi-static transformations and vanishingly small output power. Here, we exactly calculate the thermodynamic properties of a isothermal heat…
We consider nano-sized artificial or biological machines working in steady state enforced by imposing non-equilibrium concentrations of solutes or by applying external forces, torques or electric fields. For unicyclic and strongly coupled…
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…
We analyze the efficiency fluctuations of a coherent quantum heat engine coupled to a unimodal cavity using a standard full-counting statistics procedure. The engine's most likely efficiency obtained by computing the large-deviation…
We provide a consistent thermodynamic analysis of stochastic thermal engines driven by finite-size reservoirs, which are in turn coupled to infinite-size reservoirs. We consider a cyclic operation mode, where the working medium couples…
There are many exotic thermodynamic processes that are hard to study in nature. Here, we synthesize a structured environment to explore the extremes of thermodynamics. We present an engine running at extreme temperatures of above ten…
We analyze the performance of slowly driven meso- and micro-scale refrigerators and heat engines that operate between two thermal baths with small temperature difference. Using a general scaling argument, we show that such devices can work…
For heat engines working between two heat baths, functionality is often conditioned on a set of fixed constraints such as given internal structure of the engine and given temperatures for the baths. It is, however, important to devise heat…
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…
According to the laws of thermodynamics, no heat engine can beat the efficiency of a Carnot cycle. This efficiency traditionally comes with vanishing power output and practical designs, optimized for power, generally achieve far less.…
Two-reservoir thermochemical engines are established in by using near-independent particles (including Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, and Bose-Einstein particles) as the working substance. Particle and heat fluxes can be formed based on…
Physical systems driven away from equilibrium by an external controller dissipate heat to the environment; the excess entropy production in the thermal reservoir can be interpreted as a "cost" to transform the system in a finite time. The…
The laws of thermodynamics strongly restrict the performance of thermal machines. Standard thermodynamics, initially developed for uncorrelated macroscopic systems, does not hold for microscopic systems correlated with their environments.…
The construction of efficient thermal engines operating at finite times constitutes a fundamental and timely topic in nonequilibrium thermodynamics. We introduce a strategy for optimizing the performance of Brownian engines, based on a…