Related papers: Experimental realization of Feynman's ratchet
A Brownian particle's random motions can be rectified by a periodic potential energy landscape that alternates between two states, even if both states are spatially symmetric. If the two states differ only by a discrete translation, the…
People are well aware that, inherently, certain small-scale nonchaotic particle movements are not governed by thermodynamics. Usually, such phenomena are studied by kinetic theory and their energy properties are considered "trivial". In…
We propose a generation of a low-noise state of optomechanical oscillator by a temperature dependent force. We analyze the situation in which a quantum optomechanical oscillator (denoted as the membrane) is driven by an external force…
According to classical Boltzmannian thermodynamics, the efficiency of a cyclic machine is strictly lower than one. Such a result is a straightforward consequence of the second principle of thermodynamics. Recent advances in the study of the…
We investigate a system of two interacting qubits having one of them isolated and the other coupled to a thermal reservoir. We consider two different models of system-reservoir interaction: i) a "microscopic" model, in which the master…
We analyze the power output of a quantum dot machine coupled to two electronic reservoirs via thermoelectric contacts, and to two thermal reservoirs - one hot and one cold. This machine is a nanoscale analogue of a conventional thermocouple…
Electric resistance in conducting media is related to heat (or entropy) production in presence of electric fields. In this paper, by using Araki's relative entropy for states, we mathematically define and analyze the heat production of free…
The "ratchet principle" asserts that non-equilibrium systems which violate parity symmetry generically exhibit steady-state currents. As recently shown, there are exceptions to this principle, due to the existence of hidden time-reversal…
Periodically driven Floquet quantum systems hold great promise for engineering exotic quantum phases and matter, but are often limited by rapid thermalization. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a square-wave-modulated Floquet…
Temperature of a finite-sized system fluctuates due to the thermal fluctuations. However, a systematic mathematical framework for measuring or estimating the temperature is still underdeveloped. Here, we incorporate the estimation theory in…
Optimisation of heat engines at the micro-scale has applications in biological and artificial nano-technology, and stimulates theoretical research in non-equilibrium statistical physics. Here we consider non-interacting overdamped particles…
Atoms excited into high-lying Rydberg states and under strong dipole-dipole interactions exhibit phenomena associated with highly correlated and complex systems. We perform first principles numerical simulations on the dynamics of such…
The Z method is a popular atomistic simulation method for determining the melting temperature where a sequence of molecular dynamics runs are carried out to target the lowest system energy where the solid always melts. Homogeneous melting…
Quantum thermodynamics is aimed at grasping thermodynamic laws as they apply to thermal machines operating in the deep quantum regime, a regime in which coherences and entanglement are expected to matter. Despite substantial progress,…
Stochastic thermodynamics as reviewed here systematically provides a framework for extending the notions of classical thermodynamics like work, heat and entropy production to the level of individual trajectories of well-defined…
We study a chain of interacting individual quantum systems connected to heat baths at different temperatures on both ends. Starting with the two-system case, we thoroughly investigate the conditions for heat rectification (asymmetric heat…
We study a thermoelectric ratchet consisting of an array of disordered nanowires arranged in parallel on top of an insulating substrate, and contacted asymmetrically to two electrodes. Transport is investigated in the Mott hopping regime,…
We show that the huge Seebeck coefficients observed recently for ionic conductors, arise from a ratchet effect where activated jumps between neighbor sites are rectified by a temperature gradient, thus driving mobile ions towards the cold.…
We report an experimental and theoretical analysis of the energy exchanged between two conductors kept at different temperature and coupled by the electric thermal noise. Experimentally we determine, as functions of the temperature…
In thermodynamics, there exists a conventional belief that "the Carnot efficiency is reachable only when a process is reversible." However, there is no theorem proving that the Carnot efficiency is unattainable in an irreversible process.…