Related papers: Experimental characterization of a spin quantum he…
The Carnot engine sets an upper limit to the efficiency of a practical heat engine. An arbitrary irreversible engine is sometimes believed to behave closely as the Curzon-Ahlborn engine. Efficiency of the latter is obtained commonly by…
Recent advances in applying thermodynamic ideas to quantum systems have raised the novel prospect of using non-thermal, non-classical sources of energy, of purely quantum origin, like quantum statistics, to extract mechanical work in…
The quantum Otto cycle serves as a bridge between the macroscopic world of heat engines and the quantum regime of thermal devices composed from a single element. We compile recent studies of the quantum Otto cycle with a harmonic oscillator…
Cyclic classical and quantum thermal machines show higher efficiency when the strokes are carried out quasi-statically. Recent theoretical and experimental work on figures of merit for thermal machines show that they have an advantage when…
We study a quantum thermal engine model for which the heat transfer law is determined by Einstein's theory of radiation. The working substance of the quantum engine is assumed to be a two-level quantum systems of which the constituent…
We formulate the work output and efficiency for linear irreversible heat engines working between a finite-sized hot heat source and an infinite-sized cold heat reservoir until the total system reaches the final thermal equilibrium state…
In traditional thermodynamics the Carnot cycle yields the ideal performance bound of heat engines and refrigerators. We propose and analyze a minimal model of a heat machine that can play a similar role in quantum regimes. The minimal model…
We discuss the thermodynamics of closed quantum systems driven out of equilibrium by a change in a control parameter and undergoing a unitary process. We compare the work actually done on the system with the one that would be performed…
We study universal aspects of fluctuations in an ensemble of noninteracting continuous quantum thermal machines in the steady state limit. Considering an individual machine, such as a refrigerator, in which relative fluctuations (and high…
We derive an efficiency bound for continuous quantum heat engines absorbing heat from squeezed thermal reservoirs. Our approach relies on a full-counting statistics description of nonequilibrium transport and it is not limited to the…
Machines are only Carnot efficient if they are reversible, but then their power output is vanishingly small. Here we ask, what is the maximum efficiency of an irreversible device with finite power output? We use a nonlinear scattering…
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,…
Continuous particle exchange thermal machines require no time-dependent driving, can be realised in solid-state electronic devices, and miniaturised to nanometre scale. Quantum dots, providing a narrow energy filter and allowing to…
We study the performance of quantum thermal machines in which the working fluid of the model is represented by a many-body quantum system that is periodically connected with external baths via local couplings. A formal characterization of…
Cyclical heat engines are a paradigm of classical thermodynamics, but are impractical for miniaturization because they rely on moving parts. A more recent concept is particle-exchange (PE) heat engines, which uses energy filtering to…
Quantum heat machines, encompassing heat engines, refrigerators, heaters, and accelerators, represent the forefront of quantum thermodynamics, offering a novel paradigm for converting heat energy into useful mechanical work. Leveraging…
We construct a quantum critical Otto engine that is powered by finite temperature baths. We show that the work output of the engine shows universal power law behavior that depends on the critical exponents of the working medium, as well as…
We derive the probability distribution of the efficiency of a quantum Otto engine. We explicitly compute the quantum efficiency statistics for an analytically solvable two-level engine. We analyze the occurrence of values of the stochastic…
Quantum heat engines (QHEs) have attracted long-standing scientific interest, especially inspired by considerations of the interplay between heat and work with the quantization of energy levels, quantum superposition, and entanglement.…
The aim of this book chapter is to indicate how quantum phenomena are affecting the operation of microscopic thermal machines, such as engines and refrigerators. As converting heat to work is one of the fundamental concerns in…