Related papers: Critical-point behavior of a measurement-based qua…
We propose a recipe for demonstrating an autonomous quantum heat engine where the working fluid consists of a harmonic oscillator, the frequency of which is tuned by a driving mode. The working fluid is coupled two heat reservoirs each…
While the emergent field of quantum thermodynamics has the potential to impact energy science, the performance of thermal machines is often classical. We ask whether quantum effects can boost the performance of a thermal machine to reach…
The quantum analog of Carnot cycles in few-particle systems consists of two quantum adiabatic steps and two isothermal steps. This construction is formally justified by use of a minimum work principle. It is then shown, without relying on…
We investigate the performance of a microscopic quantum heat engine consisting of V- or Lambda-type emitters interacting collectively or independently when being in contact with environmental thermal reservoirs. Though the efficiency of a…
We study the optimal performance of an endoreversible quantum dot heat engine, in which the heat transfer between the system and baths is mediated by qubits, operating under the conditions of a trade-off objective function known as maximum…
We investigate an Otto thermodynamic cycle with a qubit Unruh-DeWitt detector as the working medium, coupled to a massless, conformally coupled scalar quantum field in the Hartle-Hawking vacuum in a (2+1)-dimensional BTZ black hole…
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…
We demonstrate that the efficiency of effective negative temperature-based quantum Otto engines, already known to outperform their traditional counterparts operating with positive-temperature thermal reservoirs, can be further improved by…
We propose employing a quantum heat engine as a sensitive probe for thermal baths. In particular, we study a single-atom Otto engine operating in an open thermodynamic cycle. Owing to its cyclic nature, the engine is capable of translating…
A process has been proposed to increase the efficiency of an ideal Otto cycle via a quantum heat engine that has no cooler reservoir. We show that such a process is not feasible.
The possibility of maintaining entanglement in a quantum system at finite, even high, temperatures -- the so-called `hot entanglement' -- has obvious practical interest, but also requires closer theoretical scrutiny. Since quantum…
Work extraction from a heat engine in a cycle by a quantum mechanical device (quantum "piston") is analyzed. The standard definition of work fails in the quantum domain. The correct extractable work and its efficiency bound are shown to…
The efficiency of small thermal machines is typically a fluctuating quantity. We here study the efficiency large deviation function of two exemplary quantum heat engines, the harmonic oscillator and the two-level Otto cycles. While the…
Recently, Zhang {\em et al.} [PRA, {\bf 75}, 062102 (2007)] extended Kieu's interesting work on the quantum Otto engine [PRL, {\bf 93}, 140403 (2004)] by considering as working substance a bipartite quantum system $AB$ composed of…
We propose a system made of three quantum harmonic oscillators as a compact quantum engine for producing mechanical work. The three oscillators play respectively the role of the hot bath, the working medium and the cold bath. The working…
We present a detailed thermodynamic analysis of a three-level quantum heat engine coupled continuously to hot and cold reservoirs. The system is driven by an oscillating external field and is described by the Markovian quantum master…
According to the second law, the efficiency of cyclic heat engines is limited by the Carnot bound that is attained by engines that operate between two thermal baths under the reversibility condition whereby the total entropy does not…
We consider a class of quantum heat engines consisting of two subsystems interacting via a unitary transformation and coupled to two separate baths at different temperatures $T_h > T_c$. The purpose of the engine is to extract work due to…
Uncovering whether strong system-bath coupling can be an advantageous operation resource for energy conversion can facilitate the development of efficient quantum heat engines (QHEs). Yet, a consensus on this ongoing debate is still lacking…
This article presents a comparative analysis of quantum Otto and Stirling engines using atom-photon interactions as the working substance. Two models are considered: a two-level Jaynes-Cummings system and a four-level atomic system confined…