Related papers: Optimal work-to-work conversion of a nonlinear qua…
Building on our earlier work (Proesmans et. al., Phys.~Rev.~X \textbf{6} (2016), 041010), we introduce the underdamped Brownian duet as a prototype model of a dissipative system or of a work-to-work engine. Several recent advances from the…
We study the thermoelectric properties and heat-to-work conversion performance of an interacting, multi-level quantum dot (QD) weakly coupled to electronic reservoirs. We focus on the sequential tunneling regime. The dynamics of the charge…
Brownian motors, i.e. devices able to produce useful work out of thermal forces with the help of other unbiased forces, provide an ideal benchmark for the investigation of quantum dissipative systems, for two reasons. First, the interaction…
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…
For two canonical examples of driven mesoscopic systems - a harmonically-trapped Brownian particle and a quantum dot - we numerically determine the finite-time protocols that optimize the compromise between the standard deviation and the…
The study of quantum thermodynamics is key to the development of quantum thermal machines. In contrast to most of the previous proposals based on discrete strokes, here we consider a working substance that is permanently coupled to two or…
We study energetic exchanges and fluctuations in two-stroke quantum thermodynamic engines where the working fluid is represented by two multilevel quantum systems, i.e. qudits, the heat flow is allowed by relaxation with two thermal…
The second law of thermodynamics sets a lower bound on the work required to drive a system between thermal equilibrium states, with equality attained in the quasistatic limit. For finite-time processes, part of the extractable work is…
We study the dynamic properties of a thermal autonomous machine made up of two quantum Brownian particles, each of which is in contact with an environment at different temperature and moves on a periodic sinusoidal track. When such tracks…
We propose a thermodynamically consistent minimal model to study synchronization which is made of driven and interacting three-state units. This system exhibits at the mean-field level two bifurcations separating three dynamical phases: a…
Quantum thermodynamics allows for the interconversion of quantum coherence and mechanical work. Quantum coherence is thus a potential physical resource for quantum machines. However, formulating a general nonequilibrium thermodynamics of…
We investigate the optimal performance of quantum Otto engine and refrigeration cycles of a time-dependent harmonic oscillator under a trade-off figure of merit for both adiabatic and nonadiabatic (sudden-switch) frequency modulations. For…
We study the performance of a quantum Otto cycle using a harmonic work medium and undergoing collisional dynamics with finite-size reservoirs. We span the dynamical regimes of the work strokes from strongly non-adiabatic to quasi-static…
Despite the increasing interest, the research field which studies the concepts of work and heat at quantum level has suffered from two main drawbacks: first, the difficulty to properly define and measure the work, heat and internal energy…
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…
The quantum thermodynamic behavior of small systems is investigated in presence of finite quantum dissipation. We consider the archetype cases of a damped harmonic oscillator and a free quantum Brownian particle. A main finding is that…
The optimal protocols for the irreversible work achieve their maximum usefulness if their work fluctuations are the smallest ones. In this work, for classical and isothermal processes subjected to finite-time and weak drivings, I show that…
The fluctuation-dissipation relation for the classical definition of work is extended to thermally isolated systems, in classical and quantum realms. From this, the optimal work variance is calculated, showing it achieves its minimum…
We apply the quantum jump approach to address the statistics of work in a driven two-level system coupled to a heat bath. We demonstrate how this question can be analyzed by counting photons absorbed and emitted by the environment in…
We present a self contained formalism modelled after the Brownian motion of a quantum harmonic oscillator for describing the performance of microscopic Brownian heat engines like Carnot, Stirling and Otto engines. Our theory, besides…