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Particle-exchange heat engines operate without moving parts or time-dependent driving, relying solely on static energy-selective transport. Here, we realize a particle-exchange quantum heat engine based on a single diradical molecule, only…

The triumph of heat engines is their ability to convert the disordered energy of thermal sources into useful mechanical motion. In recent years, much effort has been devoted to generalizing thermodynamic notions to the quantum regime,…

The concept of thermal machines has evolved from the canonical steam engine to the recently proposed nanoscopic quantum systems as working fluids. The latter obey quantum open system dynamics and frequently operate in non-equilibrium…

A cyclically working quantum mechanical engine that operates at a single temperature is proposed. Its energy input is delivered by a quantum measurement. The functioning of the engine does not require any feedback control. We analyze work,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-08-09 Juyeon Yi , Peter Talkner , Yong Woon Kim

The autonomous heat engine is a model system of autonomous nonequilibrium systems like biological cells, exploiting nonequilibrium flow for operations. As the Carnot engine has essentially contributed to the equilibrium thermodynamics,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-08-05 Shoichi Toyabe , Yuki Izumida

We propose and analyse an autonomous engine, which combines ideas from electronic transport and self-oscillating heat engines. It is based on the electron-shuttling mechanism in conjunction with a rotational degree of freedom. We focus in…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-08-02 C. W. Wächtler , P. Strasberg , G. Schaller

The Carnot heat engine sets an upper bound on the efficiency of a heat engine. As an ideal, reversible engine, a single cycle must be performed in infinite time, and so the Carnot engine has zero power. However, there is nothing in…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2018-07-11 Clifford V. Johnson

Modern technologies could soon make it possible to investigate the operation cycles of quantum heat engines by counting the photons that are emitted and absorbed by their working systems. Using the quantum jump approach to open-system…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-09-29 Paul Menczel , Christian Flindt , Kay Brandner

Carnot's theorem poses a fundamental limit on the maximum efficiency achievable from an engine that works between two reservoirs at thermal equilibrium. We extend this result to the case of arbitrary nonthermal stationary reservoirs, even…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2011-11-23 Simone De Liberato , Masahito Ueda

The efficiency of cyclic heat engines is limited by the Carnot bound. This bound follows from the second law of thermodynamics and is attained by engines that operate between two thermal baths under the reversibility condition whereby the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-05-01 Arnab Ghosh , Wolfgang Niedenzu , Victor Mukherjee , Gershon Kurizki

Following the result by Skrzypczyk et al., arXiv:1009.0865, that certain self-contained quantum thermal machines can reach Carnot efficiency, we discuss the functioning of self-contained quantum thermal machines and show, in a very general…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-09-15 Sandu Popescu

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.…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-09-26 Viktor Holubec , Artem Ryabov

A central building block of a heat engine is the working fluid, which mediates the conversion of heat into work. In nanoscale heat engines, the working fluid can be a quantum system whose behavior and dynamics are non-classical. A…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-01-29 Riya Baruah , Pedro Portugal , Jun-Zhe Chen , Joachim Wabnig , Christian Flindt

We present a simple kinematic model of a non-equilibrium steady state device, which can operate either as a heat engine or as a refrigerator. The model is composed of two or more scattering channels where the motion is fully described by…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-05-28 Martin Horvat , Tomaž Prosen , Giulio Casati

We consider a minimal model of a quantum rotator composed of a single particle confined in an harmonic potential and driven by two temperature-biased heat reservoirs. In the case the particle potential is rendered asymmetric and rotated an…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-06-01 Hans C. Fogedby , Alberto Imparato

A system consisting of two slabs with different temperatures can exhibit a non-equilibrium lateral Casimir force on either one of the slabs when Lorentz reciprocity is broken in at least one of the slabs. This system constitutes a photonic…

Optics · Physics 2023-03-29 Yoichiro Tsurimaki , Renwen Yu , Shanhui Fan

Quantum cycles in established heat engines can be modeled with various quantum systems as working substances. For example, a heat engine can be modeled with an infinite potential well as the working substance to determine the efficiency and…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-04-15 Pritam Chattopadhyay , Ayan Mitra , Goutam Paul , Vasilios Zarikas

When a reciprocating heat engine is started it eventually settles to a stable mode of operation. The approach of a first principle quantum heat engine toward this stable limit cycle is studied. The engine is based on a working medium…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-09-08 Tova Feldmann , Ronnie Kosloff

Random noise can generate a unidirectional heat current across asymmetric nano objects in the absence (or against) a temperature gradient. We present a minimal model for a molecular-level stochastic heat pump that may operate arbitrarily…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-13 Dvira Segal

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.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-11-13 Milton Aguilar , Eric Lutz