Related papers: Quantum finite-time thermodynamics: insight from a…
Entanglement engines are autonomous quantum thermal machines designed to generate entanglement from the presence of a particle current flowing through the device. In this work, we investigate the functioning of a two-qubit entanglement…
The proper definition of entropy is fundamental to the relationship between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. It also plays a major role in the recent debate about the validity of the concept of negative temperature. In this paper,…
We study the thermodynamic performance of the finite-time non-regenerative Stirling cycle used as a quantum heat engine. We consider specifically the case in which the working substance (WS) is a two-level system. The Stirling cycle is made…
The question of whether quantum coherence is a resource beneficial or detrimental to the performance of quantum heat engines has been thoroughly studied but remains undecided. To isolate the contribution of coherence, we analyze the…
Recent studies have pointed out the intrinsic dependence of figures of merit of thermodynamic relevance -- such as work, heat and entropy production -- on the amount of quantum coherences that is made available to a system. However, whether…
We study a quantum Otto engine at finite time, where the working substance is composed of a two-level system interacting with a harmonic oscillator, described by the quantum Rabi model. We obtain the limit cycle and calculate the total work…
A long standing open problem whether a heat engine with finite power achieves the Carnot efficiency is investigated. We rigorously prove a general trade-off inequality on thermodynamic efficiency and time interval of a cyclic process with…
We argue that thermal machines can be understood from the perspective of `virtual qubits' at `virtual temperatures': The relevant way to view the two heat baths which drive a thermal machine is as a composite system. Virtual qubits are…
We study time-dependent heat transport in systems composed of a resonant level periodically forced with an external power source and coupled to a fermionic continuum. This simple model contains the basic ingredients to understand time…
A unified view on macroscopic thermodynamics and quantum transport is presented. Thermodynamic processes with an exchange of energy between two systems necessarily involve the flow of other balanceable quantities. These flows are first…
The seminal work by Sadi Carnot in the early nineteenth century provided the blueprint of a reversible heat engine and the celebrated second law of thermodynamics eventually followed. Almost two centuries later, the quest to formulate a…
We consider a quantum engine driven by repeated weak interactions with a heat bath of identical three-level atoms. This model was first introduced by Scully et al. [Science, 2003], who showed that coherence between the energy-degenerate…
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…
Optimizing the performance of thermal machines is an essential task of thermodynamics. We here consider the optimization of information engines that convert information about the state of a system into work. We concretely introduce a…
Coherent interconversion between optical and mechanical excitations in an optomechanical cavity can be used to engineer a quantum heat engine. This heat engine is based on an Otto cycle between a cold photonic reservoir and a hot phononic…
We derive a bound on the efficiency of thermal engines that can be sharper than Carnot's limit. It is a function of statistical correlations between the engine internal state and Hamiltonian, can be saturated even in finite-time cycles, and…
We study two different models of optomechanical systems where a temperature gradient between two radiation baths is exploited for inducing self-sustained coherent oscillations of a mechanical resonator. Viewed from a thermodynamic…
For a four-stroke asymmetrically driven quantum Otto engine with working medium modeled by a single qubit, we study the bounds on non-equilibrium fluctuations of work and heat. We find strict relations between the fluctuations of work and…
We demonstrate the existence of universal features in the finite-time thermodynamics of quantum machines by considering a many-body quantum Otto cycle in which the working medium is driven across quantum critical points during the unitary…
In this article, we briefly review dynamical and thermodynamical aspects of different forms of quantum motors and quantum pumps. We then extend previous results to provide new theoretical tools for a systematic study of those phenomena at…