Related papers: Active engines: Thermodynamics moves forward

There are many exotic thermodynamic processes that are hard to study in nature. Here, we synthesize a structured environment to explore the extremes of thermodynamics. We present an engine running at extreme temperatures of above ten…

Active Brownian engines rectify energy from reservoirs composed of self-propelling non-equilibrium molecules into work. We consider a class of such engines based on an underdamped Brownian particle trapped in a power-law potential. The…

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…

We review theoretical approaches to analyzing efficiency of steady state heat to work conversion which is crucial in the timely problem of optimizing efficiency of small-scale heat engines and refrigerators. A rather abstract perspective of…

Brownian particles placed sequentially in contact with distinct thermal reservoirs and subjected to external driving forces are promising candidates for the construction of reliable thermal engines. In this contribution, we address the role…

We recently argued that a self-propelled particle is formally equivalent to a system consisting of two subsystems coupled by a non-reciprocal interaction [Phys. Rev. E 100, 050603(R) (2019)]. Here we show that this non-reciprocal coupling…

In this paper, we summarize the historical development of finite-time thermodynamics and review the current state of research over the past two decades in this field, focusing on fundamental constraints of finite-time thermodynamic cycles,…

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…

The area of stochastic heat engines using active particles has attracted a lot of attention recently. They have been shown to exhibit advantages over engines using passive particles. In this work, we use multiple self-propelling particles…

We discuss the efficiency of a heat engine operating in a nonequilibrium steady state maintained by two heat reservoirs. Within the general framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics we derive a universal upper bound on the efficiency…

Present-day thermodynamics has long outgrown the initial frames of the heat-engine theory and transmuted into a rather general macroscopic method for studying kinetics of various transfer processes in their inseparable connection with the…

Thermal engines have been one of the principal topics of thermodynamics ever since its beginning. Today, in the era of the second quantum revolution, although the thermal processes in constant temperatures are relatively well understood in…

A simple and effective approach to thermodynamics is suggested, which solves the major difficulties in the traditional presentation of the subject. The internal energy is introduced from the behavior of deformable bodies, whereas the…

Engines are systems and devices that convert one form of energy into another, typically into a more useful form that can perform work. In the classical setup, physical, chemical, and biological engines largely involve the conversion of heat…

Advantages of quantum effects in several technologies, such as computation and communication, have already been well appreciated, and some devices, such as quantum computers and communication links, exhibiting superiority to their classical…

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,…

Heat engines are fundamental physical objects to develop nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The thermodynamic performance of the heat engine is determined by the choice of cycle and time-dependence of parameters. Here, we propose a systematic…

Originally formulated for macroscopic machines, the laws of thermodynamics were recently shown to hold for quantum systems coupled to ideal sources of work (external classical fields) and heat (systems at equilibrium). Ongoing efforts have…

A pair of systems at different temperatures is a classic environment for a heat engine, which produces work during the relaxation to a common equilibrium. It is generally believed that a direct interaction between the two systems will…

The performance in finite time of a discrete heat engine with internal friction is analyzed. The working fluid of the engine is composed of an ensemble of noninteracting two level systems. External work is applied by changing the external…