Related papers: Energy conversion theorems for some linear steady-…
Thermodynamics is traditionally constrained to the study of macroscopic systems whose energy fluctuations are negligible compared to their average energy. Here, we push beyond this thermodynamic limit by developing a mathematical framework…
We analyze the production of entropy along non-equilibrium processes in quantum systems coupled to generic environments. First, we show that the entropy production due to final measurements and the loss of correlations obeys a fluctuation…
Performances of work-to-work conversion are studied for a dissipative nonlinear quantum system with two isochromatic phase-shifted drives. It is shown that for weak Ohmic damping simultaneous maximization of efficiency with finite power…
The limit of small entropy production is reached in relaxing systems long after preparation, and in stationary driven systems in the limit of small driving power. Surprisingly, for extended systems this limit is not in general the…
Thermionic converters generate electricity from thermal energy in a power cycle based on vacuum emission of electrons. While thermodynamically efficient, practical implementations are limited by the extreme temperatures required for…
The metabolic processes complexity is at the heart of energy conversion in living organisms and forms a huge obstacle to develop tractable thermodynamic metabolism models. By raising our analysis to a higher level of abstraction, we develop…
Cyclic classical and quantum thermal machines show higher efficiency when the strokes are carried out quasi-statically. Recent theoretical and experimental work on figures of merit for thermal machines show that they have an advantage when…
A central goal of thermodynamics is to identify optimal processes during which the least amount of energy is dissipated into the environment. Generally, even for simple systems, such as the parametric harmonic oscillator, optimal control…
Although entanglement is considered as an essential resource for quantum information processing, whether entanglement helps for energy conversion or output in the quantum regime is still lack of experimental witness. Here we report on an…
We investigate the performance of a micro gap vacuum thermionic energy converter considering the loss mechanisms due to the space charge effect and interelectrode radiative heat transfer. The dependencies of the space charge effect and…
We analyze the time-resolved energy transport and the entropy production in ac-driven quantum coherent electron systems coupled to multiple reservoirs at finite temperature. At slow driving we formulate the first and second laws of…
The entropy production in dissipative processes is the essence of the arrow of time and the second law of thermodynamics. For dissipation of quantum systems, it was recently shown that the entropy production contains indeed two…
Entropy production is a universal measure of irreversibility and energy dissipation in physical, chemical, and biological systems operating far from equilibrium. However, quantifying and spatiotemporally localising it in complex processes…
We propose a two-stage cycle for an optimized linear-irreversible heat engine that operates, in a finite time, between a hot (cold) reservoir and a finite auxiliary system acting as a sink (source) in the first (second) stage. Under the…
Various types of equilibrium processes involve electric fields. In some cases, the electrical energy appears to be negative (e.g. if the voltage is fixed by an external source). This paper explains how to derive the correct thermo-dynamic…
Several recent theories address the efficiency of a macroscopic thermodynamic motor at maximum power and question the so-called "Curzon-Ahlborn (CA) efficiency." Considering the entropy exchanges and productions in an n-sources motor, we…
A new universality in optimization of trade-off between power and efficiency for low-dissipation Carnot cycles is presented. It is shown that any trade-off measure expressible in terms of efficiency and the ratio of power to its maximum…
This work presents a general unifying theoretical framework for quantum non-equilibrium systems. It is based on a re-statement of the dynamical problem as one of inferring the distribution of collision events that move a system toward…
The performance of nano-scale energy conversion devices is studied in the framework of state-space models where a device is described by a graph comprising states and transitions between them represented by nodes and links, respectively.…
Active systems evade the rules of equilibrium thermodynamics by constantly dissipating energy at the level of their microscopic components. This energy flux stems from the conversion of a fuel, present in the environment, into sustained…