Related papers: Relation between fluctuations and efficiency at ma…
We study the thermodynamics of two-stroke heat engines where two bosonic modes $a$ and $b$ are coupled by the general nonlinear interaction $V_{\theta} = \exp {(\theta a^{\dagger n}b^m -\theta^* a^n b^{\dagger m})}$. By adopting the…
We present a detailed study of an asymmetrically driven quantum Otto engine with a time-dependent harmonic oscillator as its working medium. We obtain analytic expressions for the upper bounds on the efficiency of the engine for two…
There are few exact results on optimal power conditions for a thermoelectric generator in the presence of both external and internal irreversibilities---modelled as non-ideal thermal contacts and Joule heating, respectively. Simplified…
Endoreversible engine cycles are a cornerstone of finite-time thermodynamics. We show that endoreversible Stirling engines operating with a one-component plasma as working medium run at maximal power output with the Curzon-Ahlborn…
Macroscopic cyclic heat engines have been a major motivation for the emergence of thermodynamics. In the last decade, cyclic heat engines that have large fluctuations and operate at finite time were studied within the more modern framework…
Heat engines should ideally have large power output, operate close to Carnot efficiency and show constancy, i.e., exhibit only small fluctuations in this output. For steady-state heat engines, driven by a constant temperature difference…
We construct a microscopic model of low-dissipation engines by driving a Brownian particle in a time-dependent harmonic potential. Shortcuts to adiabaticity and shortcuts to isothermality are introduced to realize the adiabatic and…
We investigate the nonlinear scattering theory for quantum systems with strong Seebeck and Peltier effects, and consider their use as heat-engines and refrigerators with finite power outputs. This article gives detailed derivations of the…
We model a microscopic heat engine as a particle hopping on a one-dimensional lattice in a periodic sawtooth potential, with or without load, assisted by the thermal kicks it gets from alternately placed hot and cold thermal baths. We find…
Using the fluctuation theorem supplemented with geometric arguments, we derive universal features of the (long-time) efficiency fluctuations for thermal and isothermal machines operating under steady or periodic driving, close or far from…
Two recent topics on a formal thermodynamic analogy of intracellular diffusivity fluctuations observed experimentally in normal/anomalous diffusion are reported. Not only the analogs of the quantity of heat and work as well as the internal…
While thermodynamics is a useful tool to describe the driving of large systems close to equilibrium, fluctuations dominate the distribution of heat and work in small systems and far from equilibrium. We study the heat generated by driving a…
We use a relationship between response and correlation function in nonequilibrium systems to establish a connection between the heat production and the deviations from the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem. This scheme extends the…
In the thermodynamic analysis of thermoelectric devices, typical irreversibilities are for the processes of finite-rate heat transfer, heat leak and Joule heating. Approximate analyses often focus on either internal or external…
We have performed an extensive analysis of a single particle stochastic heat engine constructed by manipulating a Brownian particle in a time dependent harmonic potential. The cycle consists of two isothermal steps at different temperatures…
We derive the probability distribution of the efficiency of a quantum Otto engine. We explicitly compute the quantum efficiency statistics for an analytically solvable two-level engine. We analyze the occurrence of values of the stochastic…
We study coupled quantum systems as the working media of thermodynamic machines. Under a suitable phase-space transformation, the coupled systems can be expressed as a composition of independent subsystems. We find that for the coupled…
Since its inception about two centuries ago thermodynamics has sparkled continuous interest and fundamental questions. According to the second law no heat engine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The latter can be…
This work obtains the efficiency at maximum power for a stochastic heat engine performing Carnot-like, Stirling-like and Ericsson-like cycles. For the mesoscopic engine a Brownian particle trapped by an optical tweezers is considered. The…
We show that for systems with broken time-reversal symmetry the maximum efficiency and the efficiency at maximum power are both determined by two parameters: a "figure of merit" and an asymmetry parameter. In contrast to the time-symmetric…