Related papers: Engineering a heat engine purely driven by quantum…
When a quantum system is subject to a thermal gradient it may sustain a steady non-equilibrium heat current, by entering into a so-called non equilibrium steady state (NESS). Here we show that NESS constitute a thermodynamic resource that…
Quantum heat engines are often discussed under the weak coupling assumption that the interaction between the system and the reservoirs is negligible. Although this setup is easier to analyze, this assumption cannot be justified on the…
We present a theoretical and numerical analysis of a quantum system that is capable of functioning as a heat engine. This system could be realized experimentally using cold bosonic atoms confined to a double well potential that is created…
We show that quantum coherence can increase the quantum efficiency of various thermodynamic systems. For example, we can enhance the quantum efficiency for a quantum dot photocell, a laser based solar cell and the photo-Carnot quantum heat…
The unavoidable interaction of a quantum system with its surrounding (bath) is not always detrimental for quantum properties. For instance, under some specific conditions (that we identify as indistinguishability), a many-body system can…
Quantum thermal machines offer promising platforms for exploring the fundamental limits of thermodynamics at the microscopic scale. The previous study demonstrated that the incorporation of a catalyst can significantly enhance the…
The Carnot cycle is a prototype of ideal heat engine to draw mechanical energy from the heat flux between two thermal baths with the maximum efficiency, dubbed as the Carnot efficiency $\eta_{\mathrm{C}}$. Such efficiency can only be…
By reformulating the first law of thermodynamics in the fashion of quantum-mechanical operators on the parameter manifold, we propose a universal class of quantum heat engines (QHE) using the multi-level quantum system as the working…
Quantum heat cycles and quantum refrigerators are analyzed using various quantum systems as their working mediums. For example, to evaluate the efficiency and the work done of the Carnot cycle in the quantum regime, one can consider the…
Colloidal heat engines extract power out of a fluctuating bath by manipulating a confined tracer. Considering a self-propelled tracer surrounded by a bath of passive colloids, we optimize the engine performances based on the maximum…
A heat engine is a machine which uses the temperature difference between a hot and a cold reservoir to extract work. Here both reservoirs are quantum systems and a heat engine is described by a unitary transformation which decreases the…
The extension of thermodynamics into the quantum regime has received much attention in recent years. A primary objective of current research is to find thermodynamic tasks which can be enhanced by quantum mechanical effects. With this goal…
Energy exchanges under form of heat is neither the most natural or efficient way to operate an engine in the quantum realm. Recently there have been in the literature several proposals for "quantum measurement engines" where energy is fed…
We introduce a simple two-level heat engine to study the efficiency in the condition of the maximum power output, depending on the energy levels from which the net work is extracted. In contrast to the quasi-statically operated Carnot…
We consider the physical situations where the resource theories of coherence and thermodynamics play competing roles. In particular, we study the creation of quantum coherence using unitary operations with limited thermodynamic resources.…
Thermodynamics in quantum circuits aims to find improved functionalities of thermal machines, highlight fundamental phenomena peculiar to quantum nature in thermodynamics, and point out limitations in quantum information processing due to…
The recent advances in the study of thermodynamics of microscopic processes have driven the search for new developments in energy converters utilizing quantum effects. We here propose a universal framework to describe the thermodynamics of…
We present a scheme to realize a gain-assisted quantum heat engine (QHE) based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The QHE consists of a three-level { \Lambda}-type atomic system that interacts with two thermal reservoirs and…
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.…
We analyze a quantum heat engine described by the full Dicke model. The system exhibit quantum phase transitions under certain conditions. We consider the system performing a Stirling thermodynamic cycle. We obtain an enhancement of…