Related papers: Rapid optimal work extraction from a quantum-dot i…
The optimization of finite-time thermodynamic heat engines was intensively explored recently, yet limited to few cycles, e.g. finite-time Carnot-like cycle. In this paper, we supplement a new type of finite-time engine with quantum Otto…
The Szil\'ard engine is a mechanism (akin to Maxwell's demon) for converting information into energy, which seemingly violates the second law of thermodynamics. Originally a classical thought experiment, it was extended to a quantized…
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…
The stochastic efficiency [G. Verley et al., Nat. Commun. 5, 4721 (2014)] was introduced to evaluate the performance of energy-conversion machines in micro-scale. However, such an efficiency generally diverges when no heat is absorbed while…
We formulate a protocol for a four-stroke quantum Otto engine that is capable of achieving superior performance when operating between two thermal reservoirs: one at a positive spin temperature and the other at an effective negative spin…
Information is physical but information is also processed in finite time. Where computing protocols are concerned, finite-time processing in the quantum regime can dynamically generate coherence. Here we show that this can have significant…
Developments in the thermodynamics of small quantum systems envisage non-classical thermal machines. In this scenario, energy fluctuations play a relevant role in the description of irreversibility. We experimentally implement a quantum…
The Szilard engine is the simplest possible engine, composed only of one or more particles in a box. The box is then immersed in a heat bath and partitioned into two parts by a wall. It is known that in the cold temperature limit, one may…
We propose and analyze a process that extracts useful work from a single active particle maintained at constant temperature in a harmonic potential by measuring the relative sign of the self-propulsion and the confining force and then…
In this work we have calculated analytically the work extraction in multi-particle Szilard engine. Unlike the previous studies, here we have introduced the biasing in the measurement procedure by inserting the partition at an arbitrary…
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 study the work fluctuations in ergotropic heat engines, namely two-strokes quantum Otto engines where the work stroke is designed to extract the ergotropy (the maximum amount of work by a cyclic unitary evolution) from a couple of…
This Colloquium is a fast journey through the build-up of key thermodynamical concepts, i.e. work, heat and irreversibility -- and how they relate to information. Born at the time of industrial revolution to optimize the exploitation of…
The optimal control of open quantum systems is a challenging task but has a key role in improving existing quantum information processing technologies. We introduce a general framework based on Reinforcement Learning to discover optimal…
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…
Quantum friction, a quantum analog of classical friction, reduces the performance of quantum machines, such as heat engines, and makes them less energy efficient. We here report the experimental realization of an energy efficient quantum…
The thermodynamic properties of quantum heat engines are stochastic owing to the presence of thermal and quantum fluctuations. We here experimentally investigate the efficiency and nonequilibrium entropy production statistics of a spin-1/2…
The computational efficiency of a state of the art ab initio quantum transport (QT) solver, capable of revealing the coupled electro-thermal properties of atomically-resolved nano-transistors, has been improved by up to two orders of…
Quantum Szilard engine constitutes an adequate interplay of thermodynamics, information theory and quantum mechanics. Szilard engines are in general operated by a Maxwell's Demon where Landauer's principle resolves the apparent paradoxes.…
We study the impact of work cost fluctuations on optimal protocols for the creation of correlations in quantum systems. We analyze several notions of work fluctuations to show that even in the simplest case of two free qubits, protocols…