Related papers: Beyond the Carnot limit: work extraction via an en…
We present a (random) mechanical model consisting of two lottery-like reservoirs at altitude $E_h$ and $E_l<E_h$, respectively, in the earth's gravitational field. Both reservoirs consist of $N$ possible ball locations. The upper reservoir…
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…
Thermodynamics teaches that if a system initially off-equilibrium is coupled to work sources, the maximum work that it may yield is governed by its energy and entropy. For finite systems this bound is usually not reachable. The maximum…
Quantum batteries harness non-classical resources, such as quantum coherence and entanglement, to surpass the performance limits of classical energy-storage devices. Here we realize a room-temperature quantum battery based on a collective…
Given a system with a finite heat capacity and a heat reservoir, and two values of initial temperatures, $T_+$ and $T_- (< T_+)$, we enquire, in which case the optimal work extraction is larger: when the reservoir is an infinite source at…
We evaluate Renyi entropy flows from generic quantum heat engines (QHE) to a weakly-coupled probe environment kept in thermal equilibrium. We show that the flows are determined not only by heat flow but also by a quantum coherent flow that…
In this note, the equilibrium curve of a thermodynamic system is used to depict entropy production in the process of thermalization with a reservoir. For the given initial and final equilibrium states of the system, the entropy production…
We study a micro-magnet that interacts with a spin-polarized electric current, a heat bath, as well as a static magnetic field. The resulting non-equilibrium steady-state transports entropy between the current and the heat bath, without…
Quantum decoherence is seen as an undesired source of irreversibility that destroys quantum resources. Quantum coherences seem to be a property that vanishes at thermodynamic equilibrium. Away from equilibrium, quantum coherences challenge…
Heat transfer in quantum systems is a current topic of interest due to emerging quantum technologies that attempt to miniaturize engines and examine fundamental aspects of thermodynamics. In this work, we consider heat transfer between two…
The Carnot theorem, one expression of the second law of thermodynamics, places a fundamental upper bound on the efficiency of heat engines operating between two heat baths. The Carnot theorem can be stated in a more generalized form for…
We study the optimal performance of an endoreversible quantum dot heat engine, in which the heat transfer between the system and baths is mediated by qubits, operating under the conditions of a trade-off objective function known as maximum…
Relativistic thermal devices offer a unique platform for understanding the interplay between motion, quantum fields, and thermodynamics, revealing phenomena inaccessible to stationary systems. We consider a two-qubit SWAP heat engine whose…
Mesoscopic thermoelectric heat engine is much anticipated as a device that allows us to utilize with high efficiency wasted heat inaccessible by conventional heat engines. However, the derivation of the heat current in this engine seems to…
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…
How much work can be extracted from a heat bath using a thermal machine? The study of this question has a very long tradition in statistical physics in the weak-coupling limit, applied to macroscopic systems. However, the assumption that…
With spintronics applications in mind, we use irreversible thermodynamics to derive the rates of entropy production and heating near an interface when heat current, electric current, and spin current cross it. Associated with these currents…
We consider a system model of a general finite-state machine (ratchet) that simultaneously interacts with three kinds of reservoirs: a heat reservoir, a work reservoir, and an information reservoir, the latter being taken to be a running…
Landauer's principle sets fundamental thermodynamical constraints for classical and quantum information processing, thus affecting not only various branches of physics, but also of computer science and engineering. Despite its importance,…
We study a quantum Stirling cycle which extracts work using quantized energy levels of a potential well. The work and the efficiency of the engine depend on the length of the potential well, and the Carnot efficiency is approached in a low…