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Related papers: Heat Flow and Efficiency in a Microscopic Engine

200 papers

Continuous particle exchange thermal machines require no time-dependent driving, can be realised in solid-state electronic devices, and miniaturised to nanometre scale. Quantum dots, providing a narrow energy filter and allowing to…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2025-12-18 Eugenia Pyurbeeva , Ronnie Kosloff

A cyclic thermodynamic heat engine runs most efficiently if it is reversible. Carnot constructed such a reversible heat engine by combining adiabatic and isothermal processes for a system containing an ideal gas. Here, we present an example…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-11-06 C. M. Bender , D. C. Brody , B. K. Meister

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.…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-09-26 Viktor Holubec , Artem Ryabov

Heat engines constitute the major building blocks of modern technologies. However, conventional heat engines with higher power yield lesser efficiency and vice versa and respect various power-efficiency trade-off relations. This is also…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-03-04 Mohit Lal Bera , Sergi Julià-Farré , Maciej Lewenstein , Manabendra Nath Bera

The efficiency of microscopic heat engines in a thermally heterogenous environment is considered. We show that, as a consequence of the recently discovered entropic anomaly, quasi-static engines, whose efficiency is maximal in a fluid at…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-12 Stefano Bo , Antonio Celani

We introduce an alternative route for obtaining reliable cyclic engines, based on interacting Brownian particles under time-periodic drivings. General expressions for the thermodynamic fluxes, such as power and heat, are obtained using the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-02-16 Iago N. Mamede , Pedro E. Harunari , Bruno A. N. Akasaki , Karel Proesmans , Carlos E. Fiore

We use the general formulation of irreversible thermodynamics and study the minimally nonlinear irreversible model of heat engines operating between a time-varying hot heat source of finite size and a cold heat reservoir of infinite size.…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-11-27 M. Ponmurugan

We present results obtained by using nonlinear irreversible models for heat devices. In particular, we focus on the global performance characteristics, the maximum efficiency and the efficiency at maximum power regimes for heat engines, and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-11 Y. Izumida , K. Okuda , J. M. M. Roco , A. Calvo Hernández

A thermal current, generated by a temperature gradient between two reservoirs coupled to a carefully designed photonic or (micro-) electromechanical circuit, might induce non-conservative forces that impulse a mechanical degree of freedom…

The laws of thermodynamics strongly restrict the performance of thermal machines. Standard thermodynamics, initially developed for uncorrelated macroscopic systems, does not hold for microscopic systems correlated with their environments.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-11-13 Milton Aguilar , Eric Lutz

We investigate stochastic thermodynamics of a two-particles Langevin system. Each particle is in contact with a heat bath at different temperatures $T_1$ and $T_2~(<T_1)$, respectively. Particles are trapped by a harmonic potential and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-07-29 Jong-Min Park , Hyun-Myung Chun , Jae Dong Noh

In this work we include, for the Carnot cycle, irreversibilities of linear finite rate of heat transferences between the heat engine and its reservoirs, heat leak between the reservoirs and internal dissipations of the working fluid. A…

Classical Physics · Physics 2015-06-26 G Aragon-Gonzalez , A. Canales-Palma , A. Leon-Galicia , J. R. Morales-Gomez

We investigate the efficiency of an isothermal Brownian work-to-work converter engine, composed of a Brownian particle coupled to a heat bath at a constant temperature. The system is maintained out of equilibrium by using two external…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-03-25 Deepak Gupta , Sanjib Sabhapandit

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…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-02-17 Cong Fu , Ousi Pan , Zhiqiang Fan , Yushun Tang , Shanhe Su , Youhui Lin , Jincan Chen

We study a class of cyclic Brownian heat engines in the framework of finite-time thermodynamics. For infinitely long cycle times, the engine works at the Carnot efficiency limit producing, however, zero power. For the efficiency at maximum…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2009-11-13 Tim Schmiedl , Udo Seifert

Various quantum systems are considered as the working substance for the analysis of quantum heat cycles and quantum refrigerators. The ongoing technological challenge is how efficiently can a heat engine convert thermal energy to mechanical…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-03-16 Pritam Chattopadhyay

According to Thermodynamics, the efficiency of a heat engine is upper bounded by Carnot efficiency. For macroscopic systems, the Carnot efficiency is, however, achieved only for quasi static processes. And, considerable attention has been…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-05-03 Takaaki Monnai

The topic of microscopic heat engine has undergone intensive research in recent years. Microscopic heat engines can exploit thermal as well as active fluctuations to extract thermodynamic work. We investigate the properties of a microscopic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-03-18 Aradhana Kumari , P. S. Pal , Arnab Saha , Sourabh Lahiri

While Carnot's model engines demonstrate ideal performances regarding conversion efficiency, they cannot be actually used as energy converters since they are non causal systems. Such an unphysical behavior indeed restrains the working…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-12-15 Y. Apertet

An analysis of efficiency and its bounds at maximum work output for Carnot-like heat engines is conducted. The heat transfer processes are described by the linear law with time-dependent heat conductance. The upper bound of efficiency is…

Classical Physics · Physics 2014-06-04 Rui Long , Wei Liu