Related papers: A simple quantum heat engine

We propose and analyze the use of hybrid microwave cavities as quantum heat engines. A possible realization consists of two macroscopically separated quantum dot conductors coupled capacitively to the fundamental mode of a microwave cavity.…

We study the mechanical performance of quantum rotor heat engines in terms of common notions of work using two prototypical models: a mill driven by the heat flow from a hot to a cold mode, and a piston driven by the alternate heating and…

We consider a quantum Otto-type heat engine constructed in an optomechanical system with which the cavity is chosen as the working substance. The cavity can effectively be coupled with hot thermal baths in nonequilibrium steady-states via…

We explore the dependence of the performance bounds of heat engines and refrigerators on the initial quantum state and the subsequent evolution of their piston, modeled by a quantized harmonic oscillator. Our goal is to provide a fully…

In recent years we have witnessed a concentrated effort to make sense of thermodynamics for small-scale systems. One of the main difficulties is to capture a suitable notion of work that models realistically the purpose of quantum machines,…

We study the performance of a quantum Otto heat engine with two spins coupled by a Heisenberg interaction, taking into account not only the mean values of work and efficiency but also their fluctuations. We first show that, for this system,…

We introduce a quantum heat engine performing an Otto cycle by using the thermal properties of the quantum vacuum. Since Hawking and Unruh, it has been established that the vacuum space, either near a black hole or for an accelerated…

We demonstrate that the system composed of a gyrotropic particle out of thermal equilibrium with vacuum can be regarded as a heat engine. Such a particle, initially at rest, will experience a fluctuation-induced torque and start to rotate,…

A quantum engine with n qubits performing thermodynamic cycles with two thermal reservoirs is presented. While such constructions have been aplenty, here we show the existence of what we term as "limit cycle" at a purely quantum level of…

Periodically driven quantum dots can act as counterparts of cyclic thermal machines at the nanoscale. In the slow-driving regime of geometric pumping, such machines have been shown to operate in analogy to a Carnot cycle. For larger driving…

We propose a quantum heat engine based on a quadratically coupled optomechanical system. The optical component of the system is driven periodically with an incoherent thermal drive, which induces periodic oscillations in the mechanical…

From an entropy-based formulation of the first law of thermodynamics in the quantum regime, we investigate the performance of Otto-like and Carnot-like engines for a single-qubit working medium. Within this framework, the first law includes…

This paper explores quantum heat engines based on qubit and qutrit working media interacting with thermal environments through generalized amplitude damping (GAD) channels. We investigate how quantum channels can be employed to model heat…

We present a thermal engine that exploits the \emph{cooperative superradiance} and \emph{superabsorption} of a sample of \(N\) two-level atoms. This engine operates using a single cold reservoir via cycles of collective pumping followed by…

Conversion of chemical energy into mechanical work is the fundamental mechanism of several natural phenomena at the nanoscale, like molecular machines and Brownian motors. Quantum mechanical effects are relevant for optimising these…

We study the maximum efficiency of a Carnot cycle heat engine based on a small system. It is revealed that due to the finiteness of the system, irreversibility may arise when the working substance contacts with a heat bath. As a result,…

We consider both Otto and Diesel heat engine cycles running upon the working substances modeled by the van der Waals fluid as a simple non-ideal gas model. We extensively perform the efficiency study in these model engines. Then we find…

We studied the efficiency of two different schemes for a quantum heat engine, by considering a single Dirac particle trapped in an infinite one-dimensional potential well as the "working substance." The first scheme is a cycle, composed of…

We propose the use of a quantum thermal machine for low-temperature thermometry. A hot thermal reservoir coupled to the machine allows for simultaneously cooling the sample while determining its temperature without knowing the…

Although entanglement is considered as an essential resource for quantum information processing, whether entanglement helps for energy conversion or output in the quantum regime is still lack of experimental witness. Here we report on an…