The smallest possible heat engines
Quantum Physics
2010-10-29 v1
Abstract
We construct the smallest possible self contained heat engines; one composed of only two qubits, the other of only a single qutrit. The engines are self-contained as they do not require external sources of work and/or control. They are able to produce work which is used to continuously lift a weight. Despite the dimension of the engine being small, it is still able to operate at the Carnot efficiency.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1010.6029,
title = {The smallest possible heat engines},
author = {Noah Linden and Sandu Popescu and Paul Skrzypczyk},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1010.6029},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
5 pages, 2 figures