A self-contained quantum harmonic engine

Abstract

We propose a system made of three quantum harmonic oscillators as a compact quantum engine for producing mechanical work. The three oscillators play respectively the role of the hot bath, the working medium and the cold bath. The working medium performs an Otto cycle during which its frequency is changed and it is sequentially coupled to each of the two other oscillators. As the two environments are finite, the lifetime of the machine is finite and after a number of cycles it stops working and needs to be reset. We analyse the entanglement and quantum discord generated during the strokes and show that high work generation is always accompanied by large quantum correlations.

Updated, published version. See also related but independent work from Pozas-Kerstjens et al. arXiv:1708.06363

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• Otto Engine: Classical and Quantum Approach
• Harnessing non-adiabatic excitations promoted by a quantum critical point
• Efficiency of a cyclic quantum heat engine with finite-size baths
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• Performance of quantum heat engines under the influence of long-range interactions
• Gravitational Quantum Well as an Effective Quantum Heat Engine
• Strongly coupled quantum Otto cycle with single qubit bath
• Stochastic thermodynamics of an electron-spin-resonance quantum dot system
• Quantum Parametric Oscillator Heat Engines in Squeezed Thermal Baths: Foundational Theoretical Issues
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