Quantum mechanical bound for efficiency of quantum Otto heat engine

Abstract

The second law of thermodynamics constrains that the efficiency of heat engines, classical or quantum, cannot be greater than the universal Carnot efficiency. We discover another bound for the efficiency of a quantum Otto heat engine consisting of a harmonic oscillator. Dynamics of the engine is governed by the Lindblad equation for the density matrix, which is mapped to the Fokker-Planck equation for the quasi-probability distribution. Applying stochastic thermodynamics to the Fokker-Planck equation system, we obtain the $\hslash$-dependent quantum mechanical bound for the efficiency. It turns out that the bound is tighter than the Carnot efficiency. The engine achieves the bound in the low temperature limit where quantum effects dominate. Our work demonstrates that quantum nature could suppress the performance of heat engines in terms of efficiency bound, work and power output.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Bounds on fluctuations for finite-time quantum Otto cycle
• Finite-time quantum Otto engine: Surpassing the quasi-static efficiency due to friction
• Thermodynamic engine with a quantum degenerate working fluid
• Quantum heat engines with complex working media, complete Otto cycles and heuristics
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