Quantum Heat Engines with Carnot Efficiency at Maximum Power

Abstract

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 assumed to be true for the engines operating in the quantum regime. Here we show that these relations are not fundamental. We introduce quantum heat engines that deliver maximum power with Carnot efficiency in the one-shot finite-size regime. These engines are composed of working systems with a finite number of quantum particles and are restricted to one-shot measurements. The engines operate in a one-step cycle by letting the working system simultaneously interact with hot and cold baths via semi-local thermal operations. By allowing quantum entanglement between its constituents and, thereby, a coherent transfer of heat from hot to cold baths, the engine implements the fastest possible reversible state transformation in each cycle, resulting in maximum power and Carnot efficiency. Finally, we propose a physically realizable engine using quantum optical systems.

References in corpus (6)

• Description of quantum coherence in thermodynamic processes requires constraints beyond free energy
• Single ion heat engine with maximum efficiency at maximum power
• The unlikely Carnot efficiency
• Efficiency fluctuations in microscopic machines
• Universal Bounds on Fluctuations in Continuous Thermal Machines
• Bounds on fluctuations for finite-time quantum Otto cycle

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Quantum thermodynamic devices: from theoretical proposals to experimental reality
• Molecular polaritonics: Chemical Dynamics under strong Light-Matter Coupling
• Resource theory of quantum scrambling
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• Cooperative isentropic charging of hybrid quantum batteries
• Coherent heat transfer leads to genuine quantum enhancement in the performances of continuous engines
• Family of Exact and Inexact Quantum Speed Limits for Completely Positive and Trace-Preserving Dynamics
• Maximum Power of Coupled-Qubit Otto Engines
• Optimal performance of a three stroke heat engine in the microscopic regime
• Universal principles for sudden-quench quantum Otto engines
• Optimizing power and efficiency of a single spin heat engine
• Spin-mechanical thermal machines