The problem of engines in statistical physics
arXiv:2108.07428 · doi:10.3390/e23081095
Abstract
Engines are open systems that can generate work cyclically, at the expense of an external disequilibrium. They are ubiquitous in nature and technology, but the course of mathematical physics over the last 300 years has tended to make their dynamics in time a theoretical blind spot. This has hampered the usefulness of statistical mechanics applied to active systems, including living matter. We argue that recent advances in the theory of open quantum systems, coupled with renewed interest in understanding how active forces result from positive feedback between different macroscopic degrees of freedom in the presence of dissipation, point to a more realistic description of autonomous engines. We propose a general conceptualization of an engine that helps clarify the distinction between its heat and work outputs. Based on this, we show how the external loading force and the thermal noise may be incorporated into the relevant equations of motion. This modifies the usual Fokker-Planck and Langevin equations, offering a thermodynamically complete formulation of the irreversible dynamics of simple oscillating and rotating engines.
25 pages, 7 figures
References in corpus (29)
- Stochastic thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems, and molecular machines
- Active Particles in Complex and Crowded Environments
- The Mechanics and Statistics of Active Matter
- Artificial Brownian motors: Controlling transport on the nanoscale
- Thermodynamic uncertainty relation for biomolecular processes
- Self-oscillation
- Shuttle Mechanism for Charge Transfer in Coulomb Blockade Nanostructures
- The free energy cost of accurate biochemical oscillations
- Scattering theory of current-induced forces in mesoscopic systems
- Autonomous Rotor Heat Engine
- Adiabatic quantum motors
- Work and energy gain of heat-pumped quantized amplifiers
- Quantum Flywheel
- Current-induced forces: a simple derivation
- Work production of quantum rotor engines
- Continuity and boundary conditions in thermodynamics: From Carnot's efficiency to efficiencies at maximum power
- Stability analysis of a noise-induced Hopf bifurcation
- A thermodynamic cycle for the solar cell
- Stochastic thermodynamics of self-oscillations: the electron shuttle
- Autonomous implementation of thermodynamic cycles at the nanoscale
- Quantum Theory of Triboelectricity
- Solar cell as self-oscillating heat engine
- An interacting adiabatic quantum motor
- Closed-loop approach to thermodynamics
- Thermoelectric generators as self-oscillating heat engines
- Proposal of a realistic stochastic rotor engine based on electron shuttling
- From the GKLS equation to the theory of solar and fuel cells
- Dynamical theory for the battery's electromotive force
- Chandler wobble: Stochastic and deterministic dynamics