General theory for thermal and nonthermal quantum linear engines
arXiv:2112.03901 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.105.042219
Abstract
We present the exact theory of quantum engines whose working medium is a network of driven oscillators performing an arbitrary cyclic process while coupled to thermal and nonthermal reservoirs. We show that when coupled to a single reservoir work cannot be extracted unless there is population inversion, and prove that the ratio between the heat flowing out and into the working medium cannot be arbitrarily small, satisfying a form of Clausius inequality. We use such identity to prove that the efficiency of linear quantum engines satisfies a generalized bound, which coincides with the Carnot limit for thermal reservoirs. The previous results enable us to estimate the cost of preparing nonthermal reservoirs, which, if available, could be used to violate the Carnot limit.
References in corpus (23)
- Quantum Thermodynamics
- The role of quantum information in thermodynamics --- a topical review
- Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and quantum heat engines
- A nano heat engine beyond the Carnot limit
- Quantum heat engines and refrigerators: Continuous devices
- Entropy production as correlation between system and reservoir
- Quantum and Information Thermodynamics: A Unifying Framework based on Repeated Interactions
- Extracting work from quantum measurement in Maxwell demon engines
- {\it Colloquium:} Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics at Strong Coupling: Quantum and Classical
- Nonequilibrium fluctuations in quantum heat engines: Theory, example, and possible solid state experiments
- Quantum Heat Engine With Multi-Level Quantum Systems
- Efficiency of heat engines coupled to nonequilibrium reservoirs
- Minimal universal quantum heat machine
- Quantum Heat Current under Non-perturbative and Non-Markovian Conditions: Applications to Heat Machines
- Non-equilibrium quantum heat machines
- Dynamics and thermodynamics of linear quantum open systems
- Fluctuation Relation for Quantum Heat Engines and Refrigerators
- Fundamental limits for cooling of linear quantum refrigerators
- Work and its fluctuations in a driven quantum system
- Driven quantum harmonic oscillators: A working medium for thermal machines
- How much can we cool a quantum oscillator? A useful analogy to understand laser cooling as a thermodynamical process
- Entanglement generation in quantum thermal machines
- Time-extensive classical and quantum correlations in thermal machines