The Carnot Cycle for Small Systems: Irreversibility and the Cost of Operations
arXiv:cond-mat/9904322 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.62.7759
Abstract
We employ the recently developed framework of the energetics of stochastic processes (called `stochastic energetics'), to re-analyze the Carnot cycle in detail, taking account of fluctuations, without taking the thermodynamic limit. We find that both processes of connection to and disconnection from heat baths and adiabatic processes that cause distortion of the energy distribution are sources of inevitable irreversibility within the cycle. Also, the so-called null-recurrence property of the cumulative efficiency of energy conversion over many cycles and the irreversible property of isolated, purely mechanical processes under external `macroscopic' operations are discussed in relation to the impossibility of a perpetual machine, or Maxwell's demon.
11 pages with 3 figures. Resubmitted to Physical Review E. Many paragraphs have been modified
References in corpus (2)
Cited by in corpus (44)
- Stochastic thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems, and molecular machines
- Brownian motors: noisy transport far from equilibrium
- Efficiency at maximum power: An analytically solvable model for stochastic heat engines
- Brownian Carnot engine
- Work extremum principle: Structure and function of quantum heat engines
- Adiabatic processes realized with a trapped Brownian particle
- Optimal refrigerator
- Brownian motors: current fluctuations and rectification efficiency
- Exactly solvable model of stochastic heat engine: Optimization of power, its fluctuations and efficiency
- Efficiency at and near Maximum Power of Low-Dissipation Heat Engines
- Charging assisted by thermalization
- Integral Fluctuation Relations for Entropy Production at Stopping Times
- Fluctuation Relation for Heat Engines
- Exact solution of time-dependent Lindblad equations with closed algebras
- A heat pump at a molecular scale controlled by a mechanical force
- Fast forward approach to stochastic heat engine
- A quantum Otto engine with finite heat baths: energy, correlations, and degradation
- Finite-Time Thermodynamics of Fluctuations in Microscopic Heat Engines
- Lindblad-Floquet description of finite-time quantum heat engines
- Carnot cycle for an oscillator
- Construction and Optimization of the Quantum Analog of Carnot Cycles
- Quantization and Fractional Quantization of Currents in Periodically Driven Stochastic Systems I: Average Currents
- Thermodynamics at the microscale: from effective heating to the Brownian Carnot engine
- Heat leakage in overdamped harmonic systems
- Noise-assisted classical adiabatic pumping in a symmetric periodic potential
- Energetics and performance of a microscopic heat engine based on exact calculations of work and heat distributions
- Negative conductances of Josephson junctions: Voltage fluctuations and energetics
- Measuring kinetic energy changes in the mesoscale with low acquisition rates
- Effect of angular momentum on equilibrium properties of a self-gravitating system
- Solution to the Fokker-Planck equation for slowly driven Brownian motion: Emergent geometry and a formula for the corresponding thermodynamic metric
- Hidden heat transfer in equilibrium states implies directed motion in nonequilibrium states
- Stationary engines in and beyond the linear response regime at the Carnot efficiency
- Maximum efficiency of low-dissipation refrigerators at arbitrary cooling power
- Equation of state in a small system: Violation of an assumption of Maxwell's demon
- Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of the heat bath for two Brownian particles
- Energy Landscape Design Principle for Optimal Energy Harnessing by Catalytic Molecular Machines
- Carnot, Stirling, Ericsson stochastic heat engines: Efficiency at maximum power
- Correlation-enhanced Stability of Microscopic Cyclic Heat Engines
- Operational characteristics of single particle heat engines and refrigerators with time asymmetric protocol
- Universal relations and bounds for fluctuations in quasistatic small heat engines
- Molecular Chemical Engines: Pseudo-Static Processes and the Mechanism of Energy Transduction
- A stochastic Stirling engine powered by an active particle
- Thermodynamic bound on quantum state discrimination
- Quantum batteries at the verge of a phase transition