We derive the exact equality, referred to as the fluctuation relation for heat engines (FRHE), that relates statistics of heat extracted from one of the two heat baths and the work per one cycle of a heat engine operation. Carnot's inequality of classical thermodynamics follows as a direct consequence of the FRHE.
The efficiency of macroscopic heat engines is restricted by the second law of thermodynamics. They can reach at most the efficiency of a Carnot engine. In contrast, heat currents in mesoscopic heat engines show fluctuations. Thus, there is a small probability that a mesoscopic heat engine exceeds Carnot's maximum value during a short measurement time. We illustrate this effect using a quantum point contact as a heat engine. When a temperature difference is applied to a quantum point contact, the system may be utilized as a source of electrical power under steady state conditions. We first disc…
Brownian heat engines use local temperature gradients in asymmetric potentials to move particles against an external force. The energy efficiency of such machines is generally limited by irreversible heat flow carried by particles that make contact with different heat baths. Here we show that, by using a suitably chosen energy filter, electrons can be transferred reversibly between reservoirs that have different temperatures and electrochemical potentials. We apply this result to propose heat engines based on mesoscopic semiconductor ratchets, which can quasistatically operate arbitrarily clos…
We experimentally verify the Jarzynski and Wöjcik quantum heat exchange fluctuation relation by implementing the interferometric technique in liquid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance setup and study the exchange heat statistics between two weakly coupled spin-1/2 quantum systems. In presence of uncorrelated initial state with individual spins prepared in local Gibbs thermal states at different temperatures, the exchange fluctuation symmetry is verified for arbitrary transient time. In contrast, when the initial preparation includes correlation, the fluctuation symmetry breaks down and further l…
Stochastic heat engines are devices that generate work from random thermal motion using a small number of highly fluctuating degrees of freedom. Proposals for such devices have existed for more than a century and include the Maxwell demon and the Feynman ratchet. Only recently have they been demonstrated experimentally, using e.g., thermal cycles implemented in optical traps. However, the recent demonstrations of stochastic heat engines are nonautonomous, since they require an external control system that prescribes a heating and cooling cycle, and consume more energy than they produce. This R…
Typical heat engines exhibit a kind of homotypy: The heat exchanges between a cyclic heat engine and its two heat reservoirs abide by the same function type; the forward and backward flows of an autonomous heat engine also conform to the same function type. This homotypy mathematically reflects in the existence of hidden symmetries for heat engines. The heat exchanges between the cyclic heat engine and its two reservoirs are dual under the joint transformation of parity inversion and time-reversal operation. Similarly, the forward and backward flows in the autonomous heat engine are also dual …
We study the stochastic energetic exchanges in quantum heat engines. Due to microreversibility, these obey a fluctuation relation, called the heat engine fluctuation relation, which implies the Carnot bound: no machine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The stochastic thermodynamics of a quantum heat engine (including the joint statistics of heat and work and the statistics of efficiency) is illustrated by means of an optimal two-qubit heat engine, where each qubit is coupled to a thermal bath and a two-qubit gate determines energy exchanges between the two qubits. We disc…
We retrospect three abstract models for heat engines which include a classic abstract model in textbook of thermal physics, a primary abstract model for finite-time heat engines, and a refined abstract model for finite-time heat engines. The detailed models of heat engines in literature of finite-time thermodynamics may be mapped into the refined abstract model. The future developments based on the refined abstract model are also surveyed.
The Carnot theorem, one expression of the second law of thermodynamics, places a fundamental upper bound on the efficiency of heat engines operating between two heat baths. The Carnot theorem can be stated in a more generalized form for heat engines operating with multiple heat baths, where the maximum efficiency is achieved for reversible heat engines operating quasistatically between two heat baths. In this study, we determine the irreversible efficiency of heat engines operating with multiple heat baths in a linear response regime, i.e., under small temperature differences and a slow variat…
We present a simple derivation of the integral fluctuation theorems for excess housekeeping heat for an underdamped Langevin system, without using the concept of dual dynamics. In conformity with the earlier results, we find that the fluctuation theorem for housekeeping heat holds when the steady state distributions are symmetric in velocity, whereas there is no such requirement for the excess heat. We first prove the integral fluctuation theorem for the excess heat, and then show that it naturally leads to the integral fluctuation theorem for housekeeping heat. We also derive the modified det…
Heat fluctuations of a harmonic oscillator in contact with a thermostat and driven out of equilibrium by an external deterministic force are studied experimentally and theoretically within the context of Fluctuation Theorems. We consider the case of a periodic forcing of the oscillator, and we calculate the analytic probability density function of heat fluctuations. The limit of large time is discussed and we show that heat fluctuations satisfy the conventional fluctuation theorem, even if a different fluctuation relation exists for this quantity. Experimental results are also given for a tran…
We consider heat fluctuations and fluctuation theorems for systems driven by multiple reservoirs. We establish a fundamental symmetry obeyed by the joint probability distribution for the heat transfers and system coordinates. The symmetry leads to a generalisation of the asymptotic fluctuation theorem for large deviations at large times. As a result the presence of multiple reservoirs influence the tails in the heat distribution. The symmetry, moreover, allows for a simple derivation of a recent exact fluctuation theorem valid at all times. Including a time dependent work protocol we also pres…
We study the heat current flowing between two baths consisting of harmonic oscillators interacting with a qubit through a spin-boson coupling. An explicit expression for the generating function of the total heat flowing between the hot and cold baths is derived by evaluating the corresponding Feynman-Vernon path integral under the non-interacting blip approximation (NIBA). This generating function satisfies the Gallavotti-Cohen fluctuation theorem, both before and after performing the NIBA. We also verify that the heat conductivity is proportional to the variance of the heat current, retrievin…
We formulate the work output and efficiency for linear irreversible heat engines working between a finite-sized hot heat source and an infinite-sized cold heat reservoir until the total system reaches the final thermal equilibrium state with a uniform temperature. We prove that when the heat engines operate at the maximum power under the tight-coupling condition without heat leakage the work output is just half of the exergy, which is known as the maximum available work extracted from a heat source. As a consequence, the corresponding efficiency is also half of its quasistatic counterpart.
The three-terminal heat device consisting of a cavity and coupled to a heat bath is established. By tuning the temperatures of the electrodes and the phonon bath, the device can function as a heat engine or a refrigerator. We study the characteristic performance in the linear and nonlinear regime for both setups. It is our focus here to analyze how the efficiency of the heat engine and coefficient of performance of the refrigerator are affected by the nonlinear transport. With such considerations, the maximum efficiency and power are then optimized for various energy levels, temperatures and o…
Mesoscopic thermoelectric heat engine is much anticipated as a device that allows us to utilize with high efficiency wasted heat inaccessible by conventional heat engines. However, the derivation of the heat current in this engine seems to be either not general or described too briefly, even inappropriate in some cases. In this paper, we give a clear-cut derivation of the heat current of the engine with suitable assumptions beyond the linear-response regime. It resolves the confusion in the definition of the heat current in the linear-response regime. After verifying that we can construct the …
We show that quantum coherence can enhance the performance of a continuous quantum heat engine in the Lindblad description. We investigate the steady-state solutions of the particle-exchanging quantum heat engine, composed of degenerate double quantum dots coupled to two heat baths in parallel, where quantum coherence may be induced due to interference between relaxation channels. We find that the engine power can be enhanced by the coherence in the nonlinear response regime, when the symmetry of coupling configurations between dots and two baths is broken. In the symmetric case, the coherence…
For driven open systems in contact with multiple heat reservoirs, we find the marginal distributions of work or heat do not satisfy any fluctuation theorem, but only the joint distribution of work and heat satisfies a family of fluctuation theorems. A hierarchical structure of these fluctuation theorems is discovered from microreversibility of the dynamics by adopting a step-by-step coarse-graining procedure in both classical and quantum regimes. Thus, we put all fluctuation theorems concerning work and heat into a unified framework. We also propose a general method to calculate the joint stat…
The statistics of heat exchange between two classical or quantum finite systems initially prepared at different temperatures are shown to obey a fluctuation theorem.
We use the general formulation of irreversible thermodynamics and study the minimally nonlinear irreversible model of heat engines operating between a time-varying hot heat source of finite size and a cold heat reservoir of infinite size. We find the criterion in which the optimized efficiency obtained by this minimally nonlinear irreversible heat engine can reach the reversible efficiency under the tight coupling condition: a condition of no heat leakage between the system and the reservoirs. We assume the rate of heat transfer from hot to cold heat reservoir obeys Fourier law and discuss phy…
Modern technologies could soon make it possible to investigate the operation cycles of quantum heat engines by counting the photons that are emitted and absorbed by their working systems. Using the quantum jump approach to open-system dynamics, we show that such experiments would give access to a set of observables that determine the trade-off between power and efficiency in finite-time engine cycles. By analyzing the single-jump statistics of thermodynamic fluxes such as heat and entropy production, we obtain a family of general bounds on the power of microscopic heat engines. Our new bounds …
We present a fluctuation relation for heat dissipation in a nonequilibrium system. A nonequilibrium work is known to obey the fluctuation theorem in any time interval $t$. A heat, which differs from a work by an energy change, is shown to satisfy a modified fluctuation relation. Modification is brought by correlation between a heat and an energy change during nonequilibrium processes whose effect may not be negligible even in the $t\to\infty$ limit. The fluctuation relation is derived for overdamped Langevin equation systems, and tested in a linear diffusion system.
We propose an experimental scheme to realize a nano heat engine with a single ion. An Otto cycle may be implemented by confining the ion in a linear Paul trap with tapered geometry and coupling it to engineered laser reservoirs. The quantum efficiency at maximum power is analytically determined in various regimes. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulations of the engine are performed that demonstrate its feasibility and its ability to operate at maximum efficiency of 30% under realistic conditions.
A dynamical model of a highly efficient heat engine is proposed, where an applied temperature difference maintains the motion of particles around the circuit consisting of two asymmetric narrow channels, in one of which the current flows against the applied thermodynamic forces. Numerical simulations and linear-response analysis suggest that, in the absence of frictional losses, the Carnot efficiency can be achieved in the thermodynamic limit.
The work provides an overview on some recent advances in the area of quantum thermodynamics and quantum heat engines. A particular emphasis is put on the possibility of constructing finite time quantum cycles and adiabatic shortcuts. We discuss in details the particular quantum heat engines operating with a multiferroic working substance.
We study a periodically driven (symmetric as well as asymmetric)double-well potential system at finite temperature. We show that mean heat loss by the system to the environment(bath) per period of the applied field is a good quantifier of stochastic resonance. It is found that the heat fluctuations over a single period are always larger than the work fluctuations. The observed distributions of work and heat exhibit pronounced asymmetry near resonance. The heat losses over a large number of periods satisfies the conventional steady-state fluctuation theorem, though different relation exists for…
The autonomous heat engine is a model system of autonomous nonequilibrium systems like biological cells, exploiting nonequilibrium flow for operations. As the Carnot engine has essentially contributed to the equilibrium thermodynamics, autonomous heat engine is expected to play a critical role in the challenge of constructing nonequilibrium thermodynamics. However, the high complexity of the engine involving an intricate coupling among heat, gas flow, and mechanics has prevented simple modeling. Here, we experimentally characterized the nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamics of a low-tempe…
We consider optimizations of Lenoir heat engine within a quantum dynamical field consisting of $N$ noninteracting fermions trapped in multilevel infinite potential square-well. Fermions play role as working substance of the engine with each particle nested at different level of energy. We optimized this quantum heat engine model by analysing the physical parameter and deriving the optimum properties of the engine model. The model we investigated consists of one high-energy heat bath and one low-energy sink bath. Heat leakage occurs between these two bathes as expected will degenerate the effic…
We model a microscopic heat engine as a particle hopping on a one-dimensional lattice in a periodic sawtooth potential, with or without load, assisted by the thermal kicks it gets from alternately placed hot and cold thermal baths. We find analytic expressions for current and rate of heat flow when the engine operates at steady state. Three regions are identified where the model acts either as a heat engine or as a refrigerator or as neither of the two. At quasistatic limit both efficiency of the engine and coefficient of performance of the refrigerator go to that for Carnot engine and Carnot …
We measure the energy fluctuations of a Brownian particle confined by an optical trap in an aging gelatin after a very fast quench (less than 1 ms). The strong nonequilibrium fluctuations due to the assemblage of the gel, are interpreted, within the framework of fluctuation theorem, as a heat flux from the particle towards the bath. We derive, from a simple model, an analytical expression of the heat probability distribution, which fits the experimental data and satisfies a fluctuation relation similar to that of a system in contact with two baths at different temperatures.
Heat fluctuation probability distribution function in Brownian transducers operating between two heat reservoirs is studied. We find, both analytically and numerically, that the recently proposed Fluctuation Theorem for Heat Exchange [C. Jarzynski and D. K. Wojcik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 230602 (2004)] has to be modified when the coupling mechanism between both baths is considered. We also extend such relation when external work is present. Our work fixes the domain of applicability of the theorem in more realistic operating systems.
A Brownian particle moving in the vicinity of a generic potential minimum under the influence of dissipation and thermal noise from two different heat baths is shown to act as a minimal heat engine, generating a systematic torque onto the physical object at the origin of the potential and an opposite torque onto the medium generating the dissipation.
A specific class of stochastic heat engines driven cyclically by time-dependent potential, which is defined in the half-line ($0<x<+\infty$), is analysed. For such engines, most of their physical quantities can be obtained explicitly, including the entropy and internal energy of the heat engine, as well as output work (power) and heat exchange with the environment during a finite time interval. The optimisation method based on the external potential to reduce {\it irreversible} work and increase energy efficiency is presented. With this optimised potential, efficiency $η^*$ and its particular …
We perform an extensive analysis of passive as well as active micro-heat engines with different single-particle stochastic models. Using stochastic thermodynamics we calculate thermodynamic work, heat, entropy production and efficiency of passive and active Brownian heat engines analytically as well as numerically and compare them. We run the heat engines with a protocol for which the average thermodynamic quantities are calculated exactly for an arbitrary cycle time. We also discuss about the group of protocols for which exact non-quasistatic calculations can be done, completely in the passiv…
Heat engines are fundamental physical objects to develop nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The thermodynamic performance of the heat engine is determined by the choice of cycle and time-dependence of parameters. Here, we propose a systematic numerical method to find a heat engine cycle to optimize some target functions. We apply the method to heat engines with slowly varying parameters and show that the method works well. Our numerical method is based on the genetic algorithm which is widely applied to various optimization problems.
We present a unified perspective on nonequilibrium heat engines by generalizing nonlinear irreversible thermodynamics. For tight-coupling heat engines, a generic constitutive relation of nonlinear response accurate up to the quadratic order is derived from the symmetry argument and the stall condition. By applying this generic nonlinear constitutive relation to finite-time thermodynamics, we obtain the necessary and sufficient condition for the universality of efficiency at maximum power, which states that a tight-coupling heat engine takes the universal efficiency at maximum power up to the q…
Monte Carlo simulations of Ising models coupled to heat baths at two different temperatures are used to study a fluctuation relation for the heat exchanged between the two thermostats in a time $τ$. Different kinetics (single--spin--flip or spin--exchange Kawasaki dynamics), transition rates (Glauber or Metropolis), and couplings between the system and the thermostats have been considered. In every case the fluctuation relation is verified in the large $τ$ limit, both in the disordered and in the low temperature phase. Finite-$τ$ corrections are shown to obey a scaling behavior.
The efficiency at maximum power (EMP) of irreversible Carnot-like heat engines is investigated based on the weak endoreversible assumption and the phenomenologically irreversible thermodynamics. It is found that the weak endoreversible assumption can reduce to the conventional one for the heat engines working at maximum power. Carnot-like heat engines are classified into three types (linear, superlinear, and sublinear) according to different characteristics of constitutive relations between the heat transfer rate and the thermodynamic force. The EMPs of Carnot-like heat engines are proved to b…
Considering ideal paramagnetic medium, in this paper we deduced an expression for the thermal efficiency of Carnot heat engine with a paramagnetic gas as working substance. We found that the efficiency depends on the limits of maximum and minimal temperature imposed on the Carnot cycle, as in the ideal gas, photon gas and variable Chaplygin gas.
We study a class of cyclic Brownian heat engines in the framework of finite-time thermodynamics. For infinitely long cycle times, the engine works at the Carnot efficiency limit producing, however, zero power. For the efficiency at maximum power, we find a universal expression, different from the endoreversible Curzon-Ahlborn efficiency. Our results are illustrated with a simple one-dimensional engine working in and with a time-dependent harmonic potential.
Thermodynamics places a limit on the efficiency of heat engines, but not on their output power or on how the power and efficiency change with the engine's cycle time. In this manuscript, we develop a geometrical description of the power and efficiency as a function of the cycle time, applicable to an important class of heat engine models. This geometrical description is used to design engine protocols that attain both the maximal power and maximal efficiency at the fast driving limit. Furthermore, using this method we also prove that no protocol can exactly attain the Carnot efficiency at non-…
We study quantum heat exchange in a multi-state impurity coupled to two thermal reservoirs. Allowing for strong system-bath interactions, we show that a steady-state heat exchange fluctuation theorem holds, though the dynamical processes nonlinearly involve the two reservoirs. We accomplish a closed expression for the cumulant generating function, and use it obtain the heat current and its cumulants in a nonlinear thermal junction, the two-bath spin-boson model.
In existing linear response theories for adiabatically driven cyclic heat engines, Onsager symmetry is identified only phenomenologically, and a relation between global and local Onsager coefficients, defined over one cycle and at any instant of a cycle, respectively, is not derived. To address this limitation, we develop a linear response theory for the speed of adiabatically changing parameters and temperature differences in generic Gaussian heat engines obeying Fokker--Planck dynamics. We establish a hierarchical relationship between the global linear response relations, defined over one cy…
We study the efficiency at maximum power of non-adiabatic dissipative (internally dissipative friction in finite time adiabatic processes) Carnot-like heat engines operate in finite time under the power law dissipation regime. We find that the non-adiabatic dissipation does not influence the universal minimum and maximum bounds on the efficiency at maximum power obtained in the generalized dissipative Carnot-like heat engines which does not take in to account the non-adiabatic dissipation.
We discuss the efficiency of a heat engine operating in a nonequilibrium steady state maintained by two heat reservoirs. Within the general framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics we derive a universal upper bound on the efficiency of the engine operating at arbitrary fixed power. Furthermore, we show that a slight decrease of the power below its maximal value can lead to a significant gain in efficiency. The presented analysis yields the exact expression for this gain and the corresponding upper bound.
We study the properties of heat conduction induced by non-Gaussian noises from athermal environments. We find that new terms should be added to the conventional Fourier law and the fluctuation theorem for the heat current, where its average and fluctuation are determined not only by the noise intensities but also by the non-Gaussian nature of the noises. Our results explicitly show the absence of the zeroth law of thermodynamics in athermal systems.
The characteristic function for heat fluctuations in a non equilibrium system is characterised by a large deviation function whose symmetry gives rise to a fluctuation theorem. In equilibrium the large deviation function vanishes and the heat fluctuations are bounded. Here we consider the characteristic function for heat fluctuations in equilibrium, constituting a sub-leading correction to the large deviation behaviour. Modelling the system by an oscillator coupled to an explicit multi-oscillator heat reservoir we evaluate the characteristic function.
Fluctuation theorems play a central role in nonequilibrium physics and stochastic thermodynamics. Here we derive an integral fluctuation theorem for the dissipated heat in systems governed by an underdamped Langevin dynamics. We show that this identity may be used to predict the occurrence of extreme events leading to exponential tails in the probability distribution functions of the heat and related quantities.
A heat engine operating on the basis of the Carnot cycle is considered, where the mechanical work performed is dissipated within the engine at the temperature of the warmer isotherm and the resulting heat is added to the engine together with an external heat input. The resulting work performed by the engine per cycle is increased at the expense of dissipated work produced in the previous cycle. It is shown that such a dissipative heat engine is thermodynamically inconsistent violating the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The existing physical models employing the dissipative heat engin…
Fluctuations of the excess heat in an out of equilibrium steady state are experimentally investigated in two stochastic systems : an electric circuit with an imposed mean current and a harmonic oscillator driven out of equilibrium by a periodic torque. In these two linear systems, we study excess heat that represents the difference between the dissipated heat out of equilibrium and the dissipated heat at equilibrium. Fluctuation theorem holds for the excess heat in the two experimental systems for all observation times and for all fluctuation magnitudes.
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 $\hbar$-dependent quantum mechanical bound for the efficiency. It turns …
We consider a simple model of a stochastic heat engine, which consists of a single Brownian particle moving in a one-dimensional periodically breathing harmonic potential. Overdamped limit is assumed. Expressions of second moments (variances and covariances ) of heat and work are obtained in the form of integrals, whose integrands contain functions satisfying certain differential equations. The results in the quasi-static limit are simple functions of temperatures of hot and cold thermal baths. The coefficient of variation of the work is suggested to give an approximate probability for the wor…
We measure the fluctuations of the position of a Brownian particle confined by an optical trap in an aging gelatin droplet after a fast quench. Its linear response to an external perturbation is also measured. We compute the spontaneous heat flux from the particle to the bath due to the nonequilibrium formation of the gel. We show that the mean heat flux is quantitatively related to the violation of the equilibrium fluctuation-dissipation theorem as a measure of the broken detailed balance during the aging process.
At the dawn of thermodynamics, Carnot's constraint on efficiency of heat engines stimulated the formulation of one of the most universal physical principles, the second law of thermodynamics. In recent years, the field of heat engines acquired a new twist due to enormous efforts to develop and describe microscopic machines based on systems as small as single atoms. At microscales, fluctuations are an inherent part of dynamics and thermodynamic variables such as work and heat fluctuate. Novel probabilistic formulations of the second law imply general symmetries and limitations for the fluctuati…
The aim of this paper is to determine lost works in a molecular engine and compare results with macro (classical) heat engines. Firstly, irreversible thermodynamics are reviewed for macro and molecular cycles. Secondly, irreversible thermodynamics approaches are applied for a quantum heat engine with -1/2 spin system. Finally, lost works are determined for considered system and results show that macro and molecular heat engines obey same limitations. Moreover, a quantum thermodynamic approach is suggested in order to explain the results previously obtained from an atomic viewpoint.
Low-dissipation model and the endoreversible model of heat engines are two of the most commonly studied models of machines in finite-time thermodynamics. In this paper, we compare the performance characteristics of these two models under optimal power output. We point out a basic equivalence between them, in the linear response regime.
We study the minimally nonlinear irreversible heat engines in which the time-reversal symmetry for the systems may b e broken. The expressions for the power and the efficiency are derived, in which the effects of the nonlinear terms due to dissipations are included. We show that, as within the linear responses, the minimally nonlinear irreversible heat engines enable attainment of Carnot efficiency at positive power. We also find that the Curzon-Ahlborn limit imposed on the efficiency at maximum power can be overcomed if the time-reversal symmetry is broken.