We consider the quality factor Q, which quantifies the trade-off between power, efficiency, and fluctuations in steady-state heat engines modeled by dynamical systems. We show that the nonlinear scattering theory, both in classical and quantum mechanics, sets the bound Q=3/8 when approaching the Carnot efficiency. On the other hand, interacting, nonintegrable and momentum-conserving systems can achieve the value Q=1/2, which is the universal upper bound in linear response. This result shows that interactions are necessary to achieve the optimal performance of a steady-state heat engine.
Heat engines should ideally have large power output, operate close to Carnot efficiency and show constancy, i.e., exhibit only small fluctuations in this output. For steady-state heat engines, driven by a constant temperature difference between the two heat baths, we prove that out of these three requirements only two are compatible. Constancy enters quantitatively the conventional trade-off between power and efficiency. Thus, we rationalize and unify recent suggestions for overcoming this simple trade-off. Our universal bound is illustrated for a paradigmatic model of a quantum dot solar cell…
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 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…
A fluctuation relation for heat engines (FRHE) has been derived recently. In the beginning, the system is in contact with the cooler bath. The system is then coupled to the hotter bath and external parameters are changed cyclically, eventually bringing the system back to its initial state, once the coupling with the hot bath is switched off. In this work, we lift the condition of initial thermal equilibrium and derive a new fluctuation relation for the central system (heat engine) being in a time-periodic steady state (TPSS). Carnot's inequality for classical thermodynamics follows as a direct…
We analyze a steady-state thermoelectric engine, whose working substance consists of two capacitively coupled quantum dots. One dot is tunnel-coupled to a hot reservoir serving as a heat source, the other one to two electrically biased reservoirs at a colder temperature, such that work is extracted under the form of a steady-state current against the bias. In single realizations of the dynamics of this steady-state engine autonomous, 4-stroke cycles can be identified. The cycles are purely stochastic, in contrast to mechanical autonomous engines which exhibit self-oscillations. In particular, …
For a general thermodynamic system described as a Markov process, we prove a general lower bound for dissipation in terms of the square of the heat current, thus establishing that nonvanishing current inevitably implies dissipation. This leads to a universal trade-off relation between efficiency and power, with which we rigorously prove that a heat engine with nonvanishing power never attains the Carnot efficiency. Our theory applies to systems arbitrarily far from equilibrium, and does not assume any specific symmetry of the model.
Survival and extreme statistics of work, heat, and entropy production in steady-state heat engines
Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems IFISC (UIB-CSIC)（跨学科物理与复杂系统研究所）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information IQOQI, Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学与量子信息研究所）；ICTP - The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics（阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆国际理论物理中心）
Steady-state thermoelectric machines convert heat into work by driving a thermally-generated charge current against a voltage gradient. In this work, we propose a new class of steady-state heat engines operating in the quantum regime, where a quasi-periodic tight-binding model that features a mobility edge forms the working medium. In particular, we focus on a generalization of the paradigmatic Aubrey-André-Harper (AAH) model, known to display a single-particle mobility edge that separates the energy spectrum into regions of completely delocalized and localized eigenstates. Remarkably, these t…
An engine producing a finite power at the ideal (Carnot) efficiency is a dream engine, which is not prohibited by the thermodynamic second law. Some years ago, a two-terminal heat engine with {\em asymmetric} Onsager coefficients in the linear response regime was suggested by Benenti, Saito, and Casati [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 106}, 230602 (2011)], as a prototypical system to make such a dream come true with non-divergent system parameter values. However, such a system has never been realized in spite of many trials. Here, we introduce an exactly solvable two-terminal Brownian heat engine with t…
In the context of stochastic thermodynamics, a minimal model for non equilibrium steady states has been recently proposed: the Brownian Gyrator (BG). It describes the stochastic overdamped motion of a particle in a two dimensional harmonic potential, as in the classic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, but considering the simultaneous presence of two independent thermal baths. When the two baths have different temperatures, the steady BG exhibits a rotating current, a clear signature of non equilibrium dynamics. Here, we consider a time-dependent potential, and we apply a reverse-engineering approach…
Reducing work fluctuation and dissipation in heat engines or, more generally, information heat engines that perform feedback control is vital to maximize their efficiency. The same problem arises when we attempt to maximize the efficiency of a given thermodynamic task that undergoes nonequilibrium processes for arbitrary initial and final states. We find that the most general trade-off relation between work fluctuation and dissipation applicable to arbitrary nonequilibrium processes is bounded from below by the information distance characterizing how far the system is from thermal equilibrium.…
We investigate quantum Otto engine and refrigeration cycles of a time-dependent harmonic oscillator operating under the conditions of maximum $Ω$-function, a trade-off objective function which represents a compromise between energy benefits and losses for a specific job, for both adiabatic and nonadiabatic (sudden) frequency modulations. We derive analytical expressions for the efficiency and coefficient of performance of the Otto cycle. For the case of adiabatic driving, we point out that in the low-temperature regime, the harmonic Otto engine (refrigerator) can be mapped to Feynman's ratchet…
Power-efficiency trade-off for finite-time quantum harmonic Otto heat engine via phase-space approach
School of Physics, Korea Institute for Advanced Study（韩国高等科学研究院物理学院）；Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics（亚太理论物理中心）；Department of Physics, POSTECH（韩国科学技术院物理系）
A new universality in optimization of trade-off between power and efficiency for low-dissipation Carnot cycles is presented. It is shown that any trade-off measure expressible in terms of efficiency and the ratio of power to its maximum value can be optimized independently of most details of the dynamics and of the coupling to thermal reservoirs. The result is demonstrated on two specific trade-off measures. The first one is designed for finding optimal efficiency for a given output power and clearly reveals diseconomy of engines working at maximum power. As the second example we derive univer…
We investigate a heat engine under an adiabatic (Thouless) pumping process. In this process, the extracted work and lower bound on dissipated availability are characterized by a vector potential and a Riemannian metric tensor, respectively. We derive a trade-off relation between the power and effective efficiency. We also explicitly calculate the trade-off relation as well as the power and effective efficiency for a spin-boson model coupled to two reservoirs.
We review theoretical approaches to analyzing efficiency of steady state heat to work conversion which is crucial in the timely problem of optimizing efficiency of small-scale heat engines and refrigerators. A rather abstract perspective of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and dynamical system's theory is taken to view at this very practical problem. Several recently discovered general mechanisms of optimizing the figure of merit of thermoelectric efficiency are discussed, also in connection to breaking time-reversal symmetry of the microscopic equations of motion. Applications of these t…
We have performed an extensive analysis of a single particle stochastic heat engine constructed by manipulating a Brownian particle in a time dependent harmonic potential. The cycle consists of two isothermal steps at different temperatures and two adiabatic steps similar to that of a Carnot engine. The engine shows qualitative differences in inertial and overdamped regimes. All the thermodynamic quantities, including efficiency, exhibit strong fluctuations in a time periodic steady state. The fluctuations of stochastic efficiency dominate over the mean values even in the quasistatic regime. I…
The Carnot heat engine sets an upper bound on the efficiency of a heat engine. As an ideal, reversible engine, a single cycle must be performed in infinite time, and so the Carnot engine has zero power. However, there is nothing in principle forbidding the existence of a heat engine whose efficiency approaches that of Carnot while maintaining finite power. Such an engine must have very special properties, some of which have been discussed in the literature, in various limits. While recent theorems rule out a large class of engines from maintaining finite power at exactly the Carnot efficiency,…
We study the performance of a three-terminal thermoelectric device such as heat engine and refrigerator with broken time-reversal symmetry by applying the unified trade-off figure of merit ($\dotΩ$ criterion) which accounts for both useful energy and losses. For heat engine, we find that a thermoelectric device working under the maximum $\dotΩ$ criterion gives a significantly better performance than a device working at maximum power output. Within the framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics such a direct comparison is not possible for refrigerators, however, our study indicates that, f…
This paper concludes a three-Part series on the limits the laws of physics place on the sustained performance of reversible computers. Part I concerned aggregate performance in terms of computational operations per unit time, but neglected to consider interactions among computational sub-units or between computational sub-units and shared resources such as memory or chemical species. Part II extended the analysis to consider the former set of interactions. In this Part we extend the analysis to consider the latter set, with a particular focus on resource distribution in the first half. It is f…
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 discuss a relationship between information geometry and the Glansdorff-Prigogine criterion for stability. For the linear master equation, we found a relation between the line element and the excess entropy production rate. This relation leads to a new perspective of stability in a nonequilibrium steady-state. We also generalize the Glansdorff-Prigogine criterion for stability based on information geometry. Our information-geometric criterion for stability works well for the nonlinear master equation, where the Glansdorff-Prigogine criterion for stability does not work well. We derive a trad…
Achieving the Carnot efficiency at finite power is a challenging problem in heat engines due to the trade-off relation between efficiency and power that holds for general heat engines. It is pointed out that the Carnot efficiency at finite power may be achievable in the vanishing limit of the relaxation times of a system without breaking the trade-off relation. However, any explicit model of heat engines that realizes this scenario for arbitrary temperature difference has not been proposed. Here, we investigate an underdamped Brownian Carnot cycle where the finite-time adiabatic processes conn…
In Part I of this series, the limits on the sustained performance of large reversible computers were investigated and found to scale as $\sqrt{AV}$ where $A$ is the convex bounding surface area of the system and $V$ its internal volume, compared to $A$ for an irreversible computer. This analysis neglected to consider interactions between components of the system however, instead focussing on raw computational power. In this part we extend this analysis to consider synchronisation events such as communication between independent reversible processors subject to a limiting supply of free energy.…
Approaching Carnot Efficiency at Finite Power in an Experimentally Feasible Quantum Heat Engine
The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing (RQC)（理化学研究所量子计算中心）；Inamori Research Institute for Science (InaRIS)（稻盛科学研究所）；Kyushu University（九州大学）
Electromagnetically induced slow-light medium is a promising system for quantum memory devices, but controlling its noise level remains a major challenge to overcome. This work considers the simplest model for such medium, comprised of three-level $Λ$-systems interacting with bosonic bath, and provides a new fundamental trade-off relation in light-matter interaction between the group velocity of light and the Fano factor of photon current due to radiative transitions. Considering the steady state limits of a newly derived Lindblad-type equation, we find that the Fano factor of the photon curre…
Producing a large current typically requires large dissipation, as is the case in electric conduction, where Joule heating is proportional to the square of the current. Stochastic thermodynamics offers a framework to study nonequilibrium thermodynamics of small fluctuating systems, and quite recently, microscopic derivations and universal understanding of the trade-off relation between the current and dissipation have been put forward. Here we establish a universal framework clarifying how quantum coherence affects the trade-off between the current and dissipation: a proper use of coherence en…
