An implementation of quantum absorption chillers with three qubits has been recently proposed that is ideally able to reach the Carnot performance regime. Here we study the working efficiency of such self-contained refrigerators, adopting a consistent treatment of dissipation effects. We demonstrate that the coefficient of performance at maximum cooling power is upper bounded by 3/4 of the Carnot performance. The result is independent of the details of the system and the equilibrium temperatures of the external baths. We provide design prescriptions that saturate the bound in the limit of a large difference between the operating temperatures. Our study suggests that delocalized dissipation, which must be taken into account for a proper modeling of the machine-baths interaction, is a fundamental source of irreversibility which prevents the refrigerator from approaching the Carnot performance arbitrarily closely in practice. The potential role of quantum correlations in the operation of these machines is also investigated.
An implementation of quantum absorption chillers with three qubits has been recently proposed that is ideally able to reach the Carnot performance regime. Here we study the working efficiency of such self-contained refrigerators, adopting a consistent treatment of dissipation effects. We demonstrate that the coefficient of performance at maximum cooling power is upper bounded by 3/4 of the Carnot performance. The result is independent of the details of the system and the equilibrium temperatures of the external baths. We provide design prescriptions that saturate the bound in the limit of a large difference between the operating temperatures. Our study suggests that delocalized dissipation, which must be taken into account for a proper modeling of the machine-baths interaction, is a fundamental source of irreversibility which prevents the refrigerator from approaching the Carnot performance arbitrarily closely in practice. The potential role of quantum correlations in the operation of these machines is also investigated.
Brunner et al. [Phys. Rev. E 85 (2012) 05111] have claimed that, "essentially only the smallest machines can approach Carnot efficiency". We have verified this claim by raising self-contained four-qubit quantum refrigerator, and we have shown that according to concepts of virtual qubit, it can reach the maximum efficiency in other words Carnot efficiency. But its efficiency, such as self-contained three-qubit quantum refrigerator is not universal. We also investigated a special case of self-contained four-qubit quantum refrigerator, in other words self-contained four-qubit quantum refrigerator with two hot baths in the same temperature. We demonstrated that its efficiency has the form as efficiency of a self-contained three-qubit quantum refrigerator. In other words, from the perspective of efficiency, this particular model is equivalent to self-contained three-qubit quantum refrigerator. We also demonstrated the efficiency of this particular model in the Carnot limit that is independent from details of system model, but only depends on the environmental temperatures. Also, we raised a system that consists of n-qubit which acts as a refrigerator. According to self-contained four-qubit quantum refrigerator, we also investigated a special case of self-contained n-qubit quantum refrigerator — a self-contained n-qubit quantum refrigerator with (n - 2) baths in the same temperature. We considered the three different special situations of the n-qubit refrigerator and demonstrated their efficiency in three different situations which has the form as efficiency of self-contained three-qubit quantum refrigerator. In this special situations, (n - 2) qubits are in thermal contact with isothermal heat baths.
The study of nanoscopic thermal devices attracts an increasing attention, not only because of their key role in understanding the emergence of thermodynamics from quantum theory, but also for the potential use of quantum-mechanical thermal cycles, especially refrigerators, in quantum technologies. This thesis, is devoted to the performance optimization of autonomous (heat-driven) refrigerators. For a quantum refrigerator, one has a full microscopic description of the simple system serving as a working medium, and of its interaction with the external heat baths. This enables a consistent `finite-time? thermodynamic analysis, not relying on any phenomenological assumptions about the leading sources of irreversibility, and allows to establish arguably general performance bounds, essential to benchmark the operation of realistic devices. In particular, tight and model-independent upper bounds for the coefficient of performance at maximum power, are derived here for a class of strongly coupled refrigerators, and seen to hold more generally for other types of heat and power-driven cycles. Remarkably, these ultimate limitations only depend on the particulars of the system-baths interaction at the interface with the object to be cooled. Strategies might be then defined so as to saturate those limits: It is shown how the working medium of the refrigerator may be, for instance, scaled up into a parallel multi-stage configuration, resembling that of macroscopic multi-effect absorption chillers, as a means to increase its cooling power. Similarly, by applying reservoir engineering techniques on selected transitions between the energy states of the working medium, one can mimic exploitable non-equilibrium fluctuations in the baths, capable of boosting the overall power and COP beyond what would be otherwise allowed by the second law of thermodynamics. In this way, heat-driven chillers could be set to compete on a equal footing with the best power-driven refrigerators.
The derivation of general performance benchmarks is important in the design of highly optimized heat engines and refrigerators. To obtain them, one may model phenomenologically the leading sources of irreversibility ending up with results that are model independent, but limited in scope. Alternatively, one can take a simple physical system realizing a thermodynamic cycle and assess its optimal operation from a complete microscopic description. We follow this approach in order to derive the coefficient of performance at maximum cooling rate for any endoreversible quantum refrigerator. At striking variance with the universality of the optimal efficiency of heat engines, we find that the cooling performance at maximum power is crucially determined by the details of the specific system-bath interaction mechanism. A closed analytical benchmark is found for endoreversible refrigerators weakly coupled to unstructured bosonic heat baths: an ubiquitous case study in quantum thermodynamics.
Understanding the thermodynamics of quantum systems is of fundamental importance, from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. A growing interest has been recently given to small self-contained quantum thermal machines, the functioning of which requires no external source of work or control, but only incoherent interactions with thermal baths. The simplicity of such machines makes them and ideal test-bed for exploring quantum thermodynamics. So far, however, the importance of quantum effects in these machines has remained elusive. Here we show that entanglement, the paradigmatical quantum effect, plays a fundamental role in small self-contained quantum refrigerators, as it can enhance cooling and energy transport -- except notably when the efficiency is close to the Carnot limit. Hence a truly quantum refrigerator can outperform a classical one. Furthermore, the amount of entanglement alone quantifies the enhancement in cooling. More generally, our work shows that entanglement opens new possibilities in thermodynamics.
Small self-contained quantum thermal machines function without external source of work or control but using only incoherent interactions with thermal baths. Here we investigate the role of entanglement in a small self-contained quantum refrigerator. We first show that entanglement is detrimental as far as efficiency is concerned-fridges operating at efficiencies close to the Carnot limit do not feature any entanglement. Moving away from the Carnot regime, we show that entanglement can enhance cooling and energy transport. Hence, a truly quantum refrigerator can outperform a classical one. Furthermore, the amount of entanglement alone quantifies the enhancement in cooling.
We consider a quantum endoreversible Carnot engine cycle and its inverse operation–Carnot refrigeration cycle, working between a hot bath of inverse temperature βh and a cold bath at inverse temperature βc. For the engine model, the hot bath is constructed to be squeezed, whereas for the refrigeration cycle, the cold bath is set to be squeezed. In the high-temperature limit, we analyze efficiency at maximum power and coefficient of performance at maximum figure of merit, revealing the effects of the times allocated to two thermal-contact and two adiabatic processes on the machine performance. We show that, when the total time spent along the two adiabatic processes is negligible, the efficiency at maximum power reaches its upper bound, which can be analytically expressed in terms of squeezing parameter r: ηana∗=1−sech[2r]1−ηC, with the Carnot efficiency ηC=1−βh/βc and the coefficient of performance at maximum figure of merit is bounded from the upper side by the analytical function: εana∗=1+εCsech[2r](1+εC)−εC−1, where εC=βh/(βc−βh).