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arXiv:1704.05216 · Physical review. E

Quantum Otto engine with exchange coupling in the presence of level degeneracy

Venu Mehta, Ramandeep S. Johal

Published Sep 8, 2017• 48 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider a quasistatic quantum Otto cycle using two effectively two-level systems with degeneracy in the excited state. The systems are coupled through isotropic exchange interaction of strength J>0, in the presence of an external magnetic field B which is varied during the cycle. We prove the positive work condition and show that level degeneracy can act as a thermodynamic resource, so that a larger amount of work can be extracted than in the nondegenerate case, both with and without coupling. We also derive an upper bound for the efficiency of the cycle. This bound is the same as derived for a system of coupled spin-1/2 particles [G. Thomas and R. S. Johal, Phys. Rev. E 83, 031135 (2011)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.83.031135], i.e., without degeneracy, and depends only on the control parameters of the Hamiltonian, being independent of the level degeneracy and the reservoir temperatures.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.96.032110

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We consider a quasistatic quantum Otto cycle using two effectively two-level systems with degeneracy in the excited state. The systems are coupled through isotropic exchange interaction of strength J>0, in the presence of an external magnetic field B which is varied during the cycle. We prove the positive work condition and show that level degeneracy can act as a thermodynamic resource, so that a larger amount of work can be extracted than in the nondegenerate case, both with and without coupling. We also derive an upper bound for the efficiency of the cycle. This bound is the same as derived for a system of coupled spin-1/2 particles [G. Thomas and R. S. Johal, Phys. Rev. E 83, 031135 (2011)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.83.031135], i.e., without degeneracy, and depends only on the control parameters of the Hamiltonian, being independent of the level degeneracy and the reservoir temperatures.
Quantum thermal machines make use of non-classical thermodynamic resources, one of which include interactions between elements of the quantum working medium. In this paper, we examine the performance of a quasi-static quantum Otto engine based on two spins of arbitrary magnitudes subject to an external magnetic field and coupled via an isotropic Heisenberg exchange interaction. It has been shown earlier that the said interaction provides an enhancement of cycle efficiency, with an upper bound that is tighter than the Carnot efficiency. However, the necessary conditions governing engine performance and the relevant upper bound for efficiency are unknown for the general case of arbitrary spin magnitudes. By analyzing extreme case scenarios, we formulate heuristics to infer the necessary conditions for an engine with uncoupled as well as coupled spin model. These conditions lead us to a connection between performance of quantum heat engines and the notion of majorization. Furthermore, the study of complete Otto cycles inherent in the average cycle also yields interesting insights into the average performance.
We study the one-dimensional isotropic Heisenberg model of two spin-1/2 systems as a quantum heat engine. The engine undergoes a four-step Otto cycle where the two adiabatic branches involve changing the external magnetic field at a fixed value of the coupling constant. We find conditions for the engine efficiency to be higher than in the uncoupled model; in particular, we find an upper bound which is tighter than the Carnot bound. A domain of parameter values is pointed out which was not feasible in the interaction-free model. Locally, each spin seems to cause a flow of heat in a direction opposite to the global temperature gradient. This feature is explained by an analysis of the local effective temperature of the spins.
The concept of majorization is explored as a tool to characterize the performance of a quantum Otto engine in the quasistatic regime. For a working substance in the form of a single spin of arbitrary magnitude, majorization yields a necessary and sufficient condition for the operation of the Otto engine, provided the canonical distribution of the working medium at the hot reservoir is majorized by its canonical distribution at the cold reservoir. We extend our analysis for two scenarios: a three-level atom and a bipartite system consisting of spin 1/2 interacting with an arbitrary spin via an isotropic Heisenberg exchange interaction. For both these cases, we find that while a majorization condition implies positive work extraction, it only yields sufficient conditions for the engine operation. Finally, we study the local thermodynamics of spins in the case of the bipartite system and infer an upper bound on the quantum Otto efficiency using the majorization relation.
In this paper, we analyze the total work extracted and the efficiency of the magnetic Otto cycle in its classic and quantum versions. As a general result, we found that the work and efficiency of the classical engine is always greater than or equal to its quantum counterpart, independent of the working substance. In the classical case, this is due to the fact that the working substance is always in thermodynamic equilibrium at each point of the cycle, maximizing the energy extracted in the adiabatic paths. We apply this analysis to the case of a two-level system, finding that the work and efficiency in both the Otto's quantum and classical cycles are identical, regardless of the working substance, and we obtain similar results for a multilevel system where a linear relationship between the spectrum of energies of the working substance and the external magnetic field is fulfilled. Finally, we show an example of a three-level system in which we compare two zones in the entropy diagram as a function of temperature and magnetic field to find which is the most efficient region when performing a thermodynamic cycle. This work provides a practical way to look for temperature and magnetic field zones in the entropy diagram that can maximize the power extracted from an Otto magnetic engine.
Algebraic methods for solving time-dependent Hamiltonians are used to investigate the performance of quantum thermal machines. We investigate the thermodynamic properties of an engine formed by two coupled qubits, performing an Otto cycle. The thermal interaction occurs with two baths at different temperatures, while work is associated with the interaction with an arbitrary time-dependent magnetic field that varies in intensity and direction. For the coupling, we consider the 1D isotropic Heisenberg model, which allows us to describe the system by means of the irreducible representation of the su(2)\mathrm{su}(2)su(2) Lie algebra within the triplet subspace. We also inspect different settings of the temperatures and frequencies of the cycle, and investigate the corresponding operation regimes. We describe how these regimes can change with the speed of the protocol. Finally, we compare the weak and strong coupling regimes, and conclude that for the weak case the efficiency is optimal and can surpass the value of the classical Otto cycle. For low temperatures of the heat baths, we show that losses due to quantum friction are reduced in the strong coupling limit.
We study the performance of a quantum Otto heat engine with two spins coupled by a Heisenberg interaction, taking into account not only the mean values of work and efficiency but also their fluctuations. We first show that, for this system, the output work and its fluctuations are directly related to the magnetization and magnetic susceptibility of the system at equilibrium with either heat bath. We analyze the regions where the work extraction can be done with low relative fluctuation for a given range of temperatures, while still achieving an efficiency higher than that of a single spin system heat engine. In particular, we find that, due to the presence of "idle" levels, an increase in the interspin coupling can either increase or decrease fluctuations, depending on the other parameters. In all cases, however, we find that the relative fluctuations in work or efficiency remain large, implying that this microscopic engine is not very reliable as a source of work.