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arXiv:2403.06065 · Physical Review Research

Single-piston quantum engine

Aleksandr S. Rodin

Published May 16, 2024• 1 citation
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A single-piston quantum engine based on a harmonic oscillator acting as the working fluid is proposed. Using the fact that the interaction between the piston and the oscillator depends on the extent of the oscillator wave function, one can control this interaction by modifying the oscillator temperature. By retracting the piston when the interaction is weak (hot oscillator) and returning it to the original position when the coupling is strong (cold oscillator), useful work can be performed assuming the interaction is attractive. The cycle of the engine is simulated numerically using two different powering protocols: bath and measurement. Using the collision model for the baths, the engine is shown to reach a steady state with positive work output. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.6.023174

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A single-piston quantum engine based on a harmonic oscillator acting as the working fluid is proposed. Using the fact that the interaction between the piston and the oscillator depends on the extent of the oscillator wave function, one can control this interaction by modifying the oscillator temperature. By retracting the piston when the interaction is weak (hot oscillator) and returning it to the original position when the coupling is strong (cold oscillator), useful work can be performed assuming the interaction is attractive. The cycle of the engine is simulated numerically using two different powering protocols: bath and measurement. Using the collision model for the baths, the engine is shown to reach a steady state with positive work output. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
A quantum Otto engine based on a three-dimensional harmonic oscillator is proposed. One of the modes of this oscillator functions as the working fluid, while the other two play the role of baths. The coupling between the working fluid and the baths is controlled using an external central potential. All four strokes of the engine are simulated numerically, exploring the nonadiabatic effects in the compression and expansion phases, as well as the energy transfer during the working fluid's contact with the baths. The efficiency and power of several realizations of the proposed engine are also computed with the former agreeing well with the theoretical predictions for the quantum Otto cycle. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The study of quantum thermodynamics is key to the development of quantum thermal machines. In contrast to most of the previous proposals based on discrete strokes, here we consider a working substance that is permanently coupled to two or more baths at different temperatures and continuously driven. To this end, we investigate parametrically driven quantum harmonic oscillators coupled to heat baths via a collision model. Using a thermodynamically consistent local master equation, we derive the heat flows and power of the working device, which can operate as an engine, refrigerator, or accelerator, and analyze the instantaneous and average efficiencies and coefficients of performance. Studying the regimes of both slow and fast driving of the system, we find that an increased driving frequency can lead to a change of functioning to a dissipator. Finally, we investigate the effect of squeezing one of the thermal baths: it leads to an apparent higher efficiency compared to the corresponding Carnot value of an equilibrium bath with the same temperature and to sustained entanglement between the working substance oscillators in the limit cycle.
In a classic thought experiment, Szilard suggested a heat engine where a single particle, for example an atom or a molecule, is confined in a container coupled to a single heat bath. The container can be separated into two parts by a moveable wall acting as a piston. In a single cycle of the engine, work can be extracted from the information on which side of the piston the particle resides. The work output is consistent with Landauers principle that the erasure of one bit of information costs the entropy kB ln 2, exemplifying the fundamental relation between work, heat and information. Here we apply the concept of the Szilard engine to a fully interacting quantum many-body system. We find that a working medium of a number of bosons (larger or equal two) with attractive interactions is clearly superior to other previously discussed setups. In sharp contrast to the classical case, we find that the average work output increases with the particle number. The highest overshoot occurs for a small but finite temperature, showing an intricate interplay between thermal and quantum effects. We anticipate that our finding will shed new light on the role of information in controlling thermodynamic fluctuations in the deep quantum regime, which are strongly influenced by quantum correlations in interacting systems.
The study of quantum thermodynamics is key to the development of quantum thermal machines. Here we investigate a system of parametrically driven quantum harmonic oscillators coupled to heat baths via a collision model. Using a thermodynamically consistent local master equation, we derive the heat flows and work power of the working device which can operate as an engine or a refrigerator and analyse their instantaneous and averages efficiencies and coefficients of performance. Studying the regimes of both slow and fast driving of the system, we find that an increased driving frequency can lead to a change of functioning to an accelerator or a heater. Finally, we investigate the effect of squeezing one of the thermal baths: it leads to an apparent higher efficiency compared to the corresponding Carnot value of an equilibrium bath with the same temperature and to sustained entanglement between the working substance oscillators in the limit cycle.
Abstract Pistons are elementary components of a wide variety of thermal engines, allowing to convert input fuel into rotational motion. Here, we propose a single-piston engine where the rotational degree of freedom is effectively realized by the flux of a Josephson loop—a quantum rotor—while the working volume corresponds to the effective length of a superconducting resonator. Our autonomous design implements a Carnot cycle, relies solely on standard thermal baths and can be implemented with circuit quantum electrodynamics. We demonstrate how the engine is able to extract a net positive work via its built-in synchronicity using a filter cavity as an effective valve, eliminating the need for external control.
Heat engines constitute the major building blocks of modern technologies. However, conventional heat engines with higher power yield lesser efficiency and vice versa and respect various power-efficiency trade-off relations. This is also assumed to be true for the engines operating in the quantum regime. Here we show that these relations are not fundamental. We introduce quantum heat engines that deliver maximum power with Carnot efficiency in the one-shot finite-size regime. These engines are composed of working systems with a finite number of quantum particles and are restricted to one-shot measurements. The engines operate in a one-step cycle by letting the working system simultaneously interact with hot and cold baths via semilocal thermal operations. By allowing quantum entanglement between its constituents and, thereby, a coherent transfer of heat from hot to cold baths, the engine implements the fastest possible reversible state transformation in each cycle, resulting in maximum power and Carnot efficiency. Finally, we propose a physically realizable engine using quantum optical systems.