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arXiv:quant-ph/0311157 · The European Physical Journal D

Quantum heat engines, the second law and Maxwell's daemon

Tien D. Kieu

Published Apr 10, 2006• 106 citations
arXivHTMLPDF
DOI
10.1140/epjd/e2006-00075-5

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In order to describe quantum heat engines, here we systematically study isothermal and isochoric processes for quantum thermodynamic cycles. Based on these results the quantum versions of both the Carnot heat engine and the Otto heat engine are defined without ambiguities. We also study the properties of quantum Carnot and Otto heat engines in comparison with their classical counterparts. Relations and mappings between these two quantum heat engines are also investigated by considering their respective quantum thermodynamic processes. In addition, we discuss the role of Maxwell's demon in quantum thermodynamic cycles. We find that there is no violation of the second law, even in the existence of such a demon, when the demon is included correctly as part of the working substance of the heat engine.
A recently suggested simple model of an open microscopic system interacting with a bath and behaving like an isothermal Maxwell daemon is simplified and treated numerically. Results obtained confirm expectations that the system can, at the cost of thermal energy of the bath, spontaneously and in a cyclic process, pump particles from a particle reservoir to states with even higher energy. This contradicts the usual opinion based on the second law of macroscopic thermodynamics. For this effect, the interaction with the bath cannot be treated as weak. The role of dephasing owing to this interaction is illustrated.