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The power of a critical heat engine
Since its inception about two centuries ago thermodynamics has sparkled continuous interest and fundamental questions. According to the second law no heat engine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The latter can be achieved by the Carnot engine, which however ideally operat...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915125/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27320127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11895 |
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author | Campisi, Michele Fazio, Rosario |
author_facet | Campisi, Michele Fazio, Rosario |
author_sort | Campisi, Michele |
collection | PubMed |
description | Since its inception about two centuries ago thermodynamics has sparkled continuous interest and fundamental questions. According to the second law no heat engine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The latter can be achieved by the Carnot engine, which however ideally operates in infinite time, hence delivers null power. A currently open question is whether the Carnot efficiency can be achieved at finite power. Most of the previous works addressed this question within the Onsager matrix formalism of linear response theory. Here we pursue a different route based on finite-size-scaling theory. We focus on quantum Otto engines and show that when the working substance is at the verge of a second order phase transition diverging energy fluctuations can enable approaching the Carnot point without sacrificing power. The rate of such approach is dictated by the critical indices, thus showing the universal character of our analysis. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4915125 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49151252016-06-29 The power of a critical heat engine Campisi, Michele Fazio, Rosario Nat Commun Article Since its inception about two centuries ago thermodynamics has sparkled continuous interest and fundamental questions. According to the second law no heat engine can have an efficiency larger than Carnot's efficiency. The latter can be achieved by the Carnot engine, which however ideally operates in infinite time, hence delivers null power. A currently open question is whether the Carnot efficiency can be achieved at finite power. Most of the previous works addressed this question within the Onsager matrix formalism of linear response theory. Here we pursue a different route based on finite-size-scaling theory. We focus on quantum Otto engines and show that when the working substance is at the verge of a second order phase transition diverging energy fluctuations can enable approaching the Carnot point without sacrificing power. The rate of such approach is dictated by the critical indices, thus showing the universal character of our analysis. Nature Publishing Group 2016-06-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4915125/ /pubmed/27320127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11895 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Campisi, Michele Fazio, Rosario The power of a critical heat engine |
title | The power of a critical heat engine |
title_full | The power of a critical heat engine |
title_fullStr | The power of a critical heat engine |
title_full_unstemmed | The power of a critical heat engine |
title_short | The power of a critical heat engine |
title_sort | power of a critical heat engine |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915125/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27320127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11895 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT campisimichele thepowerofacriticalheatengine AT faziorosario thepowerofacriticalheatengine AT campisimichele powerofacriticalheatengine AT faziorosario powerofacriticalheatengine |