IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms11895.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The power of a critical heat engine

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Campisi

    (NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore & Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR)

  • Rosario Fazio

    (NEST, Scuola Normale Superiore & Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR
    ICTP)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Campisi & Rosario Fazio, 2016. "The power of a critical heat engine," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-5, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11895
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11895
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11895
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms11895?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Victor Mukherjee & Uma Divakaran, 2024. "The promises and challenges of many-body quantum technologies: A focus on quantum engines," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-3, December.
    2. Sudeesh Krishnamurthy & Rajesh Ganapathy & A. K. Sood, 2023. "Overcoming power-efficiency tradeoff in a micro heat engine by engineered system-bath interactions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Long, Rui & Liu, Zhichun & Liu, Wei, 2018. "Performance analysis for minimally nonlinear irreversible refrigerators at finite cooling power," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 496(C), pages 137-146.
    4. Huang, X.L. & Yu, Qian & Zhang, H.W. & Zhao, S.Q. & Wu, S.L., 2021. "Thermoelectric generator with finite-sized reservoir," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 562(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11895. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.