Jacques Arnaud, Laurent Chusseau, Fabrice Philippe
Physical Review E 77, 061102, 03/06/2008
ABSTRACT
Quantum heat engines employ as working agents multilevel systems instead of classical gases. We show that under some conditions quantum heat engines are equivalent to a series of reservoirs at different altitudes containing balls of various weights. A cycle consists of picking up at random a ball from one reservoir and carrying it to the next, thereby performing or absorbing some work. In particular, quantum heat engines, employing two-level atoms as working agents, are modeled by reservoirs containing balls of weight 0 or 1. The mechanical model helps us prove that the maximum efficiency of quantum heat engines is the Carnot efficiency. Heat pumps and negative temperatures are considered.
LIEN VERS L’ARTICLE : MECHANICAL EQUIVALENT OF QUANTUM HEAT ENGINES
Non thermal fuels have been considered for quantum heat engines. The idea is to increase the energy content of the hot bath without increasing its entropy. This can be achieved by employing coherence
Continuous quantum engines are the quantum analogues of turbines . The work output mechanism is coupling to an external periodic field, typically the electromagnetic field. Thus the heat engine is a model for a laser .