2020/08/07 by Federico Cerisola, Facundo Sapienza, Augusto J. Roncaglia +1
Chemistry · Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Carnot cycle #Computer science #Extraction (chemistry) #Field-Flow Fractionation Techniques #Heat engine #Limit (mathematics) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Mechanical engineering #One shot #Physics #Statistical physics #Thermodynamics #Work (physics) #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.106.034135
published in Physical review. E 106(3), 034135 (American Physical Society)
openalex publication_date 2022/09/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We introduce heat engines working in the nanoregime that allow one to extract a finite amount of deterministic work. Using the resource theory approach to themodynamics, we show that the efficiency of these cycles is strictly smaller than Carnot's, and we associate this difference with a fundamental irreversibility that is present in single-shot transformations. When fluctuations in the extracted work are allowed there is a trade-off between their size and the efficiency. As the size of fluctuations increases so does the efficiency and optimal efficiency is attained for unbounded fluctuations, while a certain amount of deterministic work is drawn from the cycle. Finally, we show that when the working medium is composed of many particles, by creating an amount of correlations between the subsystems that scale logarithmically with their number, Carnot's efficiency can also be approached in the asymptotic limit along with deterministic work extraction.