2016/02/29 by Luis A. Correa, Luis Alfonso Correa, Mohammad Mehboudi
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Heat exchanger #Heat pump #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Spin (aerodynamics) #Statistical physics #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.stat-mech #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/e18040141
published as Entropy 2016, 18, 141 · 10 pages, 3 figures; revised version; to appear in Entropy, Special Issue "Quantum Thermodynamics"
arxiv created 2016/04/08 · openalex publication_date 2016/04/15 · arxiv updated 2016/04/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Once in its non-equilibrium steady state, a nanoscale system coupled to several heat baths may be thought of as a “quantum heat pump”. Depending on the direction of its stationary heat flows, it may function as, e.g., a refrigerator or a heat transformer. These continuous heat devices can be arbitrarily complex multipartite systems, and yet, their working principle is always the same: they are made up of several elementary three-level stages operating in parallel. As a result, it is possible to devise external “black-box” testing strategies to learn about their functionality and performance regardless of any internal details. In particular, one such heat pump can be tested by coupling a two-level spin to one of its “contact transitions”. The steady state of this external probe contains information about the presence of heat leaks and internal dissipation in the device and, also, about the direction of its steady-state heat currents. Provided that the irreversibility of the heat pump is low, one can further estimate its coefficient of performance. These techniques may find applications in the emerging field of quantum thermal engineering, as they facilitate the diagnosis and design optimization of complex thermodynamic cycles.