2017/08/31 by Viktor Holubec, Artem Ryabov
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Brownian motion #Carnot cycle #Computer science #Control theory (sociology) #Heat engine #Mathematics #Maximum power principle #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Nonlinear system #Physics #Power (physics) #Quantum mechanics #Quasistatic process #Statistical physics #Statistics #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.96.062107
published as Phys. Rev. E 96, 062107 (2017) · 10 pages, 6 figures
openalex publication_date 2017/12/05 · arxiv created 2018/04/05 · arxiv updated 2018/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We discuss the possibility of reaching the Carnot efficiency by heat engines (HEs) out of quasistatic conditions at nonzero power output. We focus on several models widely used to describe the performance of actual HEs. These models comprise quantum thermoelectric devices, linear irreversible HEs, minimally nonlinear irreversible HEs, HEs working in the regime of low-dissipation, overdamped stochastic HEs and an underdamped stochastic HE. Although some of these HEs can reach the Carnot efficiency at nonzero and even diverging power, the magnitude of this power is always negligible compared to the maximum power attainable in these systems. We provide conditions for attaining the Carnot efficiency in the individual models and explain practical aspects connected with reaching the Carnot efficiency at large power output. Furthermore, we show how our findings can be tested in practice using a standard Brownian HE realizable with available micromanipulation techniques.