Mechanical equivalent of quantum heat engines

作者：Arnaud Jacques^*; Chusseau Laurent; Philippe Fabrice

来源：Physical Review E, 2008, 77(6): 061102.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevE.77.061102

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.

• 出版日期2008-6