Thermodynamic geometry of ideal quantum gases : a general framework and a geometric picture of BEC-enhanced heat engines

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2023-04-01

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en

Pages

21
1-21

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New Journal of Physics, Volume 25, issue 4

Abstract

Thermodynamic geometry provides a physically transparent framework to describe thermodynamic processes in meso- and micro-scale systems that are driven by slow variations of external control parameters. Focusing on periodic driving for thermal machines, we extend this framework to ideal quantum gases. To this end, we show that the standard approach of equilibrium physics, where a grand-canonical ensemble is used to model a canonical one by fixing the mean particle number through the chemical potential, can be extended to the slow driving regime in a thermodynamically consistent way. As a key application of our theory, we use a Lindblad-type quantum master equation to work out a dynamical model of a quantum many-body engine using a harmonically trapped Bose-gas. Our results provide a geometric picture of the Bose-Einstein condensate-induced power enhancement that was previously predicted for this type of engine on the basis of an endoreversible model (Myers et al 2022 New J. Phys. 24 025001). Using an earlier derived universal trade-off relation between power and efficiency as a benchmark, we further show that the Bose-gas engine can deliver significantly more power at given efficiency than an equally large collection of single-body engines. Our work paves the way for a more general thermodynamic framework that makes it possible to systematically assess the impact of quantum many-body effects on the performance of thermal machines.

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Funding Information: K B acknowledges support from the University of Nottingham through a Nottingham Research Fellowship. This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [Grant Number MR/S034714/1]; and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [Grant Number EP/V031201/1]. K S was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JP19H05603 and JP19H05791). T P was supported by the Academy of Finland (Grant Number 312057) and the Nokia Industrial Doctoral School in Quantum Technology Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.

Keywords

Bose-Einstein condensate, quantum heat engines, quantum thermodynamics, thermodynamic geometry

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Citation

Eglinton, J, Pyhäranta, T, Saito, K & Brandner, K 2023, ' Thermodynamic geometry of ideal quantum gases : a general framework and a geometric picture of BEC-enhanced heat engines ', New Journal of Physics, vol. 25, no. 4, 043014, pp. 1-21 . https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/acc966