511 research outputs found
Quantum bath refrigeration towards absolute zero: unattainability principle challenged
A minimal model of a quantum refrigerator (QR), i.e. a periodically
phase-flipped two-level system permanently coupled to a finite-capacity bath
(cold bath) and an infinite heat dump (hot bath), is introduced and used to
investigate the cooling of the cold bath towards the absolute zero (T=0).
Remarkably, the temperature scaling of the cold-bath cooling rate reveals that
it does not vanish as T->0 for certain realistic quantized baths, e.g. phonons
in strongly disordered media (fractons) or quantized spin-waves in ferromagnets
(magnons). This result challenges Nernst's third-law formulation known as the
unattainability principle
Entropy and Its Quantum Thermodynamical Implication for Anomalous Spectral Systems
The state function entropy and its quantum thermodynamical implication for
two typical dissipative systems with anomalous spectral densities are studied
by investigating on their low-temperature quantum behavior. In all cases it is
found that the entropy decays quickly and vanishes as the temperature
approaches zero. This reveals a good conformity with the third law of
thermodynamics and provides another evidence for the validity of fundamental
thermodynamical laws in the quantum dissipative region.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Transient energy excitation in shortcuts to adiabaticity for the time dependent harmonic oscillator
There is recently a surge of interest to cut down the time it takes to change
the state of a quantum system adiabatically. We study for the time-dependent
harmonic oscillator the transient energy excitation in speed-up processes
designed to reproduce the initial populations at some predetermined final
frequency and time, providing lower bounds and examples. Implications for the
limits imposed to the process times and for the principle of unattainability of
the absolute zero, in a single expansion or in quantum refrigerator cycles, are
drawn.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
The Quantum Refrigerator: The quest for absolute zero
The scaling of the optimal cooling power of a reciprocating quantum
refrigerator is sought as a function of the cold bath temperature as . The working medium consists of noninteracting particles in a harmonic
potential. Two closed-form solutions of the refrigeration cycle are analyzed,
and compared to a numerical optimization scheme, focusing on cooling toward
zero temperature. The optimal cycle is characterized by linear relations
between the heat extracted from the cold bath, the energy level spacing of the
working medium and the temperature. The scaling of the optimal cooling rate is
found to be proportional to giving a dynamical interpretation to
the third law of thermodynamics
Universal restrictions to the conversion of heat into work derived from the analysis of the Nernst theorem as a uniform limit
We revisit the relationship between the Nernst theorem and the Kelvin-Planck
statement of the second law. We propose that the exchange of entropy uniformly
vanishes as the temperature goes to zero. The analysis of this assumption shows
that is equivalent to the fact that the compensation of a Carnot engine scales
with the absorbed heat so that the Nernst theorem should be embedded in the
statement of the second law.
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Se analiza la relaci{\'o}n entre el teorema de Nernst y el enunciado de
Kelvin-Planck del segundo principio de la termodin{\'a}mica. Se{\~n}alamos el
hecho de que el cambio de entrop{\'\i}a tiende uniformemente a cero cuando la
temperatura tiende a cero. El an{\'a}lisis de esta hip{\'o}tesis muestra que es
equivalente al hecho de que la compensaci{\'o}n de una m{\'a}quina de Carnot
escala con el calor absorbido del foco caliente, de forma que el teorema de
Nernst puede derivarse del enunciado del segundo principio.Comment: 8pp, 4 ff. Original in english. Also available translation into
spanish. Twocolumn format. RevTe
Decoupling electrocaloric effect from Joule heating in a solid state cooling device
We report a heat dynamics analysis of the electrocaloric effect (ECE) in
commercial multilayer capacitors based on BaTiO3 dielectric, a promising
candidate for applications as a solid state cooling device. Direct measurements
of the time evolution of the sample's temperature changes under different
applied voltages allow us to decouple the contributions from Joule heating and
from the ECE. Heat balance equations were used to model the thermal coupling
between different parts of the system. Fingerprints of Joule heating and the
ECE could be resolved at different time scales. We argue that Joule heating and
the thermal coupling of the device to the environment must be carefully taken
in to account in future developments of refrigeration technologies employing
the ECE.Comment: Acepted to be published in Applied Phys. Letters (2011
Low temperature Thermodynamics in the Context of Dissipative Diamagnetism
We revisit here the effect of quantum dissipation on the much - studied
problem of Landau diamagnetism, and analyze the results in the light of the
third law of thermodynamics. The case of an additional parabolic potential is
separately assessed. We find that dissipation arising from strong coupling of
the system to its environment qualitatively alters the low-temperature
thermodynamic attributes such as the entropy and the specific heat
Spacetime and vacuum as seen from Moscow
An extended text of the talk given at the conference ``2001: A Spacetime
Odyssey'', to be published in the Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference of
the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
21-25 May 2001, M.J. Duff and J.T. Liu eds., World Scientific, Singapore, 2002;
and of Historical Lecture ``Vacuum as seen from Moscow'' at the CERN Summer
School, 10 August, 2001. Contents: Introduction; Pomeranchuk on vacuum; Landau
on parity, P, and combined parity, CP; Search and discovery of ; "Mirror world"; Zeldovich and cosmological term; QCD vacuum
condensates; Sakharov and baryonic asymmetry of the universe, BAU; Kirzhnits
and phase transitions; Vacuum domain walls; Monopoles, strings, instantons, and
sphalerons; False vacuum; Inflation; Brane and Bulk; Acknowledgments;
References.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
Electronic thermal transport in strongly correlated multilayered nanostructures
The formalism for a linear-response many-body treatment of the electronic
contributions to thermal transport is developed for multilayered
nanostructures. By properly determining the local heat-current operator, it is
possible to show that the Jonson-Mahan theorem for the bulk can be extended to
inhomogeneous problems, so the various thermal-transport coefficient integrands
are related by powers of frequency (including all effects of vertex corrections
when appropriate). We illustrate how to use this formalism by showing how it
applies to measurements of the Peltier effect, the Seebeck effect, and the
thermal conductance.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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