Thermal noise engines

TL;DR

This paper introduces electrical heat engines based on Johnson-Nyquist noise, utilizing resistors and capacitors, capable of achieving Carnot efficiency without traditional thermodynamic components.

Contribution

It presents a novel class of noise-driven electrical engines that operate without gases or phase transitions, using nanoscale components and demonstrating theoretical maximum efficiency.

Findings

Engine size around 10 nanometers is optimal.

Power output estimated at 0.4 Watt for a 2.5x2.5 cm wafer.

Both regular and coherent engine modes can reach Carnot efficiency.

Abstract

Electrical heat engines driven by the Johnson-Nyquist noise of resistors are introduced. They utilize Coulomb's law and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem of statistical physics that is the reverse phenomenon of heat dissipation in a resistor. No steams, gases, liquids, photons, combustion, phase transition, or exhaust/pollution are present here. In these engines, instead of heat reservoirs, cylinders, pistons and valves, resistors, capacitors and switches are the building elements. For the best performance, a large number of parallel engines must be integrated to run in a synchronized fashion and the characteristic size of the elementary engine must be at the 10 nanometers scale. At room temperature, in the most idealistic case, a two-dimensional ensemble of engines of 25 nanometer characteristic size integrated on a 2.5x2.5 cm silicon wafer with 12 Celsius temperature difference between the warm-source and the cold-sink would produce a specific power of about 0.4 Watt. Regular and coherent (correlated-cylinder states) versions are shown and both of them can work in either four-stroke or two-stroke modes. The coherent engines have properties that correspond to coherent quantum heat engines without the presence of quantum coherence. In the idealistic case, all these engines have Carnot efficiency, which is the highest possible efficiency of any heat engine, without violating the second law of thermodynamics.