Dissipation, Correlation and Lags in Heat Engines

TL;DR

This paper models heat engines as driven multi-partite systems, revealing how dissipation relates to lag and correlations among partitions, with insights demonstrated through a two-qubit quantum gate example.

Contribution

It introduces a framework linking dissipation to lag and correlations in multi-partite heat engines, providing a new perspective on their thermodynamic behavior.

Findings

Dissipation expressed via lag and correlations

Correlations influence heat engine efficiency

Quantum gate example illustrates the interplay

Abstract

By modelling heat engines as driven multi-partite system we show that their dissipation can be expressed in terms of the lag (relative entropy) between the perturbed state of each partition and their equilibrium state, and the correlations that build up among the partitions. We illustrate the rich interplay between correlations and lags with a two-qubit device driven by a quantum gate.