Adaptive heat engine

TL;DR

This paper introduces an adaptive heat engine model that self-adjusts to environmental conditions through feedback, eliminating the need for external control and enabling the use of unknown resources.

Contribution

It presents a novel adaptive heat engine framework that self-tunes to thermal baths via feedback, reducing external intervention and accommodating unknown resources.

Findings

Engine adapts to thermal baths without external control

Thermodynamic costs of adaptation are quantified

Informational constraints are identified for successful adaptation

Abstract

A major limitations for many heat engines is that their functioning demands on-line control, and/or an external fitting between environmental parameters (e.g. temperatures of thermal baths) and internal parameters of the engine. We study a model for an adaptive heat engine, where---due to feedback from the functional part---the engine's structure adapts to given thermal baths. Hence no on-line control and no external fitting are needed. The engine can employ unknown resources, it can also adapt to results of its own functioning that makes the bath temperatures closer. We determine thermodynamic costs of adaptation and relate them to the prior information available about the environment. We also discuss informational constraints on the structure-function interaction that are necessary for adaptation.