Cooling condition for multilevel quantum absorption refrigerators

TL;DR

This paper develops a formal cooling condition for multilevel quantum absorption refrigerators, accounting for non-idealities like heat leakage, aiding the design of more effective quantum thermal machines.

Contribution

It introduces a full-counting statistics approach to derive a feasible formal cooling condition for generic multilevel quantum refrigerators with lossy processes.

Findings

Derived a formal cooling condition applicable to non-ideal quantum refrigerators

Analyzed a three-level model with heat leakage and pathway competition

Identified the cooling window for imperfect thermal machines

Abstract

Models for quantum absorption refrigerators serve as test beds for exploring concepts and developing methods in quantum thermodynamics. Here, we depart from the minimal, ideal design and consider a generic multilevel model for a quantum absorption refrigerator, which potentially suffers from lossy processes. Based on a full-counting statistics approach, we derive a formal cooling condition for the refrigerator, which can be feasibly evaluated analytically and numerically. We exemplify our approach on a three-level model for a quantum absorption refrigerator that suffers from different forms of non-ideality (heat leakage, competition between different cooling pathways), and examine the cooling current with different designs. This study assists in identifying the cooling window of imperfect thermal machines.