Non-Markovian effect on quantum Otto engine: -Role of system--reservoir interaction-

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-Markovian effects and system-reservoir interactions influence work extraction in a quantum Otto engine, revealing the importance of including interaction energy and non-Markovian dynamics for accurate thermodynamic analysis.

Contribution

It demonstrates that considering interaction energy and non-Markovian effects is crucial for understanding work extraction and thermodynamics in finite-time quantum Otto engines.

Findings

Interaction energy is finite and negative, affecting work calculations.

Energy backflow can enhance work extraction.

The Carnot theorem remains valid when including interaction energy.

Abstract

We study a limit cycle of a quantum Otto engine whose each cycle consists of two finite-time quantum isochoric (heating or cooling) processes and two quantum adiabatic work-extracting processes. Considering a two-level system as a working substance that weakly interacts with two reservoirs comprising an infinite number of bosons, we investigate the non-Markovian effect (short-time behavior of the reduced dynamics in the quantum isochoric processes (QIPs)) on work extraction after infinite repetition of the cycles. We focus on the parameter region where energy transferred to the reservoir can come back to the system in a short-time regime, which we call energy backflow to show partial quantum-mechanical reversibility. As a situation completely different from macroscopic thermodynamics, we find that the interaction energy is finite and negative by evaluating the average energy change of the reservoir during the QIPs by means of the full-counting statistics, corresponding to the two-point measurements. The feature leads us to the following findings: (1) the Carnot theorem is consistent with a definition of work including the interaction energy, although the commonly used definition of work excluding the interaction leads to a serious conflict with the thermodynamic law, and (2) the energy backflow can increase the work extraction. Our findings show that we need to pay attention to the interaction energy in designing a quantum Otto engine operated in a finite time, which requires us to include the non-Markovian effect, even when the system-reservoir interaction is weak.