The Quantum Otto Heat Engine with a relativistically moving thermal bath

TL;DR

This paper studies a quantum Otto heat engine with a relativistically moving thermal bath, analyzing how bath velocity affects work, efficiency, and power in different temperature regimes using quantum thermodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of relativistic motion of the heat bath on the efficiency and work output of a quantum Otto engine, considering different working media.

Findings

Maximum efficiency depends only on energy gap ratio.

Efficiency at maximum power decreases with bath velocity.

Efficiency at maximum power varies with the working medium.

Abstract

We investigate the quantum thermodynamic cycle of a quantum heat engine carrying out an Otto thermodynamic cycle. We use the thermal properties of a moving heat bath with relativistic velocity with respect to the cold bath. As a working medium, we use a two-level system and a harmonic oscillator that interact with a moving heat bath and a static cold bath. In the current work, the quantum heat engine is studied in the high and low temperatures regime. Using quantum thermodynamics and the theory of open quantum system we obtain the total produced work, the efficiency and the efficiency at maximum power. The maximum efficiency of the Otto quantum heat engine depends only on the ratio of the minimum and maximum energy gaps. On the contrary, the efficiency at maximum power and the extracted work decreases with the velocity since the motion of the heat bath has an energy cost for the quantum heat engine. Furthermore, the efficiency at maximum power depends on the nature of the working medium.