Quantum Advantage of Thermal Machines with Bose and Fermi Gases

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum gases can function as thermodynamic machines with behaviors influenced by particle statistics, chemical potential, and system dimensions, revealing quantum advantages over classical counterparts.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum thermodynamic framework for gases, highlighting how particle statistics and dimensions affect quantum heat engine and refrigerator performance.

Findings

Distinct behavior of Fermi and Bose gases in one dimension

Quantum statistical effects enable thermodynamic functionalities

Dimensionality influences quantum thermodynamic signatures

Abstract

In this article, we show that a quantum gas, a collection of massive, non-interacting, indistinguishable quantum particles can be realized as a thermodynamic machine as an artifact of energy quantization and hence bears no classical analog. Such a thermodynamic machine depends on the statistics of the particles, the chemical potential, and the spatial dimension of the system. Our detailed analysis demonstrates the fundamental features of quantum Stirling cycles from the viewpoint of particle statistics and system dimensions that helps us to realize desired quantum heat engines and refrigerators by exploiting the role of quantum statistical mechanics. In particular, a clear distinction between the behavior of a Fermi gas and a Bose gas is observed in one dimension than in higher dimensions, solely due to the innate differences in their particle statistics indicating the conspicuous role of a quantum thermodynamic signature in lower dimensions.