Efficiency of a microscopic heat engine subjected to stochastic resetting

TL;DR

This paper investigates how stochastic resetting affects the efficiency and work output of a microscopic heat engine modeled by a Brownian particle in a harmonic potential, revealing efficiency enhancements and non-monotonic behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a model of a stochastic heat engine with resetting, showing how resetting to the potential minimum improves efficiency and alters thermodynamic responses.

Findings

Resetting to the potential minimum enhances engine efficiency.

Work output exhibits non-monotonic dependence on resetting rate.

Resetting drives the system out of linear response regime.

Abstract

We explore the thermodynamics of stochastic heat engines in presence of stochastic resetting. The set-up comprises an engine whose working substance is a Brownian particle undergoing overdamped Langevin dynamics in a harmonic potential with a time-dependent stiffness, with the dynamics interrupted at random times with a resetting to a fixed location. The effect of resetting to the potential minimum is shown to enhance the efficiency of the engine, while the output work is shown to have a non-monotonic dependence on the rate of resetting. The resetting events are found to drive the system out of linear response regime even for small differences in the bath temperatures. Shifting the reset point from the potential minimum is observed to reduce the engine efficiency. The experimental set-up for the realization of such an engine is briefly discussed.