Quantum heat engine with continuum working medium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantum heat engine with a continuum working medium, analyzing its efficiency and behavior across temperature ranges, revealing similarities and differences with two-level quantum heat engines.

Contribution

It presents a novel quantum heat engine model with a continuum medium and analyzes its thermodynamic properties and efficiency.

Findings

Engine behaves like two-level systems at temperature extremes

Efficiency is derived and discussed across temperature ranges

Operates differently in intermediate temperature regimes

Abstract

We introduce a new quantum heat engine, in which the working medium is a quantum system with a discrete level and a continuum. Net work done by this engine is calculated and discussed. The results show that this quantum heat engine behaves like the two-level quantum heat engine in both the high-temperature and the low-temperature limits, but it operates differently in temperatures between them. The efficiency of this quantum heat engine is also presented and discussed.