{
  "id": "1907.06780",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2019-07-15T22:37:39.000Z",
  "updated": "2019-07-15T22:37:39.000Z",
  "title": "Thermodynamic Geometry of Microscopic Heat Engines",
  "authors": [
    "Kay Brandner",
    "Keiji Saito"
  ],
  "comment": "6+3 pages, 2 figures",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "cond-mat.mes-hall",
    "quant-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "We develop a geometric framework to describe the thermodynamics of microscopic heat engines driven by slow periodic temperature variations and modulations of a mechanical control parameter. Covering both the classical and the quantum regime, our approach reveals a universal trade-off relation between efficiency and power that follows solely from geometric arguments and holds for any thermodynamically consistent microdynamics. Focusing on Lindblad dynamics, we derive a second bound showing that coherence as a genuine quantum effect inevitably reduces the performance of slow engine cycles regardless of the driving amplitudes. To demonstrate the practical applicability of our results, we work out the example of a single-qubit heat engine, which lies within the range of current solid-state technologies.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2019-07-15T22:37:39.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "thermodynamic geometry",
      "slow periodic temperature variations",
      "genuine quantum effect inevitably reduces",
      "microscopic heat engines driven",
      "universal trade-off relation"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 3,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}