SAMOP 2023 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 27: Ultra-cold Atoms, Ions and BEC II (joint session A/Q)
Q 27.5: Talk
Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 12:15–12:30, F303
Making statistics work: a quantum engine in the BEC-BCS crossover — •Jennifer Koch1, Keerthy Menon2, Eloisa Cuestas2, Sian Barbosa1, Eric Lutz3, Thomás Fogarty2, Thomas Busch2, and Artur Widera1 — 1Department of Physics and Research Center OPTIMAS, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany — 2OIST Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa, Japan — 3Institute for Theoretical Physics I, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Heat engines convert thermal energy into mechanical work both in the classical and quantum regimes. However, quantum theory offers genuine nonclassical forms of energy, different from heat, which so far have not been exploited in cyclic engines to produce useful work. In this talk, we present the experimental realization of a novel quantum many-body engine fuelled by the energy difference between fermionic and bosonic ensembles of ultracold particles that follows from the Pauli exclusion principle. We employ a harmonically trapped superfluid gas of 6Li atoms close to a magnetic Feshbach resonance which allows us to effectively change the quantum statistics from Bose-Einstein to Fermi-Dirac. We replace the traditional heating and cooling strokes of a quantum Otto cycle by tuning the gas between a Bose-Einstein condensate and a unitary Fermi gas (and back) through a magnetic field. In the talk, we will focus on the quantum nature of such a Pauli engine, which is revealed by contrasting it to a classical thermal engine and to a purely interaction-driven device. Our findings establish quantum statistics as a useful thermodynamic resource for work production.
[1] Koch, J. et al. arXiv: 2209.14202 (2022)