Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 24: Poster II

Q 24.23: Poster

Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 17:00–19:00, KG I Foyer

The smallest possible heat engine — James Anglin and •Viviane Bauer — Landesforschungszentrum OPTIMAS, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany

Microscopic engines are a research focus in both biochemistry and nanotechnology. While other forms of engines besides heat engines are also being considered, the fully microscopic limit of a heat engine is a fundamentally important problem in physics. What happens to thermodynamics when not only the working fluid and mechanism of a heat engine are microscopic, but even the hot and cold reservoirs are? We have found a theoretical model for such fully microscopic heat engines in the form of two coupled three-mode Bose-Hubbard systems (two trimers). Such subsystems can equilibrate in chaotic ergodization. If coupled together they exhibit energy and particle transport: the processes, which heat engines exploit to perform work. We can also couple a weight to the Bose-Hubbard system, in a way which uses this transport to lift the weight. Moreover we have identified a dynamic mechanism which can stabilise this lifting process. The result is a system which operates just like a heat engine, except for being fully microscopic. The structure of coupled chaotic subsystems both supports and requires an understanding of the fully microscopic heat engine in terms of open-system control.

Keywords: Microscopic engine; Non-integrable dynamics; Chaos; Ergodization; Bosons