Open Conference Systems, StatPhys 27 Main Conference

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Exactly solvable two-terminal heat engine with asymmetric Onsager coefficients: Origin of the power-efficiency bound
Hyunggyu Park, Jae Sung Lee, Jong-Min Park

##manager.scheduler.building##: Edificio San Jose
##manager.scheduler.room##: Auditorio 1
Date: 2019-07-11 12:30 PM – 12:45 PM
Last modified: 2019-06-10

Abstract


An engine producing a finite power at the ideal (Carnot) efficiency is a dream engine, which is not prohibited by the thermodynamic second law. In 2011, a two-terminal heat engine with asymmetric Onsager coefficients was suggested by Benenti, Saito, and Casati, as a prototypical system to make such a dream come true with non-divergent system parameter values. However, such a system has never been found in spite of many trials. Here, we introduce an exactly solvable two-terminal Brownian heat engine, where asymmetric Onsager coefficients can be realized in the presence of a Lorenz (magnetic) force. Nevertheless, we show that the dream engine regime cannot be accessible even with asymmetric Onsager coefficients, due to an instability keeping the engine from reaching its steady state. This is consistent with recent trade-off relations between the engine power and efficiency, where the (cyclic) steady-state condition is implicitly presumed. We conclude that the inaccessibility to the dream engine is simply originated from the steady-state constraint on the engine.