Underdamped stochastic thermodynamic engines in contact with a heat bath with arbitrary temperature profile.

Movilla Miangolarra, Olga; Fu, Rui; Taghvaei, Amirhossein; Chen, Yongxin; Georgiou, Tryphon T · Phys Rev E · 2021

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

We study thermodynamic processes in contact with a heat bath that may have an arbitrary time-varying periodic temperature profile. Within the framework of stochastic thermodynamics, and for models of thermodynamic engines in the idealized case of underdamped particles in the low-friction regime subject to a harmonic potential, we derive explicit bounds as well as optimal control protocols that draw maximum power and achieve maximum efficiency at any specified level of power.