Extracting Work from a Single Heat Bath via Vanishing Quantum Coherence
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- 7 February 2003
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 299 (5608) , 862-864
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1078955
Abstract
We present here a quantum Carnot engine in which the atoms in the heat bath are given a small bit of quantum coherence. The induced quantum coherence becomes vanishingly small in the high-temperature limit at which we operate and the heat bath is essentially thermal. However, the phase φ, associated with the atomic coherence, provides a new control parameter that can be varied to increase the temperature of the radiation field and to extract work from a single heat bath. The deep physics behind the second law of thermodynamics is not violated; nevertheless, the quantum Carnot engine has certain features that are not possible in a classical engine.Keywords
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