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American Physical Society, Physical review E: Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics, 5(84), 2011

DOI: 10.1103/physreve.84.051134

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Thermodynamics of a stochastic twin elevator

Journal article published in 2011 by Niraj Kumar, Christian Van den Broeck, Massimiliano Esposito ORCID, Katja Lindenberg
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

We study the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of a single particle with two available energy levels, in contact with a classical (Maxwell-Boltzmann) or quantum (Bose-Einstein) heat bath. The particle can undergo transitions between the levels via thermal activation or deactivation. The energy levels are alternately raised at a given rate regardless of occupation by the particle, maintaining a fixed energy gap equal to ε between them. We explicitly calculate the work, heat, and entropy production rates. The efficiency in both the classical and the quantum case goes to a limit between 100 and 50% that depends on the relative rates of particle transitions and level elevation. In the classical problem we explicitly find the large deviation functions for heat, work, and internal energy.