Stochastic heat engine powered by active dissipation

Abstract

Thermodynamics of nanoscale devices is an active area of research. Despite\ntheir noisy surrounding they often produce mechanical work (e.g. micro-heat\nengines), display rectified Brownian motion (e.g. molecular motors). This\ninvokes research in terms of experimentally quantifiable thermodynamic\nefficiencies. Here, a Brownian particle is driven by a harmonic confinement\nwith time-periodic contraction and expansion. The system produces work by being\nalternately (time-periodically) connected to baths with different dissipations.\nWe analyze the system theoretically using stochastic thermodynamics. Averages\nof thermodynamic quantities like work, heat, efficiency, entropy are found\nanalytically for long cycle times. Simulations are also performed in various\ncycle-times. They show excellent agreement with analytical calculations in the\nlong cycle time limit. Distributions of work, efficiency, and large deviation\nfunction for efficiency are studied using simulations. We believe that the\nexperimental realization of our model is possible.\n