Achieving Carnot efficiency on heat engines producing finite power

• Grant number: 22/01367-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: June 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - General Physics
• Principal Investigator: Marcus Vinicius Segantini Bonança
• Grantee: Ester Souza e Souza
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Single-molecule experiments using optical tweezers or atomic force microscopy have led to great advances in the field of out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics in the last decades. Among them, we highlight in this project the research on the efficiency of nanoscopic heat engines which naturally operate in finite time and hence contrast with the quasistatic idealized cycles of textbooks on Thermodynamics. In particular, we want to focus on two important questions of this research field, namely, (I) the possibility of achieving Carnot efficiency in heat engines producing finite (or maximum) power, and (II) the existence of regimes in which the behavior of the efficiency as a function of power is universal, i.e., it is independent of the system used as a working substance. These two current problems in the field of Stochastic Thermodynamics can be made very accessible to undergraduate students through models such as Brownian motion. In this project, we intend to tackle the previously mentioned issues using a proposal already published in the literature. We also intend to complement it with additional analyses that have not been performed yet. Additionally, we will take the opportunity to introduce the recent (but also the old) developments in the physics of far-from-equilibrium processes. (AU)