Thermodynamics of interacting heat engines and Landauer principle

• Grant number: 23/00096-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: May 15, 2023
• End date: August 11, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Eduardo Fiore dos Santos
• Grantee: Iago Nascimento Mamede
• Supervisor: Karel Proesmans
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/12551-8 - Stochastic thermodynamics and efficiency of interacting systems: A study via collisional, harmonic chains and phase transitions, BP.MS

Abstract

The present bilateral (BEPE) master project, aimed at advancing in the realm of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and strengthening the scientific collaboration between our research group and the Niels Bohr Institute of Physics, is divided into two parts: First, we intend to study the thermodynamic properties of machines composed of interacting quantum dots (QDs) beyond the mean-field case (so far unexplored), in order to verify how the collective effects can enhance the performance of thermal engines. We intend to tackle the role of lattice topology and how their cooperative effects in such cases can enhance power and efficiency. Our analysis will be carried out for homogeneous and heterogeneous structures as well as regular and random-regular lattices. Second, we intend to understand/establish how collective effects (e.g. system composed of interacting Brownian unities and aforementioned QDs) can be used to generate a protocol of minimum entropy production in excess of the Landauer principle. (AU)