Efficiency fluctuations of microscopic thermal engines at finite power.

• Grant number: 23/16384-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2025
• 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 molecules experiments such as optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy have led to great achievements in the field of non-equilibrium thermodynamics in the last decades. In particular, this project focus on those experiments investigating the efficiency of finite-time microscopic heat engines, in contrast to the textbook examples of quasi-static cycles. Our goals are (i) to characterize the efficiency fluctuations of a class of optimal finite-time cycles and (ii) to seek for universal behavior of the efficiency as a function of power delivered. These two problems are indeed timely and in the field of stochastic thermodynamics and are accessible for undergraduate students through models using Brownian motion. Additionaly, we intend to use results already published by our research group to complement our analyses.