Holographic heat engines as quantum heat engines

Abstract

Certain solutions of Einstein's equations in anti-de Sitter spacetime can be engineered, using extended gravitational thermodynamics, to yield "holographic heat engines", devices that turn heat into useful mechanical work. On the other hand, there are constructions (both experimental and theoretical) where a series of operations is performed on a small quantum system, defining what are known as "quantum heat engines". We propose that certain holographic heat engines can be considered models of quantum heat engines, and the possible fruitfulness of this connection is discussed. Motivated by features of quantum heat engines that take a quantum system through analogues of certain classic thermodynamic cycles, some black hole Otto and Diesel cycles are presented and explored for the first time. In the expected regime of overlap, our Otto efficiency formulae are of the form exhibited by quantum and classical heat engines. arXiv:1905.09399v1 [hep-th]

Quantum thermodynamic devices: from theoretical proposals to experimental reality

“…The relation to quantum heat engines was made explicit by Johnson 439 . In black hole thermodynamics, a proper description of a black hole in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space time has to take into account all quantum effects [440][441][442][443] .…”

Quantum Heat Engines with Complex Working Media, Complete Otto Cycles and Heuristics

“…The accord between quantum mechanics and thermodynamics is yet to fully unfold [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Its fundamental implications have inspired numerous proposals for thermal machines based on quantum working media [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Two major issues which are addressed in such proposals are as follows: What are the performance bounds of heat engines working in quantum regime and what are the thermodynamic properties of these quantum systems which control these bounds?…”

Hairy black hole chemistry

“…Further examples were then found including re-entrant phase transitions [27,28], triple points [28,29], polymer-like behaviour [30], and even superfluid-like phase transitions [31][32][33]. Black holes JHEP11(2019)043 can also be understood as heat engines [34][35][36][37][38][39], and have a sensible Joule-Thompson expansion [40][41][42]. Extensions to de Sitter spacetime, in which the pressure becomes a tension [43], have recently been considered [44][45][46][47] even to dynamical cosmological constants [48].…”