Approaching Carnot efficiency at maximum power in linear response regime

Abstract

We construct an example of a heat engine whose efficiency at maximum power breaks down the previously derived bounds in the linear response regime. Such an example takes a classical harmonic oscillator as the working substance undergoing a finite-time Otto cycle. Using a specific kind of shortcut to adiabaticity, valid only in the linear response regime, quasistatic work is performed at arbitrarily short times. The cycle duration is then reduced to the sum of relaxation times during the thermalization strokes exclusively. Thus, the power is at maximum since the work is at maximum (quasistatic work) and the cycle duration is minimal. Efficiency at maximum power can be made arbitrarily close to Carnot efficiency with an appropriate choice of the ratio between the temperatures of the two heat baths.