Stochastic heat engine powered by active dissipation

Abstract

Thermodynamics of nanoscale devices is an active area of research. Despite their noisy surroundings, they often produce mechanical work (e.g. micro-heat engines) and display rectified Brownian motion (e.g. molecular motors). This invokes research in terms of experimentally quantifiable thermodynamic efficiencies. Here, a Brownian particle is driven by a harmonic confinement with time-periodic contraction and expansion. This system produces work by being alternately (time-periodically) connected to baths with different dissipations. We analyze the system theoretically using stochastic thermodynamics. Averages of thermodynamic quantities like work, heat, efficiency, entropy are found analytically for long cycle-times. Simulations are also performed in various cycle-times. They show excellent agreement with analytical calculations in the long-cycle time limit. Distributions of work, efficiency, and large deviation function for efficiency are studied using simulations. We believe that the experimental realization of our model is possible.