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Cited by 453Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical MechanicsAdvanced Thermodynamic Systems and EnginesQuantum Information and Cryptography

How Small Can Thermal Machines Be? The Smallest Possible Refrigerator

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Linden, Noah, Popescu, Sandu, Skrzypczyk, Paul·2010·Physical Review Letters
DOI 10.1103/physrevlett.105.130401
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Abstract

We investigate the fundamental dimensional limits to thermodynamic machines. In particular, we show that it is possible to construct self-contained refrigerators (i.e., not requiring external sources of work) consisting of only a small number of qubits and/or qutrits. We present three different models, consisting of two qubits, a qubit and a qutrit with nearest-neighbor interactions, and a single qutrit, respectively. We then investigate the fundamental limits to their performance; in particular, we show that it is possible to cool towards absolute zero.

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  • For a bosonic bath with Ohmic spectrum, the local-validity inequalities are fulfilled as long as the inter-system coupling is much smaller than the oscillator frequency.

    “For a bosonic bath with Ohmic spectrum, the last equations are fulfilled as long as W a  g , which is usually the case for systems where the local approach is employed [38,44,46,51].”

    From Markovian master equations for quantum thermal machines: Local versus global approach (2017) · cites this paper as [46]

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [11]T. Feldmann, E. Geva and P. Salamon, Am. J. Phys. 64 , 485 (1996); T. Feldmann and R. Kosloff, Phys. Rev. E 68 , 016101 (2003); T. Feldmann and R. Kosloff, arXiv:quantph/0906.0986.
  2. [16]L. Schulman and U. Vazirani, Proc. 31st STOC (ACM Symp. Theory Comp.), ACM Press (1999).
  3. [18]P. Talkner, Annals of Phys., 167 , 390 (1986).

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Authors
Linden, N., Popescu, S., & Skrzypczyk, P.
Affiliations
University of Bristol (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Published
2010-09-21
Volume
105
Issue
13
Pages
130401-130401
ISSN
  • 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
  • 1079-7114
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.105.130401
OpenAlex
W2027891048
Cited by
453
References
27
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 14
FWCI
8.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
link.aps.org/licenses/aps-default-license (vor)
Locations
  • Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Advanced Thermodynamic Systems and Engines
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Quantum Information and Cryptography
Keywords
quantum refrigerators, quantum heat engines, dimensional limits, qubits, qutrits, nearest-neighbor interactions, thermodynamic machines, quantum thermodynamics, fundamental performance limits

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