title: Parity effect and phase transitions in quantum Szilard engines.
abstract: Quantum Szilard engines with an arbitrary number of identical particles are studied in this paper. Analytical expressions for the total work in the low- and high-temperature limits are obtained. The total work depends on both the particle statistics, the odd-even parity, and the temperature of the system. The parity effect is drastic in fermion systems. An odd number of fermions perform work as if they were a single fermion, and an even number of fermions do not perform any work at all. For bosons, there exists a phase transition at a critical temperature under which work done by the engine is always negative. It is found that only above a certain temperature, bosonic quantum Szilard engine does more work than fermionic one. The possible experimental verification of these effects is discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Gui Lu
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Long
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D044367:Phase Transition; D011789:Quantum Theory
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids