title: Magnetically driven quantum heat engine.
abstract: We studied the efficiency of two different schemes for a magnetically driven quantum heat engine, by considering as the "working substance" a single nonrelativistic particle trapped in a cylindrical potential well, in the presence of an external magnetic field. The first scheme is a cycle, composed of two adiabatic and two isoenergetic reversible trajectories in configuration space. The trajectories are driven by a quasistatic modulation of the external magnetic-field intensity. The second scheme is a variant of the former, where the isoenergetic trajectories are replaced by isothermal ones, along which the system is in contact with macroscopic thermostats. This second scheme constitutes a quantum analog of the classical Carnot cycle.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago, Chile and Research Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials CIEN-UC, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Av. Brasil 2950, Valparaíso, Chile.
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Peña