title: Optimal performance of endoreversible quantum refrigerators.
abstract: The derivation of general performance benchmarks is important in the design of highly optimized heat engines and refrigerators. To obtain them, one may model phenomenologically the leading sources of irreversibility ending up with results that are model independent, but limited in scope. Alternatively, one can take a simple physical system realizing a thermodynamic cycle and assess its optimal operation from a complete microscopic description. We follow this approach in order to derive the coefficient of performance at maximum cooling rate for any endoreversible quantum refrigerator. At striking variance with the universality of the optimal efficiency of heat engines, we find that the cooling performance at maximum power is crucially determined by the details of the specific system-bath interaction mechanism. A closed analytical benchmark is found for endoreversible refrigerators weakly coupled to unstructured bosonic heat baths: an ubiquitous case study in quantum thermodynamics.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kindom and Instituto Universitario de Estudios Avanzados en Atómica, Molecular y Fotónica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38203 La Laguna, Spain.
authors.forename: Luis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Correa
authors.affiliation: Instituto Universitario de Estudios Avanzados en Atómica, Molecular y Fotónica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38203 La Laguna, Spain and Departamento de Física, Universidad de La Laguna, 38204 La Laguna, Spain.
authors.forename: José P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Palao
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kindom.
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adesso
authors.affiliation: Instituto Universitario de Estudios Avanzados en Atómica, Molecular y Fotónica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38203 La Laguna, Spain and Departamento de Física, Universidad de La Laguna, 38204 La Laguna, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alonso