title: Occurrence of discontinuities in the performance of finite-time quantum Otto cycles.
abstract: We study a quantum Otto cycle in which the strokes are performed in finite time. The cycle involves energy measurements at the end of each stroke to allow for the respective determination of work. We then optimize for the work and efficiency of the cycle by varying the time spent in the different strokes and find that the optimal value of the ratio of time spent on each stroke goes through sudden changes as the parameters of this cycle vary continuously. The position of these discontinuities depends on the optimized quantity under consideration such as the net work output or the efficiency.
authors: Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, 487372 Singapore.|Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371 Singapore.
authors: Yuanjian
authors: Y
authors: Zheng
authors: Institut für Physik, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany.|Nanosystems Initiative Munich, Schellingstr. 4, D-80799 München, Germany.|Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, 117542 Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Hänggi
authors: Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, 487372 Singapore.|MajuLab, CNRS-UNS-NUS-NTU International Joint Research Unit, UMI 3654, Singapore.
authors: Dario
authors: D
authors: Poletti