title: Work producing reservoirs: Stochastic thermodynamics with generalized Gibbs ensembles.
abstract: We develop a consistent stochastic thermodynamics for environments composed of thermodynamic reservoirs in an external conservative force field, that is, environments described by the generalized or Gibbs canonical ensemble. We demonstrate that small systems weakly coupled to such reservoirs exchange both heat and work by verifying a local detailed balance relation for the induced stochastic dynamics. Based on this analysis, we help to rationalize the observation that nonthermal reservoirs can increase the efficiency of thermodynamic heat engines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Physics of Living Systems Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Jordan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Horowitz
authors.affiliation: Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics, Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Esposito