Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 227, 2043–2051 (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2019-800060-7

Review

Are quantum thermodynamic machines better than their classical counterparts?

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
² Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 21a, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

^a e-mail: gershon.kurizki@weizmann.ac.il

Received: 15 April 2018
Received in final form: 26 July 2018
Published online: 5 March 2019

Abstract

Interesting effects arise in cyclic machines where both heat and ergotropy transfer take place between the energising bath and the system (the working fluid). Such effects correspond to unconventional decompositions of energy exchange between the bath and the system into heat and work, respectively, resulting in efficiency bounds that may surpass the Carnot efficiency. However, these effects are not directly linked with quantumness, but rather with heat and ergotropy, the likes of which can be realised without resorting to quantum mechanics.