Nicolas Brunner, Marcus Huber, Noah Linden, Sandu Popescu, Ralph Silva, Paul Skrzypczyk
Understanding the thermodynamics of quantum systems is of fundamental importance, from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. A growing interest has been recently given to small self-contained quantum thermal machines, the functioning of which requires no external source of work or control, but only incoherent interactions with thermal baths. The simplicity of such machines makes them and ideal test-bed for exploring quantum thermodynamics. So far, however, the importance of quantum effects in these machines has remained elusive. Here we show that entanglement, the paradigmatical quantum effect, plays a fundamental role in small self-contained quantum refrigerators, as it can enhance cooling and energy transport -- except notably when the efficiency is close to the Carnot limit. Hence a truly quantum refrigerator can outperform a classical one. Furthermore, the amount of entanglement alone quantifies the enhancement in cooling. More generally, our work shows that entanglement opens new possibilities in thermodynamics.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.6009
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