Quantum Thermodynamics of Small Systems: The Anyonic Otto Engine

Abstract

Recent advances in applying thermodynamic ideas to quantum systems have raised the novel prospect of using non-thermal, non-classical sources of energy, of purely quantum origin, like quantum statistics, to extract mechanical work in macroscopic quantum systems like Bose-Einstein condensates. On the other hand, thermodynamic ideas have also been applied to small systems like single molecules and quantum dots. In this paper we study the quantum thermodynamics of small systems of anyons, with specific emphasis on the quantum Otto engine which uses, as its working medium, just one or two anyons. Formulae are derived for the efficiency of the Otto engine as a function of the statistics parameter.