Efficiency of single-particle engines

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Sep;92(3):032105. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.032105. Epub 2015 Sep 4.

Abstract

We study the efficiency of a single-particle Szilard and Carnot engine. Within a first order correction to the quasistatic limit, the work distribution is found to be Gaussian and the correction factor to average work and efficiency only depends on the piston speed. The stochastic efficiency is studied for both models and the recent findings on efficiency fluctuations are confirmed numerically. Special features are revealed in the zero-temperature limit.