Bosonic Szilard engine assisted by Feshbach resonances

• It was recently found that the information-to-work conversion in a quantum Szilard engine can be increased by using a working medium of bosons with attractive interactions. In the original scheme, the work output depends on the insertion and removal position of an impenetrable barrier that acts like a piston, separating the chambers of the engine. Here, we show that the barrier removal process can be made fully reversible, resulting in a full information-to-work conversion if we also allow for the interaction strength to change during the cycle. Hence, it becomes possible to reach the maximum work output per cycle dictated by the second law of thermodynamics. These findings can be experimentally verified, for instance, with ultracold atoms as a working medium, where a change of interaction strength can be controlled by Feshbach resonances.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

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art (subject category)

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