Abstract: Generally, the efficiency of a heat engine strongly coupled with a heat bath is less than the classical Carnot efficiency. Through a model-independent method, we show that the classical Carnot efficiency is achieved in a strongly coupled quantum heat engine. First, we present the first law of quantum thermodynamics in strong coupling. Then, we show how to achieve the Carnot cycle and the classical Carnot efficiency at strong coupling. We find that this classical Carnot efficiency stems from the fact that the heat released in a nonequilibrium pr...
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Topics: 
Thermodynamics