Browsing by Author "Widera, Artur"

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    Generalized Clausius inequalities in a nonequilibrium cold-atom system
    (2023) Mayer, Daniel; Lutz, Eric; Widera, Artur
    Thermodynamic inequalities, such as the Clausius inequality, characterize the direction of nonequilibrium processes. However, the latter result presupposes a system coupled to a heat bath that drives it to a thermal state. Far from equilibrium, the Clausius inequality can be generalized using information-theoretic quantities. For initially isolated systems that are moved from an equilibrium state by a dissipative heat exchange, the generalized Clausius inequality is predicted to be reversed. We here experimentally investigate the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of an initially isolated dilute gas of ultracold Cesium atoms that can be either thermalized or pushed out of equilibrium by means of laser cooling techniques. We determine in both cases the phase-space dynamics by tracing the evolution with position-resolved fluorescence imaging, from which we evaluate all relevant thermodynamic quantities. We confirm the validity of the generalized Clausius inequality for the first process and of the reversed generalized Clausius inequality for the second transformation.
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    A quantum heat engine driven by atomic collisions
    (2021) Bouton, Quentin; Nettersheim, Jens; Burgardt, Sabrina; Adam, Daniel; Lutz, Eric; Widera, Artur
    Quantum heat engines are subjected to quantum fluctuations related to their discrete energy spectra. Such fluctuations question the reliable operation of thermal machines in the quantum regime. Here, we realize an endoreversible quantum Otto cycle in the large quasi-spin states of Cesium impurities immersed in an ultracold Rubidium bath. Endoreversible machines are internally reversible and irreversible losses only occur via thermal contact. We employ quantum control to regulate the direction of heat transfer that occurs via inelastic spin-exchange collisions. We further use full-counting statistics of individual atoms to monitor quantized heat exchange between engine and bath at the level of single quanta, and additionally evaluate average and variance of the power output. We optimize the performance as well as the stability of the quantum heat engine, achieving high efficiency, large power output and small power output fluctuations.