| Issue |
EPL
Volume 120, Number 3, November 2017
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 30009 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | General | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/120/30009 | |
| Published online | 02 February 2018 | |
Collective effects enhancing power and efficiency
1 Laboratoire de Physique Théorique (UMR8627), CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay 91405 Orsay, France
2 Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics, Physics and Material Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg - L-1511 Luxembourg, G.D. Luxembourg
Received: 10 November 2017
Accepted: 9 January 2018
Energy conversion is most efficient for micro or nano machines with tight coupling between input and output power. To reach meaningful amounts of power, ensembles of N such machines must be considered. We use a model system to demonstrate that interactions between N tightly coupled nanomachines can enhance the power output per machine. Furthermore, while interactions break tight coupling and thus lower efficiency in finite ensembles, the macroscopic limit 
restores it and enhances both the efficiency and the output power per nanomachine.
PACS: 05.70.Ln – Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics / 02.50.Ga – Markov processes / 07.20.Pe – Heat engines; heat pumps; heat pipes
© EPLA, 2018
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