Stochastic efficiency for effusion as a thermal engine

by Prof. Bart Cleuren (Hasselt University)

Tuesday 17 Mar 2015, 13:30 → 14:30 Europe/Stockholm

122:026

Effusion is the escape of particles through a narrow aperture. The phenomenon has been used for many applications such as to enrich uranium, to coat light bulbs and as a cooling device. In this talk I will consider effusion as a thermal engine. For small engines, the efficiency becomes a fluctuating quantity. This stochastic efficiency is investigated within the framework of stochastic thermodynamics. Explicit results are obtained for the probability distribution of the efficiency, which reproduces universal features. The effusion engine is a good candidate for both the numerical and experimental verification of these predictions.