A reciprocating quantum refrigerator is analyzed with the intention to study the limitations imposed by external noise. In particular we focus on the behavior of the refrigerator when it approaches the absolute zero. The cooling cycle is based on the Otto cycle with a working medium constituted by an ensemble of noninteracting harmonic oscillators. The compression and expansion segments are gen...

Yair Rezek, Peter Salamon, Karl Heinz Hoffmann, and Ronnie Kosloff Fritz Haber Research Center for Molecular Dynamics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel. b Department of Mathematical Science, San Diego State University, San Diago, California, 92182, USA. c Physics Institute, Technical University of Chemnitz, Chemnitz, D-09107 Germany∗ Abstract The scaling of the optimal c...

The emergence of the laws of thermodynamics from the laws of quantum mechanics is an unresolved issue. The generation of the third law of thermodynamics from quantum dynamics is analysed. The scaling of the optimal cooling power of a reciprocating quantum refrigerator is sought as a function of the cold bath temperature as Tc → 0. The working medium consists of noninteracting particles in a har...