The smallest possible thermal machines and the foundations of thermodynamics

About

In my talk I raise the question on the fundamental limits to the size of thermal machines – refrigerators, heat pumps and work producing engines - and I will present the smallest possible ones. I will then discuss the issue of a possible complementarity between size and efficiency and show that even the smallest machines could be maximally efficient and I will also present a new point of view over what is work and what do thermal machines actually do. Finally I will present a completely new approach to the foundations of thermodynamics that follows from these results. .

0:00:00 Slide 1

0:04:04 Slide 2

0:05:41 Slide 3

0:06:08 Slide 4

0:09:04 Slide 5

0:09:36 Slide 6

0:10:29 Slide 7

0:11:09 Slide 8

0:11:54 Slide 9

0:12:44 Slide 10

0:14:01 Slide 11