Exploiting chaos for open-system control (A06)

• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277625399

Project A6 connects OSCAR with the important current subject of microscopic motors. We will theoretically analyse the smallest possible heat engine, in which both hot and cold thermal baths are realised as small dynamically chaotic subsystems. The diffusive ergodization of chaotic dynamics will itself be the basic control mechanism. We will analyze the extraction of work from the ergodization process, and demonstrate theoretically how a heat engine can be realized entirely within a microscopic mechanical system. The open-system evolution is non-Markovian and we will explore how this can be exploited to make the heat engine keep itself going dynamically, rather than inherently tending to stop.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 185: Open System Control of Atomic and Photonic Matter (OSCAR)
• Applicant Institution: Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau
• Project Head: Professor Dr. James Anglin