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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 102 » Issue 13
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 130602 (2009) [4 pages]

Universality of Efficiency at Maximum Power

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Massimiliano Esposito* and Katja Lindenberg
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Institute for Nonlinear Science University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0340, USA

Christian Van den Broeck
Hasselt University, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium

Received 16 January 2009; revised 1 March 2009; published 1 April 2009

We investigate the efficiency of power generation by thermochemical engines. For strong coupling between the particle and heat flows and in the presence of a left-right symmetry in the system, we demonstrate that the efficiency at maximum power displays universality up to quadratic order in the deviation from equilibrium. A maser model is presented to illustrate our argument.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.130602
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.130602
PACS:
05.70.Ln, 05.40.−a

*Also at Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Code Postal 231, Campus Plaine, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.

 
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