Extraction of classical ergotropy

Abstract: Finding the time dependent perturbation that extracts the maximal amount of energy (a.k.a. ergotropy) from a thermally isolated quantum system is a central, solved, problem in quantum thermodynamics. Notably, the same problem has been long studied for classical systems as well, e.g., in the field of plasma physics, but a general solution is still missing there. By building on the analogy with the quantum solution, we provide the classical ergotropy extraction driving: it consists of an instantaneous quench followed by an adiabatic return. We illustrate how the solution, which is valid under an ergodic assumption, is instrumental to finding the ergotropy extracting driving in more general cases. We also show that, just like in the quantum case, the classical ergotropy splits into a coherent and an incoherent part. The presented results open new ways for practical energy recovery in the classical regime while suggesting that there is nothing genuinely quantum in the quantum ergotropy problem.