Beyond the Carnot limit: work extraction via an entropy battery

Abstract: We explore the consequences of generalized thermodynamics, as interpreted from the perspective of information theory, on an ensemble's capacity to extract energetic work. We demonstrate that by utilizing unitary heat engines of different kinds, we can capitalize on the full entropy capacity of the ensemble across multiple conserved quantities. This leads to the extraction of energetic work with efficiencies surpassing the standard Carnot efficiency limit, all the while running at maximum power. This is achieved without requiring modified thermal sources, which is a method commonly used in the field of quantum heat engines. We pay particular attention to spin angular momentum, and show that when treated as a mutually independent conserved quantity, spin baths exhibit thermodynamic behaviour analogous to conventional heat baths, with corresponding quantities and models. This includes spin-analogous heat capacities, Einstein solid and Debye models, entropic responses, and Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics. Spin baths also follow the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Further, we examine the role of particle statistics in determining the maximum entropy capacity of the battery. In doing so, we argue that indistinguishability is necessary for interactions to occur, motivating a perspective in which information itself is treated as the indistinguishable property of particles, with information (in the form of coherence) transferable between both physical degrees of freedom such as energy and spin, and particles when the system acts unitarily. This work will find application in fields that require near energy degenerate spin statistics, such as in spinor Bose-Einstein condensates and spintronics. Further, our method will have implications for the fields of quantum heat engines, quantum batteries, quantum error correction, and in information and resource theories.