The New Special Issue "Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and Heat Engines" is Open for Submission!

Guest Editor: Dr. Andrea Roberto Insinga

Submit to the Special Issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/special_issues/S73V4F32E8

Submission deadline: 31 March 2025

Special Issue Information: Quantum thermodynamic cycles are the quantum counterpart to the traditional power and refrigeration cycles studied by classical thermodynamics, e.g., Carnot or Otto cycles. However, the working medium of quantum cycles is a statistical ensemble of identical?quantum?systems. Thermal coupling with a heat bath requires the special formalism of quantum thermodynamics, which describes open quantum systems. Often, these cycles are studied under non-equilibrium conditions, thus falling under the area of finite-time quantum thermodynamics.

In the last few years, this area has received increasing attention from the scientific community due to significant advances in nano-devices, quantum optics, quantum computing, and cryogenics. All these scientific and technological areas are linked to the topic of quantum cycles. Among the many aspects considered by the numerous publications within this field, there are the different models of the quantum systems making up the working medium, different models of the heat baths and their coupling with the system, and different kinds of cycles.

This Special Issue will provide a forum to present novel works analyzing different aspects of quantum cycles. We are especially interested in studies that consider this topic from an optimization, computational, or theoretical perspective, although we welcome experimental studies.