Work from fluctuations


red ball  Can asymmetry and ratchet forces be used to extract energy from fluctuations?

yellow ballThis is not possible in thermal equilibrium due to time reversal symmetry, but allowed out of equilibrium (e.g. energy flux):

 Random motions of bacteria:     (R. Di Leonardo, et al PNAS 2010)

Feynman's ratchet and pawl:  (youtube)                


red ballProposal for a Contactless Heat Engine:

 Use thermal pressure to stably levitate one cylinder inside another.

 Use Non-reciprocal electromagnetic media that intrinsically break reflection (or time reversal symmetry):

yellow ball [2022KITP program on "Emerging regimes and implications of Quantum and Thermal fluctuational electrodynamics"]

 This symmetry breaking is similar to that by external magnetic fields (magneto-optical coupling), where

Asymmetry is quantified by the ratio of cyclotron frequency to a material (e.g. plasma) frequency   .

        

Propulsive force in the near-field limit:   

 Extract work from cylinder rotating at angular speed   against frictional force of vacuum

Maximum extracted power, at optimal rotation speed, , limited by required thermodynamic (Carnot) efficiency.

"Near Field Propulsion Forces from Nonreciprocal Media,"

D. Gelbwaser, N. Graham, M. Kardar, M. Krüger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 170401 (2021).

 At least in this case, Casimir energy does not come free.


 

 

 

 

 

 

yellow ball From the extracted power, the engine efficiency is given by

yellow ball The velocity cannot be increased indefinitely, due to

 Frictional forces, which reduce the force

yellow ballThis leads to a final limit for efficiency at maximum power of