Quantum Engine Combines Power with Ideal Efficiency ⚡ экспресс
Classical heat engines face a trade-off between power and efficiency: you can't run at full power and achieve Carnot efficiency at the same time. In quantum systems, however, collective quantum jumps—where particles transition between states in unison—can overcome this limit. Scientists have proposed the first concrete implementation of such an engine using superconducting circuits, a platform already familiar from quantum computing. The device mimics collective enhancement, allowing it to asymptotically approach Carnot efficiency at finite power, like a well-coordinated rowing team where each stroke amplifies the overall motion without extra effort.
Ordinary engines suffer from an irreconcilable conflict: the higher the power, the more the efficiency drops. The reason is energy dissipation, which physicists call an increase in entropy—a measure of disorder.
Quantum laws offer a workaround. When many microscopic systems, like superconducting circuits, work not separately but as a single ensemble, collective amplification emerges. It’s like the synchronized flashing of fireflies: each individual acts in unison with the others, producing a bright flash without extra noise. Here too, quantum elements, coherently switching states, deliver clean energy.
Theoretically, such an engine almost reaches the ideal calculated by Ludwig Boltzmann for the Carnot cycle. The principle is similar to the operation of a laser, discovered by Max Planck: many atoms emit photons synchronously. In the proposed device, transitions between states in superconducting structures are synchronized—the discovery of which earned John Bardeen a Nobel Prize. The process is controlled using highly precise photometry (measurement of light). This erases the classical trade-off, promising future engines—powerful and almost lossless.
🎯 In household appliances, up to 60–70% of energy is lost as heat due to friction. In quantum systems, this friction vanishes: instead, collective amplification kicks in, allowing close to 100% of the theoretically possible efficiency. Such an engine could run almost loss-free.