1207.5878 (Timothy Chumley et al.)

From billiards to thermodynamics    [PDF]

Timothy Chumley, Scott Cook, Renato Feres

We explore some beginning steps in stochastic thermodynamics of billiard-like mechanical systems by introducing extremely simple and explicit random mechanical processes capable of exhibiting steady-state irreversible thermodynamical behavior. In particular, we describe a Markov chain model of a minimalistic heat engine and numerically study its operation and efficiency.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.5878