Recent advances in the study of thermodynamics of microscopic processes have driven the search for new developments in energy converters utilizing quantum effects. Here we propose a modified Otto cycle to design an engine fueled by quantum projective measurements. Standard quantum thermal machines operating in a finite-time regime with a driven Hamiltonian that does not commute at different times have their performance decreased by the presence of coherence, which is associated with a larger entropy production and irreversibility degree. However, we show that replacing the standard hot thermal reservoir by a projective measurement operation with a general basis in the Bloch sphere and controlling the basis angles suitably could improve the performance of the quantum engine as well as decrease the entropy change during the measurement process. Our results follow a generalization of quantum thermal machine models where the fuel comes from general sources beyond the standard thermal reservoir.

中文翻译：

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抑制基于量子测量的引擎中的相干效应

微观过程热力学研究的最新进展推动了对利用量子效应的能量转换器的新发展的探索。在这里，我们提出了一个改进的奥托循环来设计一个由量子投影测量驱动的引擎。在有限时间范围内运行的标准量子热机，其驱动的哈密顿量不会在不同时间通勤，其性能会因相干性的存在而降低，这与更大的熵产生和不可逆程度相关。然而，我们表明，在布洛赫球中用具有一般基的投影测量操作代替标准热储层并适当控制基角可以提高量子引擎的性能并减少测量过程中的熵变。