Quantum Szilard engine for the fractional power-law potentials

Abstract

Abstract In this study, we consider the quantum Szilárd engine with a single particle under the fractional power-law potential. We suggest that such kind of the Szilárd engine works a Stirling-like cycle. We obtain energy eigenvalues and canonical partition functions for the degenerate and non-degenerate cases in this cycle process. By using these quantities we numerically compute work and efficiency for this thermodynamic cycle for various power-law potentials with integer and non-integer exponents. We show that the presented simple engine also yields positive work and efficiency. We discuss the importance of fractional dynamics in physics and finally, we conclude that fractional calculus should be included in the fields of quantum information and thermodynamics.