Geometry of finite-time thermodynamic cycles with anisotropic thermal fluctuations

Understand

In contrast to the classical concept of a Carnot engine that alternates contact between heat baths of different temperatures, naturally occurring processes usually harvest energy from anisotropy, being exposed simultaneously to chemical and thermal fluctuations of different intensities.

• In these cases, the enabling mechanism responsible for transduction of energy is typically the presence of a non-equilibrium steady state (NESS).
• A suitable stochastic model for such a phenomenon is the Brownian gyrator -- a two-degree of freedom stochastically driven system that exchanges energy and heat with the environment.
• In the context of such a model we present, from a stochastic control perspective, a geometric view of the energy harvesting mechanism that entails a forced periodic trajectory of the system state on the thermodynamic manifold.