The Carnot cycle is a theoretical thermodynamic cycle proposed by Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot in 1824 and expanded by others in the 1830s and 1840s. It can be shown that it is the most efficient cycle for converting a given amount of thermal energy into work, or conversely, creating a temperature difference (e.g. refrigeration) by doing a given amount of work.One of the great virtues of the Carnot cycle is its potential applicability to any working substance.The Carnot cycle for a photon gas provides a very useful tool to illustrate the thermodynamics laws and it is possible to use for introducing the concepts of creation and annihilation of photons in an introductory course of physics.
I believe your methodology is very exciting. Just as a matter of curiosity, how do you apply a classic thermodynamic concept to a quantum phenomena?
Of course it should be-what would be the obstacle of principle? One can write down the corresponding partition function and calculate the relevant quantities. It is known how to describe fermions at finite temperature.
As a theoretical exercise, you just need to replace the classical gas laws with the equation of state of a Fermi gas. The use of the classical gas laws was incidental in Carnot's work, but the existence of a simple closed form for the equation of state allowed him to construct his example of a maximally efficient heat engine.
Yes, it is possible, as can be seen in this paper : http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-009-3817-5_202
Agree with the above. Particulars of the equation of state are immaterial for the proof (of the Carnot cycle extremal properties).
Yes, it is possible to construct Carnot cycle with a fermi gas (like He3 or neutrino gas)
The Carnot cycle for a photon gas provides a useful means to illustrate the thermodynamic laws. It is particularly useful in showing the path dependence of thermodynamic functions. Thermodynamic relationships to a neutrino gas are also drawn.
Ref: © 2001 American Association of Physics Teachers.
@DOI: 10.1119/1.1371917#
Ref: The Principles of Thermodynamics; By N.D. Hari Dass; CRC Press;
Ref: Satistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity
By James Sethna; Oxford Univesity Press;
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