Adaptive Heat Engine

Abstract

A major limitation of many heat engines is that their functioning demands on-line control and/or an external fitting between the environmental parameters (e.g., temperatures of thermal baths) and internal parameters of the engine. We study a model for an adaptive heat engine, where - due to feedback from the functional part - the engine's structure adapts to given thermal baths. Hence, no on-line control and no external fitting are needed. The engine can employ unknown resources; it can also adapt to results of its own functioning that make the bath temperatures closer. We determine resources of adaptation and relate them to the prior information available about the environment. © 2016 American Physical Society.