Bernoulli's formula and Poisson's equations for a confined quantum gas: effects due to a moving piston

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Dec;86(6 Pt 1):061128. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.061128. Epub 2012 Dec 21.

Abstract

We study a nonequilibrium equation of states of an ideal quantum gas confined in the cavity under a moving piston with a small but finite velocity in the case in which the cavity wall suddenly begins to move at the time origin. Confining ourselves to the thermally isolated process, the quantum nonadiabatic (QNA) contribution to Poisson's adiabatic equations and to Bernoulli's formula which bridges the pressure and internal energy is elucidated. We carry out a statistical mean of the nonadiabatic (time-reversal-symmetric) force operator found in our preceding paper [Nakamura et al., Phys. Rev. E 83, 041133 (2011)] in both the low-temperature quantum-mechanical and high-temperature quasiclassical regimes. The QNA contribution, which is proportional to the square of the piston's velocity and to the inverse of the longitudinal size of the cavity, has a coefficient that is dependent on the temperature, gas density, and dimensionality of the cavity. The investigation is done for a unidirectionally expanding three-dimensional (3D) rectangular parallelepiped cavity as well as its 1D version. Its relevance in a realistic nanoscale heat engine is discussed.