Catalytic enhancement in the performance of the microscopic two-stroke heat engine

We consider a model of a heat engine operating in the microscopic regime: the two-stroke engine. It produces work and exchanges heat in two discrete strokes that are separated in time. The engine consists of two d-level systems initialized in thermal states at two distinct temperatures. Additionally, an auxiliary non-equilibrium system called catalyst may be incorporated into the engine, provided the state of the catalyst remains unchanged after the completion of a thermodynamic cycle. This ensures that the work produced arises solely from the temperature difference, Upon establishing the rigorous thermodynamic framework, we characterize two-fold improvement stemming from the inclusion of a catalyst. Firstly, we show that the presence of a catalyst allows for surpassing the optimal efficiency of two-stroke heat engines which are not assisted by a catalyst. In particular, we prove that the optimal efficiency for two-stroke heat engine consisting of two-level systems is given by the Otto efficiency, and that it can be surpassed via incorporating a catalyst. Secondly, we show that incorporating a catalyst allows the engine to operate in frequency and temperature regimes that are not accessible for non-catalytic two-stroke engines.