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In this study, we carry out a non-perturbative approach to a quantum Otto
engine, employing an Unruh-DeWitt particle detector to extract work from a
quantum Klein-Gordon field in an arbitrary globally hyperbolic curved
spacetime. We broaden the scope by considering the field in any quasi-free
state, which includes vacuum, thermal, and squeezed states. A key aspect of our
method is the instantaneous interaction between the detector and the field,
which enables a thorough non-perturbative analysis. We demonstrate that the
detector can successfully extract positive work from the quantum Otto cycle,
even when two isochoric processes occur instantaneously, provided the detector
in the second isochoric process receives a signal from the first interaction.
This signaling allows the detector to release heat into the field, thereby the
thermodynamic cycle is completed. As a demonstration, we consider a detector at
rest in flat spacetime and compute the work extracted from the Minkowski vacuum
state.
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