A quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demon
Quantum Physics
2009-10-30 v1
Abstract
A Maxwell's demon is a device that gets information and trades it in for thermodynamic advantage, in apparent (but not actual) contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics. Quantum-mechanical versions of Maxwell's demon exhibit features that classical versions do not: in particular, a device that gets information about a quantum system disturbs it in the process. In addition, the information produced by quantum measurement acts as an additional source of thermodynamic inefficiency. This paper investigates the properties of quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demons, and proposes experimentally realizable models of such devices.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9612034,
title = {A quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demon},
author = {Seth Lloyd},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9612034},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
13 pages, TeX