English

Enhanced Photonic Maxwell's Demon with Correlated Baths

Quantum Physics 2022-09-21 v4

Abstract

Maxwell's Demon is at the heart of the interrelation between quantum information processing and thermodynamics. In this thought experiment, a demon generates a temperature gradient between two thermal baths initially at equilibrium by gaining information at the single-particle level and applying classical feed-forward operations, allowing for the extraction of work. Here we implement a photonic version of Maxwell's Demon with active feed-forward in a fibre-based system using ultrafast optical switches. We experimentally show that, if correlations exist between the two thermal baths, the Demon can generate a temperature difference over an order of magnitude larger than without correlations, and so extract more work. Our work demonstrates the great potential of photonic experiments -- which provide a unique degree of control on the system -- to access new regimes in quantum thermodynamics.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.09686,
  title  = {Enhanced Photonic Maxwell's Demon with Correlated Baths},
  author = {Guilherme L. Zanin and Michael Antesberger and Maxime J. Jacquet and Paulo H. Souto Ribeiro and Lee A. Rozema and Philip Walther},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.09686},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

25 pages with appendix, 6 figures. Final version published on Quantum

R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:22:27.768Z