English

Reversible feedback confinement

Statistical Mechanics 2017-07-04 v1

Abstract

We present a feedback protocol that is able to confine a system to a single micro-state without heat dissipation. The protocol adjusts the Hamiltonian of the system in such a way that the Bayesian posterior distribution after measurement is in equilibrium. As a result, the whole process satisfies feedback reversibility -- the process is indistinguishable from its time reversal -- and assures the lowest possible dissipation for confinement. In spite of the whole process being reversible it can surprisingly be implemented in finite time. We illustrate the idea with a Brownian particle in a harmonic trap with increasing stiffness and present a general theory of reversible feedback confinement for systems with discrete states.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.06461,
  title  = {Reversible feedback confinement},
  author = {Léo Granger and Luis Dinis and Jordan M. Horowitz and Juan MR Parrondo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.06461},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

9 pages, 1 figure