English

Second-law-like inequalities with information and their interpretations

Statistical Mechanics 2015-06-22 v1

Abstract

In a thermodynamic process with measurement and feedback, the second law of thermodynamics is no longer valid. In its place, various second-law-like inequalities have been advanced that each incorporate a distinct additional term accounting for the information gathered through measurement. We quantitatively compare a number of these information measures using an analytically tractable model for the feedback cooling of a Brownian particle. We find that the information measures form a hierarchy that reveals a web of interconnections. To untangle their relationships, we address the origins of the information, arguing that each information measure represents the minimum thermodynamic cost to acquire that information through a separate, distinct measurement protocol.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.5351,
  title  = {Second-law-like inequalities with information and their interpretations},
  author = {Jordan M. Horowitz and Henrik Sandberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.5351},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

29 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T05:59:54.145Z