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Related papers: The Physics of Maxwell's demon and information

200 papers

To induce transport, detailed balance must be broken. A common mechanism is to bias the dynamics with a thermodynamic fuel, such as chemical energy. An intriguing, alternative strategy is for a Maxwell demon to effect the bias using…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-11 Jordan M. Horowitz , Takahiro Sagawa , Juan M. R. Parrondo

Even though the second law of thermodynamics holds the supreme position among the laws of nature, as stated by many distinguished scientists, notably Eddington and Einstein, its position appears to be also quite peculiar. Given the atomic…

Classical Physics · Physics 2015-03-18 Germano D'Abramo

Maxwell's demon is a famous thought experiment and a paradigm of the thermodynamics of information. It is related to Szilard's engine, a two-state information-to-work conversion device in which the demon performs single measurements and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-05-11 Paul Raux , Felix Ritort

Starting from 2002, at least two kinds of laboratory-testable, solid-state Maxwell demons have been proposed that utilize the electric field energy of an open-gap n-p junction and that seem to challenge the validity of the Second Law of…

Classical Physics · Physics 2013-04-17 Germano D'Abramo

Maxwell's demon is the quintessential example of information control, which is necessary for designing quantum devices. In thermodynamics, the demon is an intelligent being who utilizes the entropic nature of information to sort excitations…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-05-05 Kasper Poulsen , Marco Majland , Seth Lloyd , Morten Kjaergaard , Nikolaj T. Zinner

We present an experimental realization of an autonomous Maxwell's Demon, which extracts microscopic information from a System and reduces its entropy by applying feedback. It is based on two capacitively coupled single electron devices,…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2016-01-06 J. V. Koski , A. Kutvonen , I. M. Khaymovich , T. Ala-Nissila , J. P. Pekola

The emerging field of quantum thermodynamics is beginning to reveal the intriguing role that information can play in quantum thermal engines. Information enters as a resource when considering feedback-controlled thermal machines. While both…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-13 Lindsay Bassman Oftelie , Michele Campisi

An essential role of information in microscopic thermodynamics (e.g. Maxwell's demon) opens a challenging question if there exists a formulation of the second law of thermodynamics based only on pure information ideas. Here, such a…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-04-29 Miroslav Holeček

We propose a setup based on two coupled quantum dots where thermodynamics of a measurement can be quantitatively characterized. The information obtained in the measurement can be utilized by performing feedback in a manner apparently…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-04-06 Aki Kutvonen , Takahiro Sagawa , Tapio Ala-Nissilä

We present an autonomous Maxwell's demon scheme. It is first analysed theoretically in term of information exchange in a closed system and then implemented experimentally with a single Rydberg atom and a high-quality microwave resonator.…

We present a pedagogical review of the fundamental concepts in thermodynamics of information, by focusing on the second law of thermodynamics and the entropy production. Especially, we discuss the relationship among thermodynamic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-12-20 Takahiro Sagawa

We report two results complementing the second law of thermodynamics for Markovian open quantum systems coupled to multiple reservoirs with different temperatures and chemical potentials. First, we derive a nonequilibrium free energy…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-04-18 Krzysztof Ptaszynski , Massimiliano Esposito

Classical and quantum electronic circuits provide ideal platforms to investigate stochastic thermodynamics and they have served as a stepping stone to realize Maxwell's demons with highly controllable protocols. In this article we first…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2024-01-24 J. P. Pekola , I. M. Khaymovich

Adiabatic measurements, followed by feedback and erasure protocols, have often been considered as a model to embody Maxwell's Demon paradox and to study the interplay between thermodynamics and information processing. Such studies have led…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-02-11 Shintaro Minagawa , M. Hamed Mohammady , Kenta Sakai , Kohtaro Kato , Francesco Buscemi

A tantalizing version of Maxwell's demon is presented which appears to operate reversibly. A container of hard core disks is separated into two chambers of equal volume by a membrane that selects which disk can penetrate depending on the…

chao-dyn · Physics 2009-10-22 P. A. Skordos

This paper provides an overview of the first experimental realizations of quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demons based on superconducting circuits. The principal results of these experiments are recalled and put into context. We highlight the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-05-01 Nathanaël Cottet , Benjamin Huard

We study an autonomous quantum system which exhibits refrigeration under an information-work trade-off like a Maxwell demon. The system becomes correlated as a single "demon" qubit interacts sequentially with memory qubits while in contact…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-01-08 Adrian Chapman , Akimasa Miyake

Maxwell demons are creatures that are imagined to be able to reduce the entropy of a system without performing any work on it. Conventionally, such a Maxwell demon's intricate action consists of measuring individual particles and…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2019-12-09 Rafael Sánchez , Janine Splettstoesser , Robert S. Whitney

The paradox of Maxwell's demon motivated the development of information thermodynamics and the creation of nanoscale information engines. We now understand that machines such as the molecular motors within cells can in principle harvest…

Landauer's principle, often regarded as the foundation of the thermodynamics of information processing, holds that any logically irreversible manipulation of information, such as the erasure of a bit or the merging of two computation paths,…

Classical Physics · Physics 2011-01-11 Charles H. Bennett