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Related papers: The work value of information

200 papers

How much work can be extracted from a heat bath using a thermal machine? The study of this question has a very long tradition in statistical physics in the weak-coupling limit, applied to macroscopic systems. However, the assumption that…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-06-17 R. Gallego , A. Riera , J. Eisert

Thermodynamics and information have intricate interrelations. Often thermodynamics is considered to be the logical premise to justify that information is physical - through Landauer's principle -, thereby also linking information and…

Connections between information theory and thermodynamics have proven to be very useful to establish bounding limits for physical processes. Ideas such as Landauer's erasure principle and information assisted work extraction have greatly…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2013-12-17 Kaonan Micadei , Roberto M. Serra , Lucas C. Celeri

Information-theoretic approaches provide a promising avenue for extending the laws of thermodynamics to the nanoscale. Here, we provide a general fundamental lower limit, valid for systems with an arbitrary Hamiltonian and in contact with…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-05-08 Philippe Faist , Renato Renner

We show that work can be extracted from a two-level system (spin) coupled to a bosonic thermal bath. This is possible due to different initial temperatures of the spin and the bath, both positive (no spin population inversion) and is…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-11-10 A. E. Allahverdyan , R. Serral Gracia , Th. M. Nieuwenhuizen

Information engines can use structured environments as a resource to generate work by randomizing ordered inputs and leveraging the increased Shannon entropy to transfer energy from a thermal reservoir to a work reservoir. We give a broadly…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-02-01 Alexander B. Boyd , Dibyendu Mandal , James P. Crutchfield

We calculate the maximal non-equilibrium work that can be extracted from any mass using information about its micro-state. This is done through the use of black hole thermodynamics in the context of the thermodynamics of information. The…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2022-11-22 Michael Grayson , Charlie Rackson

Thermodynamic selection is an indirect competition between agents feeding on the same energy resource and obeying the laws of thermodynamics. We examine scenarios of this selection, where the agent is modeled as a heat-engine coupled to two…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-05-18 S. G. Babajanyan , E. V. Koonin , A. E. Allahverdyan

A communication theory for a transmitter broadcasting to many receivers is presented. In this case energetic considerations cannot be neglected as in Shannon theory. It is shown that, when energy is assigned to the information bit,…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2007-07-16 Oded Kafri

We present a critical examination of the difficulties with the quantum versions of a lifted weight that are widely used as work storage systems in quantum thermodynamics. To overcome those difficulties, we turn to the strong connections…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-06-05 Shang-Yung Wang

In this paper I apply newly-proposed information-theoretic principles to thermodynamic work extraction. I show that if it is possible to extract work deterministically from a physical system prepared in any one of a set of states, then…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-06-23 Chiara Marletto

We propose a compression-based version of the empirical entropy of a finite string over a finite alphabet. Whereas previously one considers the naked entropy of (possibly higher order) Markov processes, we consider the sum of the…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2011-04-05 Paul M. B. Vitányi

Scientific discovery can be framed as a thermodynamic process in which an agent invests physical work to acquire information about an environment under a finite work budget. Using established results about the thermodynamics of computing,…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-20 Mihir Rao

Information theory provides tools to predict the performance of a learning algorithm on a given dataset. For instance, the accuracy of learning an unknown parameter can be upper bounded by reducing the learning task to hypothesis testing…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-21 Evan Peters

In information theory, one area of interest is gambling, where mutual information characterizes the maximal gain in wealth growth rate due to knowledge of side information; the betting strategy that achieves this maximum is named the Kelly…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2019-05-08 Dror A. Vinkler , Haim H. Permuter , Neri Merhav

We design a heat engine with multi-heat-reservoir, ancillary system and quantum memory. We then derive an inequality related with the second law of thermodynamics, and give a new limitation about the work gain from the engine by analyzing…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-11-09 Li-Hang Ren , Heng Fan

Probability theory is fundamental for modeling uncertainty, with traditional probabilities being real and non-negative. Complex probability extends this concept by allowing complex-valued probabilities, opening new avenues for analysis in…

Information Theory · Computer Science 2025-03-07 Chan Li , Hejun Xu , Zhu Cao

Information based thermodynamic logic is revisited. It consists of two parts: Part A applies the modern theory of probability in which an arbitrary convex function \phi is employed as an analytic "device" to express information as…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-12-07 Bing Miao , Hong Qian , Yong-Shi Wu

Heat is a physical manifestation of entropy, where the removal of entropy from a thermal energy reservoir permits the conversion of heat into work. This entropy transfer is facilitated by the cold thermal energy reservoir in typical heat…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-11-12 Liam Judd McClelland

Thermodynamics is traditionally concerned with systems comprised of a large number of particles. Here we present a framework for extending thermodynamics to individual quantum systems, including explicitly a thermal bath and work-storage…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-09-29 Paul Skrzypczyk , Anthony J. Short , Sandu Popescu