Related papers: The work value of information

This paper introduces time into information theory, gives a more accurate definition of information, and unifies the information in cognition and Shannon information theory. Specially, we consider time as a measure of information, giving a…

An information theory description of finite systems explicitly evolving in time is presented. We impose a MaxEnt variational principle on the Shannon entropy at a given time while the constraints are set at a former time. The resulting…

A key concept in quantum thermodynamics is extractable work, which specifies the maximum amount of work that can be extracted from a quantum system. Different quantities are used to measure extractable work, the most prevalent of which are…

Quantum cycles in established heat engines can be modeled with various quantum systems as working substances. For example, a heat engine can be modeled with an infinite potential well as the working substance to determine the efficiency and…

Measurement and feedback allows an external agent to extract work from a system in contact with a single thermal bath. The maximum amount of work that can be extracted in a single measurement and the corresponding feedback loop is given by…

It is shown that the standard expression for the information entropy, originally due to Shannon, is only valid for a particular set of states. For the general case of statistical mechanics, one needs to include an additional term in the…

The second law of thermodynamics uses change in free energy of macroscopic systems to set a bound on performed work. Ergotropy plays a similar role in microscopic scenarios, and is defined as the maximum amount of energy that can be…

It is a central question in quantum thermodynamics to determine how irreversible is a process that transforms an initial state $\rho$ to a final state $\sigma$, and whether such irreversibility can be thought of as a useful resource. For…

We consider overdamped physical systems evolving under a feedback-controlled fluctuating potential and in contact with a thermal bath at temperature $T$. A Markovian description of the dynamics, which keeps only the last value of the…

Information plays an important role in our understanding of the physical world. We hence propose an entropic measure of information for any physical theory that admits systems, states and measurements. In the quantum and classical world,…

I consider the effect of a finite sample size on the entropy of a sample of independent events. I propose formula for entropy which satisfies Shannon's axioms, and which reduces to Shannon's entropy when sample size is infinite. I discuss…

Work extraction in quantum finite systems is an important issue in quantum thermodynamics. The optimal work extracted is called ergotropy, and it is achieved by maximizing the average work extracted over all the unitary cycles. However, an…

This article serves as a brief introduction to the Shannon information theory. Concepts of information, Shannon entropy and channel capacity are mainly covered. All these concepts are developed in a totally combinatorial flavor. Some issues…

It is shown how information contained in the pairwise correlations (in general, partial) between atoms of a gas can be used to completely convert heat taken from a thermostat into mechanical work in a process of relaxation of the system to…

Information theory is a statistical theory concerned with the relative state of detectors and physical systems. As a consequence, the classical framework of Shannon needs to be extended to deal with quantum detectors, possibly moving at…

The interplay between thermodynamics and information theory has a long history, but its quantitative manifestations are still being explored. We import tools from expected utility theory from economics into stochastic thermodynamics. We…

We propose the study of quantum games from the point of view of quantum information theory and statistical mechanics. Every game can be described by a density operator, the von Neumann entropy and the quantum replicator dynamics. There…

We generalize stochastic thermodynamics to include information reservoirs. Such information reservoirs, which can be modeled as a sequence of bits, modify the second law. For example, work extraction from a system in contact with a single…

The association of information with entropy has been argued on plausibility arguments involving the operation of imaginary engines and beings, and it is not a universal theorem. In this paper, a theorem by Charles Bennett on reversible…

We consider the task of extracting work from quantum systems in the resource theory perspective of thermodynamics, where free states are arbitrary thermal states, and allowed operations are energy conserving unitary transformations. Taking…