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Related papers: Information Thermodynamics: Maxwell's Demon in Non…

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Information-driven engines that rectify thermal fluctuations are a modern realization of the Maxwell-demon thought experiment. We introduce a simple design based on a heavy colloidal particle, held by an optical trap and immersed in water.…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-05-21 Tushar K. Saha , Joseph N. E. Lucero , Jannik Ehrich , David A. Sivak , John Bechhoefer

Various biological and synthetic media out of equilibrium can be viewed as many-ratchet systems that rectify environmental noise through local measurements and information processing, like in Maxwell's prototypical demon. These systems pose…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-04-16 Bryan VanSaders , Michel Fruchart , Vincenzo Vitelli

Gathering information about a system enables greater control over it. This principle lies at the core of information engines, which use measurement-based feedback to rectify thermal noise and convert information into work. Originating from…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-01-24 Rémi Goerlich , Laura Hoek , Omer Chor , Saar Rahav , Yael Roichman

Maxwell's demon principle of extracting valuable resources through measuring fluctuations in the system already stimulated modern quantum physics. In contrast to classical physics, a free coupling to a probe and its free measurement…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-03-03 Atirach Ritboon , Radim Filip

Szilard's one-molecule engine is operated by a Maxwell's demon attempting to convert heat to work. It is argued here that when using the demon to relate information to work (Landauer's principle), the demon's goal must be regarded as an…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2015-04-29 J. H. van Hateren

Information engines, sometimes referred to as Maxwell Demon engines, utilize information obtained through measurement to control the conversion of energy into useful work. Discussions around such devices often assume the measurement step to…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-05-02 Henning Kirchberg , Abraham Nitzan

We have investigated the recently proposed self-consistent theory of fluctuation - induced transport. In this framework the subsystem under study is coupled to two independent baths at different temperatures. In this non-equilibrium system…

Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-10-28 A. M. Jayannavar

A sudden change in the macroscopic parameters of a system will cause it to depart from equilibrium. In this paper we study how a lack of change can also inform of such a departure, and allow for work extraction. Potential events that are…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-02-03 Sushrut Ghonge , Dervis Can Vural

Mechanical Maxwell's demons, such as Smoluchowski's trapdoor and Feynman's ratchet and pawl need external energy source to operate. If you cease to feed a demon the Second Law of thermodynamics will quickly stop its operation. Nevertheless,…

Classical Physics · Physics 2008-11-26 Z. K. Silagadze

The averaged steady-state surprisal links a driven stochastic system's information processing to its nonequilibrium thermodynamic response. By explicitly accounting for the effects of nonequilibrium steady states, a decomposition of the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-06-07 Mikhael T. Semaan , James P. Crutchfield

While quantum measurement theories are built around density matrices and observables, the laws of thermodynamics are based on processes such as are used in heat engines and refrigerators. The study of quantum thermodynamics fuses these two…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-08-25 Xingrui Song , Mahdi Naghiloo , Kater Murch

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…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-22 Jordan M. Horowitz , Henrik Sandberg

A Maxwell's demon type ``information engine" which extracts work from a bath is constructed from a microscopic Hamiltonian for the whole system including a subsystem, a thermal bath, and a nonequilibrium bath of phonons or photons which…

Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-10-22 Mark M. Millonas

In Szilard's engine, a demon measures a one-particle gas and applies feedback to extract work from thermal fluctuations, embodying Maxwell's notion that information reduces thermodynamic entropy - an apparent second-law violation. The…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-08-26 Xiangjun Xing

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

A Maxwell demon can reduce the entropy of a quantum system by performing measurements on its environment. The nonsignaling theorem prevents the demon from affecting the average state of the system. We study the preparations of quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-07-19 Gang-Gang He , Fu-Lin Zhang

Maxwell's demon was created with abilities to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But the demon always fell short of doing so because of the imposed restrictive condition that reads, the demon needs to do "work". Therefore, you can…

General Physics · Physics 2012-07-13 Andrew Das Arulsamy

Fundamental limits on the controllability of physical systems are discussed in the light of information theory. It is shown that the second law of thermodynamics, when generalized to include information, sets absolute limits to the minimum…

chao-dyn · Physics 2007-05-23 Hugo Touchette , Seth Lloyd

We present a simple strategy for constructing an information ratchet or memory-tape model of Maxwell's demon, from a feedback-controlled model. We illustrate our approach by converting the Annby-Andersson feedback-controlled double quantum…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-12-14 Debankur Bhattacharyya , Christopher Jarzynski

An analytical characterization of thermodynamically rational agent behaviour is obtained for a simple, yet non--trivial example of a ``Maxwell's demon" operating with partial information. Our results provide the first fully transparent…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2024-07-15 Dorian Daimer , Susanne Still