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The Szilard engine (SZE) is the quintessence of Maxwell's demon, which can extract the work from a heat bath by utilizing information. We present the first complete quantum analysis of the SZE, and derive an analytic expression of the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2011-02-23 Sang Wook Kim , Takahiro Sagawa , Simone De Liberato , Masahito Ueda

We analyze an engine whose working fluid consists of a single quantum particle, paralleling Szilard's construction of a classical single-particle engine. Following his resolution of Maxwell's Second Law paradox using the latter, which…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-12-07 Maryam Ashrafi , Kyle J. Ray , Fabio Anza , James P. Crutchfield

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

We discuss, using recent results on the Landauer's bound in multivalued logic, the difficulties and pitfalls of how to apply this principle. The presentation is based on Szilard's version of Maxwell's demon experiment and use of equilibrium…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-01-20 Radosław A. Kycia , Agnieszka Niemczynowcz

The remarkable progress of artificial intelligence (AI) has revealed the enormous energy demands of modern digital architectures, raising deep concerns about sustainability. In stark contrast, the human brain operates efficiently on only…

Biological Physics · Physics 2025-11-03 Toshio Yanagida , Keisuke Fujita , Mitsuhiro Iwaki

The information-thermodynamics link is revisited, going back to the analysis of Szilard's engine. It is argued that instead of equivalence rather complementarity of physical entropy and information theoretical one is a correct concept.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-06-24 Robert Alicki

Physical systems are often simulated using a stochastic computation where different final states result from identical initial states. Here, we derive the minimum energy cost of simulating a complex data set of a general physical system…

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability · Physics 2015-05-30 Karoline Wiesner , Mile Gu , Elisabeth Rieper , Vlatko Vedral

We analyze a quantum Maxwell demon operating a Szilard engine in free fall near a black hole horizon, where quantum information, thermodynamics, and spacetime causality intersect. The demon is modeled as a coherent two-level system, and the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-05-12 Hamed Hadi , Amin Rezaei Akbarieh , Goksel Daylan Esmer

We propose a new way of looking at the quantum Maxwell's demon problem in terms of conditional action. A "conditional action" on a system is a unitary time evolution, selected according to the result of a previous measurement, which can…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-10-28 Heinz-Jürgen Schmidt

In mathematical physical analyses of Szilard's engine and Maxwell's demon, a general assumption (explicit or implicit) is that one can neglect the energy needed for relocating the piston in Szilard's engine and for driving the trap door in…

General Physics · Physics 2012-06-26 Laszlo B. Kish , Claes G. Granqvist

We introduce a family of Maxwellian Demons for which correlations among information bearing degrees of freedom can be calculated exactly and in compact analytical form. This allows one to precisely determine Demon functional thermodynamic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-03-23 A. B. Boyd , D. Mandal , J. P. Crutchfield

Maxwell's Demon, 'a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule in its course', has been the centre of much debate about its abilities to violate the second law of thermodynamics. Landauer's hypothesis, that the…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2015-11-06 Samson Abramsky , Dominic Horsman

Maxwell's demon explores the role of information in physical processes. Employing information about microscopic degrees of freedom, this "intelligent observer" is capable of compensating entropy production (or extracting work), apparently…

We propose a finite-time quantum Szilard engine (QSE) with a quantum particle with spin as the working substance (WS) to accelerate the operation of information engines. We introduce a Maxwell's demon (MD) to probe the spin state within a…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-19 Tan-Ji Zhou , Yu-Han Ma , C. P. Sun

The probabilistic information flow and natural computational capability of a system with two magnetic skyrmions at room temperature have been experimentally evaluated. Based on this evaluation, an all-solid-state built-in Maxwell's demon…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2025-06-17 Yoshishige Suzuki , Hiroki Mori , Soma Miki , Kota Emoto , Ryo Ishikawa , Eiiti Tamura , Hikaru Nomura , Minori Goto

The theory of asymptotic complexity provides an approach to characterizing the behavior of programs in terms of bounds on the number of computational steps executed or use of computational resources. We describe work using ACL2 to prove…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2022-05-25 William D. Young

In his famous letter in 1870, Maxwell describes how Joule's law can be violated "only by the intelligent action of a mere guiding agent", later coined as Maxwell's demon by Lord Kelvin. In this letter we study thermodynamics of information…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-12-29 Aki Kutvonen , Jonne Koski , Tapio Ala-Nissilä

We consider the problem of inserting a new item into an ordered list of N-1 items. The length of an algorithm is measured by the number of comparisons it makes between the new item and items already on the list. Classically, determining the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 E. Farhi , J. Goldstone , S. Gutmann , M. Sipser

This paper addresses two seemingly unrelated problems, (a) What is the entropy and energy accounting in the Maxwell Demon problem? and (b) How can the efficiency of markets be measured? Here we show, in a simple model for the Maxwell Demon,…

Classical Physics · Physics 2008-12-02 Roger D. Jones , Sven G. Redsun , Roger E. Frye , Kelly D. Myers

A 1929 Gedankenexperiment proposed by Szil\'ard, often referred to as "Szil\'ard's engine", has served as a foundation for computing fundamental thermodynamic bounds to information processing. While Szil\'ard's original box could be…