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Related papers: Observing a quantum Maxwell demon at work

200 papers

In the past decade several theoretical Maxwell's demon models have been proposed exhibiting effects such as refrigerating, doing work at the cost of information, and some experiments have been done to realise these effects. Here we propose…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-08-24 Peiyan Peng , Changkui Duan

We propose a new thermodynamic equality and several inequalities concerning the relationship between work and information for an isothermal process with Maxwell's demon. Our approach is based on the formulation a la Jarzynski of the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 Takahiro Sagawa , Masahito Ueda

It is nearly 150 years since Maxwell challenged the validity of the second law of thermodynamics by imagining a tiny creature who could sort the molecules of a gas in such a way that would decrease entropy without exerting any work. The…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-08-24 Ian J. Ford

The birth, life, and death of Maxwell's demon provoked a profound discussion about the interplay between thermodynamics, computation, and information. Even after its exorcism, the demon continues to inspire a multidisciplinary field. This…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-08-13 A. de Oliveira Junior , Jonatan Bohr Brask , Rafael Chaves

We present a physical implementation of a Maxwell demon which consists of a conventional single electron transistor (SET) capacitively coupled to another quantum dot detecting its state. Altogether, the system is described by stochastic…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2013-02-01 Philipp Strasberg , Gernot Schaller , Tobias Brandes , Massimiliano Esposito

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…

It is demonstrated that Maxwell's demon can be used to allow a machine to extract energy from a heat bath by use of information that is processed by the demon at a remote location. The model proposed here effectively replaces transmission…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-06-06 S. Hossenfelder

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 introduce a Maxwell demon which generates many-body entanglement robustly against bit-flip noises, which allows us to obtain quantum advantage. Adopting the protocol of the voter model used for opinion dynamics approaching consensus, the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-04-13 Sungguen Ryu , Rosa López , Raúl Toral

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

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

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 report an experimental realisation of Maxwell's demon in a photonic setup. We show that a measurement at the single-photon level followed by a feed-forward operation allows the extraction of work from intense thermal light into an…

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

The relation between entropy and information dates back to the classical Maxwell demon (MD) paradox, a thought experiment proposed in 1867 by J. C. Maxwell to violate the second law of thermodynamics. A variant of the classical MD is the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-06-03 Marco Ribezzi-Crivellari , Felix Ritort

We identify that quantum coherence is a valuable resource in the quantum heat engine, which is designed in a quantum thermodynamic cycle assisted by a quantum Maxwell's demon. This demon is in a superposed state. The quantum work and heat…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-09-09 Yun-Hao Shi , Hai-Long Shi , Xiao-Hui Wang , Ming-Liang Hu , Si-Yuan Liu , Wen-Li Yang , Heng Fan

We discuss the thermodynamic aspects of a single qubit based device, powered by weak quantum measurements, and feedback controlled by a quantum Maxwell's demon. We discuss both discrete and time-continuous operation of the measurement based…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-11-09 Kagan Yanik , Bibek Bhandari , Sreenath K. Manikandan , Andrew N. Jordan

We study an autonomous model of a Maxwell demon that works by rectifying thermal fluctuations of chemical reactions. It constitutes the chemical analog of a recently studied electronic demon. We characterize its scaling behavior in the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-11-29 Massimo Bilancioni , Massimiliano Esposito , Nahuel Freitas

In this theoretical study, we determine the maximum amount of work extractable in finite time by a demon performing continuous measurements on a quadratic Hamiltonian system subjected to thermal fluctuations, in terms of the information…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2014-10-21 Henrik Sandberg , Jean-Charles Delvenne , Nigel J. Newton , Sanjoy K. Mitter

We describe a minimal model of an autonomous Maxwell demon, a device that delivers work by rectifying thermal fluctuations while simultaneously writing information to a memory register. We solve exactly for the steady-state behavior of our…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2012-08-10 Dibyendu Mandal , Christopher Jarzynski