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Related papers: Maxwell's Demon and its Fallacies Demystified

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Maxwell's demon was born in 1867 and still thrives in modern physics. He plays important roles in clarifying the connections between two theories: thermodynamics and information. Here, we present the history of the demon and a variety of…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2009-01-13 Koji Maruyama , Franco Nori , Vlatko Vedral

Maxwell's demon is the quintessential example of information control, which is necessary for designing quantum devices. In thermodynamics, the demon is an intelligent being who utilizes the entropic nature of information to sort excitations…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-05-05 Kasper Poulsen , Marco Majland , Seth Lloyd , Morten Kjaergaard , Nikolaj T. Zinner

This is a review of the theory of quantum thermodynamic demons; these are quantum systems that look like they violate the laws of thermodynamics, in analogy with Maxwell's demon. It concentrates on autonomous demons that can be made using…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2023-04-07 Robert S. Whitney

With the increasing interest for the control of the system at the nano and mesoscopic scales, studies have been focused on the limit of the energy dissipation in an open system by refining the concept of the Maxwell's demon. The well-known…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-08-26 Qian Zeng , Jin Wang

Maxwell's Demon is at the heart of the interrelation between quantum information processing and thermodynamics. In this thought experiment, a demon generates a temperature gradient between two thermal baths initially at equilibrium by…

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

A tantalizing version of Maxwell's demon is presented which appears to operate reversibly. A container of hard core disks is separated into two chambers of equal volume by a membrane that selects which disk can penetrate depending on the…

chao-dyn · Physics 2009-10-22 P. A. Skordos

The second law of thermodynamics is probabilistic in nature. Its formulation requires that the state of a system be described by a probability distribution. A natural question, thereby, arises as to whether a prior knowledge about the state…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-04-11 P. S. Pal , A. M. Jayannavar

The information-theoretic arguments presented in a recent publication on "Quantum discord and Maxwell's demons" are discussed, and found not to address the problem specified by Maxwell. Two interrelated and definitive exorcisms of the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-06-14 Elias P. Gyftopoulos

We present an autonomous Maxwell's demon scheme. It is first analysed theoretically in term of information exchange in a closed system and then implemented experimentally with a single Rydberg atom and a high-quality microwave resonator.…

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

Emerging evidence suggests that physical systems operating as Maxwell demons, in which some subsystem of a larger system extracts heat energy from its environment in an apparent local violation of the second law, are commonplace throughout…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-03-04 Matthew P Leighton

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

Starting from 2002, at least two kinds of laboratory-testable, solid-state Maxwell demons have been proposed that utilize the electric field energy of an open-gap n-p junction and that seem to challenge the validity of the Second Law of…

Classical Physics · Physics 2013-04-17 Germano D'Abramo

We review theory of information thermodynamics which incorporates effects of measurement and feedback into nonequilibrium thermodynamics of a small system, and discuss how the second law of thermodynamics should be extended for such…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2012-02-07 Takahiro Sagawa , Masahito Ueda

Measurements --- interactions which establish correlations between a system and a recording device --- can be made thermodynamically reversible. One might be concerned that such reversibility will make the second law of thermodynamics…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 W. H. Zurek

An interesting preprint by Puru Gujrati, "Maxwell's Demon Must Remain Subservient to Clausius' Statement" [ of the Second Law of Thermodynamics ], traces the development and application of Maxwell's Demon. He argues against the Demon on…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-01-11 William Graham Hoover , Carol Griswold Hoover

Motivated by recent progress on the motive power of information in quantum thermodynamics, we put forth an operational resource theory of Maxwell's demons. We show that the resourceful ({\em daemonic}) states can be partitioned into at most…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-06-25 Gabriel T. Landi , Giacomo Guarnieri , Benjamin Morris , John Goold , Gerardo Adesso

In the Second Law of Thermodynamics which is a macroscopic physical law that states that in any isolated system, entropy can only increase and order, or organization, can only decrease. This means that in the long run, energy will always…

Classical Physics · Physics 2021-11-25 Srinivasa Rao. P

We have simulated numerically an automated version of Maxwell's demon inspired by Smoluchowski's ideas of 1912. Two gas chambers of equal volume are connected via an opening that is covered by a trapdoor. The trapdoor can open to the left…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 P. A. Skordos , W. H. Zurek