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Related papers: Szilard engines and information-based work extract…

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We consider a rudimentary model for a heat engine, known as the Brownian gyrator, that consists of an overdamped system with two degrees of freedom in an anisotropic temperature field. Whereas the hallmark of the gyrator is a nonequilibrium…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-10-13 Olga Movilla Miangolarra , Amirhossein Taghvaei , Rui Fu , Yongxin Chen , Tryphon T. Georgiou

Colloidal heat engines extract power out of a fluctuating bath by manipulating a confined tracer. Considering a self-propelled tracer surrounded by a bath of passive colloids, we optimize the engine performances based on the maximum…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-05-17 D. Martin , C. Nardini , M. E. Cates , É. Fodor

In this work we have calculated analytically the work extraction in multi-particle Szilard engine. Unlike the previous studies, here we have introduced the biasing in the measurement procedure by inserting the partition at an arbitrary…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-12-22 P. S. Pal , A. M. Jayannavar

We study the optimal performance of an information engine consisting of an overdamped Brownian bead confined in a controllable, $d$-dimensional harmonic trap and additionally subjected to gravity. The trap's center is updated dynamically…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-02-18 Antonio Patrón Castro , John Bechhoefer , David A. Sivak

In order to reconcile the entropy reduction of a system through external interventions that are linked to a measurement with the second law of thermodynamics, there are two main proposals: (i) The entropy reduction is compensated by the…

Classical Physics · Physics 2025-05-26 Heinz-Jürgen Schmidt , Thomas Bröcker

In a recent paper [Vaikuntanathan and Jarzynski, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 83}, 061120 (2011), arXiv:1105.1744] a model was introduced whereby work could be extracted from a thermal bath by measuring the energy of a particle that was thermalized by…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-17 Joakim Bergli

Inspired by the available examples of Microcanonical Szil\'ard Engines and by the original Szil\'ard Engine, we devise a system with two degrees of freedom whose ensemble average energy, starting with a microcanical ensemble, decreases…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-08-23 Artur Soriani , Marcus V. S. Bonança

When do non-equilibrium forms of disordered energy qualify as heat? \textcolor{blue}{We address this question in the context of cyclically operating heat engines in contact with a non-equilibrium energy reservoir that defies the zeroth law…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-11-25 Viktor Holubec , Stefano Steffenoni , Gianmaria Falasco , Klaus Kroy

The so-called information-thermodynamics link created by a thought experiment of Szilard became a core of the modern orthodoxy in the field of quantum information and resources theory in quantum thermodynamics. We remind existing objections…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-05-28 Robert Alicki , Michal Horodecki

The most succinct manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics is the limitation the Landauer principle imposes on the amount of heat a Maxwell demon (MD) can convert into free energy per single bit of information obtained in a…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2015-01-29 J. V. Koski , V. F. Maisi , J. P. Pekola , D. V. Averin

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

We identify generic protocols achieving optimal power extraction from a single active particle subject to continuous feedback control under the assumption that its spatial trajectory, but not its instantaneous self-propulsion force, is…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-11-08 Luca Cocconi , Jacob Knight , Connor Roberts

We show that any external intervention (insertion or removal of a partition) that destroys the equilibrium or brings it in a system always requires work and heat to ensure that the first law is obeyed, a fact that has been completely…

Classical Physics · Physics 2022-05-09 P. D. Gujrati

The quantum Szilard engine (QSZE) is a conceptual quantum engine for understanding the fundamental physics of quantum thermodynamics and information physics. We generalize the QSZE to an arbitrary spin case, i.e., a spin QSZE (SQSZE), and…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-02-03 Zekun Zhuang , Shi-Dong Liang

We design 3D-printed motor-driven active particles and find that their dynamics can be characterized using the model of overdamped chiral active Brownian particles (ABPs), as demonstrated by measured angular statistics and translational…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-02-28 Yuxuan Zhou , Maomao Ge , Ting Wang

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

Following recent work by Marathe and Parrondo [PRL, 104, 245704 (2010)], we construct a classical Hamiltonian system whose energy is reduced during the adiabatic cycling of external parameters, when initial conditions are sampled…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-05-28 Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan , Christopher Jarzynski

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

In 1929, Leo Szilard invented a feedback protocol in which a hypothetical intelligence called Maxwell's demon pumps heat from an isothermal environment and transduces it to work. After an intense controversy that lasted over eighty years;…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2012-02-21 Shoichi Toyabe , Takahiro Sagawa , Masahito Ueda , Eiro Muneyuki , Masaki Sano

We study microscopic engines that use a single active particle as their "working medium". Part of the energy required to drive the directed motion of the particle can be recovered as work, even at constant temperature. A wide class of…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-01-20 Thomas Speck