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Related papers: A friendly guide to exorcising Maxwell's demon

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We investigate the extraction of thermodynamic work by a Maxwell's demon in a multipartite quantum correlated system. We begin by adopting the standard model of a Maxwell's demon as a Turing machine, either in a classical or quantum setup…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-12-10 Helena C. Braga , Clodoaldo C. Rulli , Thiago R. de Oliveira , Marcelo S. Sarandy

In this highly speculative Letter it is argued that, under certain physical conditions, Maxwell's demon might be capable of breaking the second law of thermodynamics, thereby allowing a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, by…

General Physics · Physics 2011-05-25 Karl Svozil

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 gedanken experiment of Maxwell's demon has led to the studies concerning the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The demon measures fluctuations of a system's observable and converts the information gain into work…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-05-09 Y. Masuyama , K. Funo , Y. Murashita , A. Noguchi , S. Kono , Y. Tabuchi , R. Yamazaki , M. Ueda , Y. Nakamura

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

This work provides an overview of key historical developments in the formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, focusing on the notorious challenge of ``Maxwell's Demon'', a hypothetical creature who could presumably violate that law.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-19 R. E. Kastner

We study how correlations affect the performance of the simulator of a Maxwell's demon demonstrated in a recent optical experiment [Vidrighin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 050401 (2016)]. The power of the demon is found to be enhanced or…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-02-28 Angeline Shu , Jibo Dai , Valerio Scarani

In scenarios coined Maxwell's demon, information on microscopic degrees of freedom is used to seemingly violate the second law of thermodynamics. This has been studied in the classical as well as the quantum domain. In this paper, we study…

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

We investigate the role of chirality on the performance of a Maxwell demon implemented in a quantum Hall bar with a localized impurity. Within a stochastic thermodynamics description we investigate the ability of such a demon to drive a…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2017-08-23 Guillem Rosselló , Rosa López , Gloria Platero

Converting information into work has during the last decade gained renewed interest as it gives insight into the relation between information theory and thermodynamics. Here we theoretically investigate an implementation of Maxwell's demon…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2020-04-09 Björn Annby-Andersson , Peter Samuelsson , Ville F. Maisi , Patrick P. Potts

In an asymmetric Szilard engine model of Maxwell's demon, we show the equivalence between information theoretical and thermodynamic entropies when the demon erases information optimally. The work gain by the engine can be exactly canceled…

Classical Physics · Physics 2011-12-13 Akio Hosoya , Koji Maruyama , Yutaka Shikano

Energy extraction from a measured quantum system is a cornerstone of information thermodynamics as illustrated by Maxwell's demon. The nonequilibrium physics of many-particle systems is additionally strongly influenced by quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-12-05 Josef Hloušek , Tobias Denzler , Vojtěch Švarc , Miroslav Ježek , Eric Lutz , Radim Filip

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…

To induce transport, detailed balance must be broken. A common mechanism is to bias the dynamics with a thermodynamic fuel, such as chemical energy. An intriguing, alternative strategy is for a Maxwell demon to effect the bias using…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-11 Jordan M. Horowitz , Takahiro Sagawa , Juan M. R. Parrondo

A CMOS-based implementation of an autonomous Maxwell's demon was recently proposed (Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 120602) to demonstrate that a Maxwell demon can still work at macroscopic scales, provided that its power supply is scaled…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-02-08 Nahuel Freitas , Massimiliano Esposito

While most of the existing quantum information engines assisted by Maxwell's demon harness thermal fluctuations, those that rectify only quantum fluctuations have recently been constructed. We propose an alternative type of quantum…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-02-24 Kangqiao Liu , Masaya Nakagawa , Masahito Ueda

Using classical thermodynamics, we argue that Maxwell's demon loses its battle against Clausius as any temperature difference or other thermodynamic forces it creates is immediately compensated by spontaneous counterbalancing flows that…

Classical Physics · Physics 2022-01-03 P. D. Gujrati

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 relation between the theory of entanglement and thermodynamics is very tight: a thermodynamic theory of quantum entanglement, as well as the establishment of rigorous formal connections between the laws of thermodynamics and the…