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Thermodynamics establishes that information acquired through measurement can be converted into work, as exemplified by Maxwell's demon and Szilard engines. Most experimental realizations of information engines, however, implicitly assume…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-03-09 Lokesh Muruga , Felix Ginot , Sarah A. M. Loos , Clemens Bechinger

The optimal efficiency of quantum (or classical) heat engines whose heat baths are $n$-particle systems is given by the information geometry and the strong large deviation. We give the optimal work extraction process as a concrete…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-07-19 Hiroyasu Tajima , Masahito Hayashi

We investigate the efficiency of an isothermal Brownian work-to-work converter engine, composed of a Brownian particle coupled to a heat bath at a constant temperature. The system is maintained out of equilibrium by using two external…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-03-25 Deepak Gupta , Sanjib Sabhapandit

A four stroke quantum engine which alternately interacts with a measurement apparatus and a single heat bath is discussed in detail with respect to the average work and heat as well as to the fluctuations of work and heat. The efficiency…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-10-18 Xuehao Ding , Juyeon Yi , Yong Woon Kim , Peter Talkner

We discuss the possibility of extraction of energy from a single heat bath in a cyclic process, under some special initial conditions. We give an explicit example in which a system initially prepared in a microcanonical ensemble, is able to…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2012-09-11 Rahul Marathe , J. M. R. Parrondo

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

A crucial step in the operation of the Szilard engine is the isothermal expansion of a single particle system. This expansion, seemingly a natural consequence, is unable to proceed when the piston is considered appropriately to be a thermal…

Classical Physics · Physics 2014-11-03 Quanmin Guo

The common saying, that information is power, takes a rigorous form in stochastic thermodynamics, where a quantitative equivalence between the two helps explain the paradox of Maxwell's demon in its ability to reduce entropy. In the present…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-03-09 Amirhossein Taghvaei , Olga Movilla Miangolarra , Rui Fu , Yongxin Chen , Tryphon T. Georgiou

Information engines can use structured environments as a resource to generate work by randomizing ordered inputs and leveraging the increased Shannon entropy to transfer energy from a thermal reservoir to a work reservoir. We give a broadly…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-02-01 Alexander B. Boyd , Dibyendu Mandal , James P. Crutchfield

We discuss the possibility of extracting energy from a single thermal bath using microcanonical Szil\'ard engines operating in finite time. This extends previous works on the topic which are restricted to the quasistatic regime. The…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-12-27 Thiago V. Acconcia , Marcus V. S. Bonança

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 introduce a family of Generalized Continuous Maxwell Demons (GCMDs) operating on idealized single-bit equilibrium devices that combine the single-measurement Szilard and the repeated measurements of the Continuous Maxwell Demon…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-03-22 Juan P. Garrahan , Felix Ritort

Information engines harness measurement and feedback to convert energy into useful work. In this study, we investigate the fundamental trade-offs between ergotropic output power, thermodynamic efficiency and information-to-work conversion…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-11-26 Rasmus Hagman , Jonas Berx , Janine Splettstoesser , Henning Kirchberg

We study the performance of a quantum Otto heat engine with two spins coupled by a Heisenberg interaction, taking into account not only the mean values of work and efficiency but also their fluctuations. We first show that, for this system,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-06-12 Maron F. Anka , Thiago R. de Oliveira , Daniel Jonathan

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

We introduce quantum information engines that extract work from quantum states and a single thermal reservoir. They may operate under three general conditions: i/ Unitarily Steered evolution (US); ii/ Irreversible Thermalization (IT) and…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-03-21 J. M. Diazdelacruz , M. A. Martin-Delgado

Quantum Szilard engine constitutes an adequate interplay of thermodynamics, information theory and quantum mechanics. Szilard engines are in general operated by a Maxwell's Demon where Landauer's principle resolves the apparent paradoxes.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-04-22 Alhun Aydin , Altug Sisman , Ronnie Kosloff

Information engines can convert thermal fluctuations of a bath at temperature $T$ into work at rates of order $k_\mathrm{B}T$ per relaxation time of the system. We show experimentally that such engines, when in contact with a bath that is…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-12-25 Tushar K. Saha , Jannik Ehrich , Momčilo Gavrilov , Susanne Still , David A. Sivak , John Bechhoefer

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

A Brownian information engine is a device extracting a mechanical work from a single heat bath by exploiting the information on the state of a Brownian particle immersed in the bath. As for engines, it is important to find the optimal…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-04-06 J. -M. Park , J. S. Lee , J. D. Noh