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Related papers: Extracting work from hidden degrees of freedom

200 papers

In Szilard's engine, measurement and feedback allows to extract work from an equilibrium environment, a process otherwise forbidden by the laws of thermodynamics. Recent theoretical developments have established fluctuation theorems and…

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics · Physics 2025-11-14 David Barker , Sebastian Lehmann , Kimberly A. Dick , Peter Samuelsson , Ville Maisi , Patrick P. Potts

In this paper I apply newly-proposed information-theoretic principles to thermodynamic work extraction. I show that if it is possible to extract work deterministically from a physical system prepared in any one of a set of states, then…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-06-23 Chiara Marletto

The optimization of the conversion of thermal energy into work and the minimization of dissipation for nano- and mesoscopic systems is a complex challenge because of the important role fluctuations play on the dynamics of small systems. We…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-09-24 Alberto Rolandi

We study the stochastic dynamics of Brownian particles in a heat bath and subject to an active feedback control by an external, Maxwell's demon-like agent. The agent uses the information of the velocity of a particle and reduces its thermal…

Classical Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Kyung Hyuk Kim , Hong Qian

A non-isolated physical system typically loses information to its environment, and when such loss is irreversible the evolution is said to be Markovian. Non-Markovian effects are studied by monitoring how information quantifiers, such as…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-07-15 Paolo Abiuso , Matteo Scandi , Dario De Santis , Jacopo Surace

We report on a lossless information engine that converts nearly all available information from an error-free feedback protocol into mechanical work. Combining high-precision detection at resolution of 1 nm with ultrafast feedback control,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-02-07 Govind Paneru , Dong Yun Lee , Tsvi Tlusty , Hyuk Kyu Pak

Using a mechanical cantilever submitted to electrostatic feedback control, we investigate the thermodynamic properties of an information engine that extracts work from thermal fluctuations. The cantilever position is rapidly sampled and the…

We study an information-based mechanism of self-propulsion in noisy environment. An information swimmer maintains directional motion by periodically measuring its velocity and accordingly adjusting its friction coefficient. Assuming that…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2020-11-18 Chen Huang , Mingnan Ding , Xiangjun Xing

Thermodynamics of nanoscale devices is an active area of research. Despite their noisy surround- ing they often produce mechanical work (e.g. micro-heat engines) or display rectified Brownian motion (e.g. molecular motors). This invokes the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-09-14 Arnab Saha , Rahul Marathe , A. M. Jayannavar

Thermodynamics is traditionally concerned with systems comprised of a large number of particles. Here we present a framework for extending thermodynamics to individual quantum systems, including explicitly a thermal bath and work-storage…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-09-29 Paul Skrzypczyk , Anthony J. Short , Sandu Popescu

A Brownian particle moving in a staircase-like potential with feedback control offers a way to implement Maxwell's demon. An experimental demonstration of such a system using sinusoidal periodic potential carried out by Toyabe et al. has…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-12-29 Kiran V , Toby Joseph

We study the consequences of adopting the memory dependent, non-Markovian, physics with the memory-less over-damped approximation usually employed to investigate Brownian particles. Due to the finite correlation time scale associated with…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-02-05 Eduardo dos S. Nascimento , Welles A. M. Morgado

We extend the principles of information thermodynamics to study energy and information exchanges between coupled systems composed of one part undergoing a Markov jump process and another underdamped diffusion. We derive integral fluctuation…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2024-12-05 Ashwin Gopal , Nahuel Freitas , Massimiliano Esposito

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 study non-Markovian dynamics of a two level atom using pseudomode method. Because of the memory effect of non-Markovian dynamics, the atom receives back information and excited energy from the reservoir at a later time, which causes more…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-01-27 Yuta Ohyama , Yasuhiro Tokura

A major part of the many thermally driven processes in our natural environment as well as in engineering solutions of Carnot-type machinery is based on the second law of thermodynamics (or principle of entropy increase). An interesting link…

General Physics · Physics 2010-09-29 Hans R. Moser

Thermodynamics of nanoscale devices is an active area of research. Despite their noisy surrounding they often produce mechanical work (e.g. micro-heat engines), display rectified Brownian motion (e.g. molecular motors). This invokes…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2018-12-05 Arnab Saha , Rahul Marathe , P. S. Pal , A. M. Jayannavar

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

Information-driven engines that rectify thermal fluctuations are a modern realization of the Maxwell-demon thought experiment. We introduce a simple design based on a heavy colloidal particle, held by an optical trap and immersed in water.…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-05-21 Tushar K. Saha , Joseph N. E. Lucero , Jannik Ehrich , David A. Sivak , John Bechhoefer

Information plays a pivotal role in the thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes with feedback. However, much remains to be learned about the nature of information fluctuations in small scale devices and their relation with fluctuations…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2016-12-21 Martin Luc Rosinberg , Jordan M. Horowitz