Related papers: A quantum-mechanical Maxwell's demon

Quantum measurement of a system can change its mean energy, as well as entropy. A selective measurement (classical or quantum) can be used as a "Maxwell's demon" to power a single-temperature heat engine, by decreasing the entropy. Quantum…

We discuss a self-contained spin-boson model for a measurement-driven engine, in which a demon generates work from thermal excitations of a quantum spin via measurement and feedback control. Instead of granting it full direct access to the…

An analytical characterization of thermodynamically rational agent behaviour is obtained for a simple, yet non--trivial example of a ``Maxwell's demon" operating with partial information. Our results provide the first fully transparent…

Taking advantage from a recent analog realization of certain automata via spectral encodings as permutation machines, we reach at an improved version of the previously introduced remotely acting Maxwellian demon in arXiv:1408.3797. A number…

Maxwell's demon was created with abilities to violate the second law of thermodynamics. But the demon always fell short of doing so because of the imposed restrictive condition that reads, the demon needs to do "work". Therefore, you can…

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…

The Szil\'ard engine is a mechanism (akin to Maxwell's demon) for converting information into energy, which seemingly violates the second law of thermodynamics. Originally a classical thought experiment, it was extended to a quantized…

The problem of Maxwell's demon in granular gas is revisited in the case of a mixture of two particle species. The phase space is found to be 2d. Existence of cyclic orbits, with periodic segregation, is demonstrated by investigating the…

We consider a feedback control loop rectifying particle transport through a single quantum dot that is coupled to two electronic leads. While monitoring the occupation of the dot, we apply conditional control operations by changing the…

Nanomachines are often interpreted as autonomous Maxwell's demons or information engines. This interpretation is appealing from a conceptual viewpoint but sometimes lacks a rigorous and precise formulation. Moreover, it is unclear whether…

We propose a physically realizable Maxwell's demon device using a spin valve interacting unitarily for a short time with electrons placed on a tape of quantum dots, which is thermodynamically equivalent to the device introduced by Mandal…

Nearly all theoretical analyses of the Maxwell's demon focus on its energetic and entropic costs of operation. Here, we focus on its rate of operation. In our model, a demon's rate limitation stems from its finite response time and gate…

After presenting possible motives for fighting against the second law of thermodynamics, several attempts to beat this law are analyzed. The second law wins, but an interesting interpretation of it emerges. This interpretation uses the…

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…

Maxwellian ratchets are autonomous, finite-state thermodynamic engines that implement input-output informational transformations. Previous studies of these "demons" focused on how they exploit environmental resources to generate work: They…

We study the reduction in total entropy, and associated conversion of environmental heat into work, arising from the coupling and decoupling of two systems followed by processing determined by suitable mutual feedback. The scheme is based…

We revisit quantum Maxwell demon in thermodynamic feedback cycle in the steady-state regime. We derive a generalized version of the Clausius inequality for a finite-time steady feedback cycle with a single heat bath. It is shown to be…

According to Landauer's principle, erasure of information is the only part of a computation process that unavoidably involves energy dissipation. If done reversibly, such an erasure generates the minimal heat of $k_BT\ln 2$ per erased bit…

Thought experiments like Maxwell's Demon or the Feynman-Smoluchowski Ratchet can help in pursuing the microscopic origin of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Here we present a more sophisticated physical system than a ratchet, consisting of…

We introduce and realize demons that follow a customary gambling strategy to stop a nonequilibrium process at stochastic times. We derive second-law-like inequalities for the average work done in the presence of gambling, and universal…