English

Maxwell's Demon, Szilard's Engine and Quantum Measurements

Quantum Physics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

We propose and analyze a quantum version of Szilard's ``one-molecule engine.'' In particular, we recover, in the quantum context, Szilard's conclusion concerning the free energy ``cost'' of measurements: ΔFkBTln2\Delta F \geq k_B T\ln2 per bit of information.

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0301076,
  title  = {Maxwell's Demon, Szilard's Engine and Quantum Measurements},
  author = {Wojciech Hubert Zurek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0301076},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

9 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:37:54.750Z