Optimizing Non-ergodic Feedback Engines

Horowitz, Jordan M.; Parrondo, Juan M. R.

doi:10.5506/aphyspolb.44.803

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…If we can find such a reverse process, by reversing it, we recover an optimal feedback protocol. This preparation procedure has been used to design optimal protocols for multi-particle Szilárd engines 35,36 . One particular version of this preparation procedure is analogous to the optimal work protocol described in Box 1, and other reversible protocols have been used in models of feedback-controlled harmonic oscillators 37,38 .…”

Section: Box 2 | Mutual Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamics of information

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

By its very nature, the second law of thermodynamics is probabilistic, in that its formulation requires a probabilistic description of the state of a system. This raises questions about the objectivity of the second law: does it depend, for example, on what we know about the system? For over a century, much e ort has been devoted to incorporating information into thermodynamics and assessing the entropic and energetic costs of manipulating information. More recently, this historically theoretical pursuit has become relevant in practical situations where information is manipulated at small scales, such as in molecular and cell biology, artificial nano-devices or quantum computation. Here we give an introduction to a novel theoretical framework for the thermodynamics of information based on stochastic thermodynamics and fluctuation theorems, review some recent experimental results, and present an overview of the state of the art in the field. S oon after the discovery of the second law of thermodynamics, James Clerk Maxwell illustrated the probabilistic nature of the law with a gedanken experiment, now known as Maxwell's demon 1,2 . He argued that if an intelligent being-a demon-had information about the velocities and positions of the particles in a gas, then that demon could transfer the fast, hot particles from a cold reservoir to a hot one, in apparent violation of the second law 1,2 .Maxwell's demon revealed the relationship between entropy and information for the first time-demonstrating that, by using information, one can relax the restrictions imposed by the second law on the energy exchanged between a system and its surroundings. But formulations of the second law attributed to Rudolf Clausius, Lord Kelvin and Max Planck 3 make no mention of information. Reconciling these two pictures involves two separate tasks. First, we must refine the second law to incorporate information explicitly. And second, we must clarify the physical nature of information, so that it enters the second law not as an abstraction, but as a physical entity. In this way, information manipulations such as measurement, erasure, copying and feedback can be thought of as physical operations with thermodynamic costs.The first task was partially accomplished by Léo Szilárd, who devised a stylized version of Maxwell's demon. Szilárd's demon exploits one bit of information (the outcome of an unbiased yes/no measurement) to implement a cyclic process that extracts kT ln 2 of energy as work from a thermal reservoir at temperature T , where k is Boltzmann's constant 4 . This suggests a quantitative relationship between the information used by the demon and the extractable work from a single thermal reservoir.Efforts to address the second task have been many and varied 1,2 . Léon Brillouin quantified the cost of measurement in some specific situations; Marian Smoluchowski 5 and Richard Feynman 6 demonstrated that fluctuations prevent apparent second-law violations in autonomous demons; and Rolf Landauer, Charles Bennett and Oliver Penrose 7 prov...

show abstract

Section: Box 2 | Mutual Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamics of information

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The first is to treat (1) simply as a numerical bound on the extracted work Ẇ ext without reference to the physical underpinnings of I˙. This is the point of view we typically take when investigating feedback (or information) engines [25,[27][28][29][30][31], where our goal is to optimally extract the maximum amount of work; the maximum being any or all of the possible information measures. In this respect, having so many bounds is problematic, since we are unsure which is the most appropriate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second-law-like inequalities with information and their interpretations

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In a thermodynamic process with measurement and feedback, the second law of thermodynamics is no longer valid. In its place, various second-law-like inequalities have been advanced that each incorporate a distinct additional term accounting for the information gathered through measurement. We quantitatively compare a number of these information measures using an analytically tractable model for the feedback cooling of a Brownian particle. We find that the information measures form a hierarchy that reveals a web of interconnections. To untangle their relationships, we address the origins of the information, arguing that each information measure represents the minimum thermodynamic cost to acquire that information through a separate, distinct measurement procedure.

show abstract

“…The intrinsic singularity resulting from such irreversibility has been investigated in other studies in [11,[15][16][17]30]. The optimal conditions of an information heat engine have also been investigated in various contexts [14,15,[31][32][33][34].…”

Section: Inevitable Irrevesibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal work of the quantum Szilard engine under isothermal processes with inevitable irreversibility

Jeon

Kim

2016

New J. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have found the optimal conditions for work performed by the quantum Szilard engine (SZE) containing multi-particles under isothermal processes with inevitable irreversibility. We define the restorability as the probability that the reversibility of an engine with inevitable irreversibility is achieved when the time-backward process is performed. The optimal condition is then obtained when the restorability is maximized. This is equivalent to the condition that the time-forward force is equal to the time-backward force. We numerically confirm our expectation by using the quantum SZE containing three bosons or fermions.

show abstract

Optimizing Non-ergodic Feedback Engines

Cited by 9 publications

References 15 publications

Thermodynamics of information

Thermodynamics of information

Second-law-like inequalities with information and their interpretations

Optimal work of the quantum Szilard engine under isothermal processes with inevitable irreversibility

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About