Physics – Condensed Matter – Statistical Mechanics
Scientific paper
2010-09-27
Nature Physics 6, 988-992 (2010)
Physics
Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
manuscript including 7 pages and 4 figures and supplementary material including 6 pages and 8 figures
Scientific paper
10.1038/nphys1821
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; it was finally clarified that the demon's role does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics, implying that we can convert information to free energy in principle. Nevertheless, experimental demonstration of this information-to-energy conversion has been elusive. Here, we demonstrate that a nonequilibrium feedback manipulation of a Brownian particle based on information about its location achieves a Szilard-type information-energy conversion. Under real-time feedback control, the particle climbs up a spiral-stairs-like potential exerted by an electric field and obtains free energy larger than the amount of work performed on it. This enables us to verify the generalized Jarzynski equality, or a new fundamental principle of "information-heat engine" which converts information to energy by feedback control.
Muneyuki Eiro
Sagawa Takahiro
Sano Masaki
Toyabe Shoichi
Ueda Masahito
No associations
LandOfFree
Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-518337