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Maxwell’s Refrigerator: An Exactly Solvable Model

Dibyendu Mandal, H. T. Quan, and Christopher Jarzynski
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 030602 – Published 19 July 2013
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Abstract

We describe a simple and solvable model of a device that—like the “neat-fingered being” in Maxwell’s famous thought experiment—transfers energy from a cold system to a hot system by rectifying thermal fluctuations. In order to accomplish this task, our device requires a memory register to which it can write information: the increase in the Shannon entropy of the memory compensates the decrease in the thermodynamic entropy arising from the flow of heat against a thermal gradient. We construct the nonequilibrium phase diagram for this device, and find that it can alternatively act as an eraser of information. We discuss our model in the context of the second law of thermodynamics.

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  • Received 8 April 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.030602

© 2013 American Physical Society

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Maxwell’s Refrigerator, Powered by Information

Published 19 July 2013

A proposed device can act like Maxwell’s famous demon and as a tiny refrigerator “powered” by the entropy contained in information, rather than by an external source of energy.

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Authors & Affiliations

Dibyendu Mandal1, H. T. Quan2,3, and Christopher Jarzynski2,4

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  • 2Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  • 3School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 4Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

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Issue

Vol. 111, Iss. 3 — 19 July 2013

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