Quantum Maxwell's Demon in Thermodynamic Cycles

Abstract

We study the physical mechanism of Maxwell's Demon (MD) helping to do extra work in thermodynamic cycles, by describing measurement of position, insertion of wall and information erasing of MD in a quantum mechanical fashion. The heat engine is exemplified with one molecule confined in an infinitely deep square potential inserted with a movable solid wall, while the MD is modeled as a two-level system (TLS) for measuring and controlling the motion of the molecule. It is discovered that the the MD with quantum coherence or on a lower temperature than that of the heat bath of the particle would enhance the ability of the whole work substance formed by the system plus the MD to do work outside. This observation reveals that the role of the MD essentially is to drive the whole work substance being off equilibrium, or equivalently working with an effective temperature difference. The elaborate studies with this model explicitly reveal the effect of finite size off the classical limit or thermodynamic limit, which contradicts the common sense on Szilard heat engine (SHE). The quantum SHE's efficiency is evaluated in detail to prove the validity of second law of thermodynamics.

12 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and quantum heat engines
• The Physics of Maxwell's demon and information
• Dissipation: The phase-space perspective
• Second Law of Thermodynamics with Discrete Quantum Feedback Control
• The second law, Maxwell's daemon and work derivable from quantum heat engines
• Quantum Szilard Engine
• Quantum Thermodynamic Cycles and Quantum Heat Engines (II)
• Quantum-Classical Transition of Photon-Carnot Engine Induced by Quantum Decoherence

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Maxwell's Refrigerator: An Exactly Solvable Model
• Single-Temperature Quantum Engine Without Feedback Control
• Quantum Coherence in a Quantum Heat Engine
• Energy Requirement of Control: Comments on Szilard's Engine and Maxwell's Demon
• Multi-Particle Quantum Szilard Engine with Optimal Cycles Assisted by a Maxwell's Demon
• Threshold for Non-Thermal Stabilization of Open Quantum Systems
• Landauer's Principle in a Quantum Szilard Engine Without Maxwell's Demon
• The Bose-Fermi duality in quantum Otto heat engine with trapped repulsive Bosons
• Exotic properties and optimal control of quantum heat engine
• Maxwell's demon in the quantum-Zeno regime and beyond
• Thermodynamics of Information Processing Based on Enzyme Kinetics: an Exactly Solvable Model of Information Pump
• Revisiting the quantum Szilard engine with fully quantum considerations
• Finite-Time Optimization of Quantum Szilard heat engine
• Finite-time quantum measurement cooling beyond the Carnot limit
• Quantum Isothermal Reversible Process of Particles in a Box with a Delta Potential
• Szilard Engines as Quantum Thermodynamical Systems