Non-equilibrium System as a Demon

Abstract

Maxwell demons are creatures that are imagined to be able to reduce the entropy of a system without performing any work on it. Conventionally, such a Maxwell demon's intricate action consists of measuring individual particles and subsequently performing feedback. Here we show that much simpler setups can still act as demons: we demonstrate that it is sufficient to exploit a non-equilibrium distribution to seemingly break the second law of thermodynamics. We propose both an electronic and an optical implementation of this phenomenon, realizable with current technology.

final version: 6 pages, 4 figures (minor typos corrected - very minor title change to fit PRL style)

References in corpus (11)

• Quantum limit of heat flow across a single electronic channel
• Experimental study of mutual information in a Maxwell Demon
• Thermodynamics of a physical model implementing a Maxwell demon
• Information-to-work conversion by Maxwell's demon in a superconducting circuit-QED system
• Stochastic thermodynamics for "Maxwell demon" feedbacks
• Chiral thermoelectrics with quantum Hall edge states
• Thermodynamic and quantum bounds on nonlinear DC thermoelectric transport
• Autonomous conversion of information to work in quantum dots
• Role of measurement-feedback separation in autonomous Maxwell's demons
• Quantum thermodynamics of nanoscale thermoelectrics and electronic devices
• Thermodynamic principles and implementations of quantum machines

Cited by in corpus (39)

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• Roadmap on Quantum Thermodynamics
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• Autonomous Maxwell's demon in a cavity QED system
• General bounds on electronic shot noise in the absence of currents
• Autonomous implementation of thermodynamic cycles at the nanoscale
• Characterizing autonomous Maxwell demons
• Brownian thermal transistors and refrigerators in mesoscopic systems
• An autonomous out of equilibrium Maxwell's demon for controlling the energy fluxes produced by thermal fluctuations
• Unconventional four-terminal thermoelectric transport due to inelastic transport: cooling by transverse current, transverse thermoelectric effect and Maxwell demon
• Inelastic thermoelectric transport and fluctuations in mesoscopic system
• Charge, spin, and heat shot noises in the absence of average currents: Conditions on bounds at zero and finite frequencies
• Stochastic Thermodynamic Cycles of a Mesoscopic Thermoelectric Engine
• Double quantum-dot engine fueled by entanglement between electron spins
• Entropy current and efficiency of quantum machines driven by nonequilibrium incoherent reservoirs
• Beating Carnot efficiency with periodically driven chiral conductors
• Electronic measurements of entropy in meso- and nanoscale systems
• Quantum Maxwell's Demon Assisted by Non-Markovian Effects
• Optomechanical cooling with coherent and squeezed light: the thermodynamic cost of opening the heat valve
• Autonomous demon exploiting heat and information at the trajectory level
• Coulomb thermoelectric drag in four-terminal mesoscopic quantum transport
• Constraints between entropy production and its fluctuations in nonthermal engines
• Quantum thermocouples: nonlocal conversion and control of heat in nanostructures
• All-thermal reversal of heat currents using qutrits
• Optimising finite-time quantum information engines using Pareto bounds
• Non-uniform heat redistribution among multiple channels in the integer quantum Hall regime
• Thermometry in dual quantum dot set-up with staircase ground state configuration
• Optimizing energy conversion with nonthermal resources in steady-state quantum devices
• Efficient heat-energy conversion from a non-thermal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid
• Illusory cracks in the second law of thermodynamics in quantum nanoelectronics
• A non-local cryogenic thermometer based on Coulomb-coupled systems
• Thermodynamic inference in molecular motors: a Martingale approach
• How small can Maxwell's demon be? -- Lessons from autonomous electronic feedback models
• One-particle engine with a porous piston
• Precision of an autonomous demon exploiting nonthermal resources and information
• The Jaynes Cummings model as an autonomous Maxwell demon
• Preparation of quantum correlations assisted by a steering Maxwell demon
• Feedback-type thermoelectric effect in correlated solids