Second-law-like inequalities with information and their interpretations

By Jordan M. Horowitz, Henrik Sandberg. 2014

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In a thermodynamic process with measurement and feedback, the second law of thermodynamics is no longer valid.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.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0f6285aa693705d186895e597a0fff0b2d075099