Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jul 17;109(29):11641-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1204263109. Epub 2012 Jul 2.
We describe a minimal model of an autonomous Maxwell demon, a device that delivers work by rectifying thermal fluctuations while simultaneously writing information to a memory register. We solve exactly for the steady-state behavior of our model, and we construct its phase diagram. We find that our device can also act as a "Landauer eraser", using externally supplied work to remove information from the memory register. By exposing an explicit, transparent mechanism of operation, our model offers a simple paradigm for investigating the thermodynamics of information processing by small systems.
我们描述了一个自主麦克斯韦妖的最简模型,这是一种通过对热波动进行整流来输出功,同时将信息写入内存寄存器的设备。我们对模型的稳态行为进行了精确求解,并构建了其相图。我们发现,我们的设备还可以充当“兰道尔擦除器”,使用外部提供的功从内存寄存器中删除信息。通过揭示一个明确、透明的工作机制,我们的模型为研究小系统的信息处理热力学提供了一个简单的范例。