All articles tagged with #maxwells demon
Researchers at the University of Konstanz have demonstrated that a microscopic information engine can extract up to three times more energy from a system by exploiting hidden environmental memory. By trapping a glass bead in a complex liquid containing micelles, the team used delayed measurements to infer the liquid's past interactions, allowing them to bypass standard thermodynamic limits for memoryless systems.
A team of physicists at the University of Konstanz has demonstrated that microscopic information engines can extract significantly more energy from a system by exploiting hidden environmental memory. By trapping a glass bead in a complex liquid containing micelles, researchers used delayed measurements to infer the liquid's past interactions, allowing them to extract up to three times the energy possible in a standard memoryless system.
Researchers at the University of Konstanz have experimentally demonstrated that hidden environmental memory can be converted into usable work, challenging the standard assumption that information engines operate in memoryless (Markovian) environments. By using a silica particle trapped in a viscoelastic micellar solution, the team showed that delayed measurements can retrieve information stored in the bath's hidden degrees of freedom. This 'information backflow' allowed them to extract work exceeding the theoretical limits of a Markovian system, specifically reaching three times the energy bound of the observable particle alone in certain states. The study establishes environmental memory as a tangible thermodynamic resource, providing a new framework for optimizing information engines in complex, time-correlated environments.
Researchers have developed quantum-control protocols that, by integrating quantum measurements with feedback, can suppress or reverse the arrow of time in quantum systems. By designing a control Hamiltonian that mirrors measurement effects, they create time-reversed or distorted trajectories and even a measurement-based engine that extracts energy from the act of observation. The work—published in Physical Review X—aims to improve quantum state control and could enable new methods for powering quantum computers and batteries, with planned experimental tests using superconducting qubits.
Researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have discovered that proteins called ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) transporters, found in cell membranes, exhibit features similar to Maxwell's demon, a hypothetical intelligent being that sorts molecules based on their energy. These ABC transporters, present in almost every living organism, use energy from ATP molecules to control the flow of molecules in and out of cells, regulating the cell's environment. This discovery provides insights into how cells manage molecule import and export, and sheds light on the fundamental aspects of life's building blocks. The research has been published in Communications Physics.