Thermodynamics with Continuous Information Flow

We provide a unified thermodynamic formalism describing information transfers in autonomous as well as nonautonomous systems described by stochastic thermodynamics. We demonstrate how information is continuously generated in an auxiliary system and then transferred to a relevant system that can util...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review. X Vol. 4; no. 3; p. 031015
Main Authors Horowitz, Jordan M., Esposito, Massimiliano
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published College Park American Physical Society 01.07.2014
Subjects
Accounting
Data processing
Energy consumption
Formalism
Fuels
Information flow
Information processing
Statistical physics
Steady state models
Thermal energy
Thermodynamics
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Summary:We provide a unified thermodynamic formalism describing information transfers in autonomous as well as nonautonomous systems described by stochastic thermodynamics. We demonstrate how information is continuously generated in an auxiliary system and then transferred to a relevant system that can utilize it to fuel otherwise impossible processes. Indeed, while the joint system satisfies the second law, the entropy balance for the relevant system is modified by an information term related to the mutual information rate between the two systems. We show that many important results previously derived for nonautonomous Maxwell demons can be recovered from our formalism and use a cycle decomposition to analyze the continuous information flow in autonomous systems operating at a steady state. A model system is used to illustrate our findings.
ISSN:2160-3308
2160-3308
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevX.4.031015