Observing a quantum Maxwell demon at work

Abstract

In apparent contradiction to the laws of thermodynamics, Maxwell's demon is able to cyclically extract work from a system in contact with a thermal bath, exploiting the information about its microstate. The resolution of this paradox required the insight that an intimate relationship exists between information and thermodynamics. Here, we realize a Maxwell demon experiment that tracks the state of each constituent in both the classical and quantum regimes. The demon is a microwave cavity that encodes quantum information about a superconducting qubit and converts information into work by powering up a propagating microwave pulse by stimulated emission. Thanks to the high level of control of superconducting circuits, we directly measure the extracted work and quantify the entropy remaining in the demon's memory. This experiment provides an enlightening illustration of the interplay of thermodynamics with quantum information.quantum thermodynamics | superconducting circuits | quantum information I n 1867, pondering the newly developed thermodynamic laws, Maxwell came to the disturbing conclusion that a "demon" can extract work cyclically from a thermodynamic system beyond the limits set by the second law when acting upon the information it obtains about the system (1). This paradox was resolved a century later when Landauer realized that information processing has an entropic cost and Bennett argued that the demon's memory must take full part in the thermodynamic cycle (2). Recent experiments have realized classical versions of elementary Maxwell demons in various physical systems (3-8). Although quantum versions have long been investigated theoretically (9-13), experimental realizations are in their infancy (7,8), and a full characterization is still missing. Using superconducting circuits, we reveal the inner mechanics of a quantum Maxwell demon that is able to extract work from a quantum system. Importantly, we are able to directly probe the extracted work by measuring the output power emitted by the system through stimulated emission, without inferring it from system trajectories (3-6, 14). We are thus able to demonstrate how the information stored in the demon's memory affects the extracted work. To make the characterization complete, we also measure the entropy and energy of the system and the demon. Superconducting circuits thus reveal themselves as a suitable experimental testbed for the blooming field of quantum thermodynamics of information (15)(16)(17)(18)(19).In the experiment, the system S is a transmon superconducting qubit (20) with energy difference hfS = h × 7.09 GHz between its ground |g and excited |e states. It is embedded in a microwave cavity that resonates at fD = 7.91 GHz and plays the role of the demon's memory D. The dispersive Hamiltonian reads H = hfS |e e|S + hfD d † d − hχd † d |e e|S , where d is the annihilation operator of a photon in the cavity. The last term induces a frequency shift of the cavity by −χ = −33 MHz when the qubit is excited. Reciprocally, the qubit frequency is shif...

Fundamental aspects of steady-state conversion of heat to work at the nanoscale

“…They are beyond the scope of this review, and we refer the reader to Refs. [413][414][415][416][417][418][419][420] Figure 23: Schematic picture of the Büttiker-Landauer's heat engine. The temperature is a periodic function of x, taking the value T H for 0 ≤ x < L/2 and T C for L/2 ≤ x < L 10 Other steady-state machines…”

“…Concepts from quantum information theory also provide new insights into the working of quantum heat engines, see e.g. [413][414][415][416][417][418][419][420]473], in particular the reviews [45][46][47]418].…”

A quantum Szilard engine without heat from a thermal reservoir

“…In recent years, much attention has been paid to the interplay between quantum theory and thermodynamics [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. This has included the extension of work extraction through feedback control to the quantum regime, culminating in both theoretical [24][25][26][27][28][29] and experimental [30,31] investigations. Of particular interest to our discussion is the work presented in [32,33], wherein the authors consider the possibility of a Maxwell demon engine that functions in thermal isolation.…”

Autonomous conversion of information to work in quantum dots

“…Experimental advances in controlling small systems have opened up the possibility of investigating stochastic thermodynamics in a variety of platforms including electronic systems [57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74], DNA molecules [75,76], photons [77], Brownian particles [78,79], and ultracold atoms [80]. Extensions to the quantum regime [81], where additional subtleties and challenges are encountered, have already led to many exciting insights both from theory [3,[82][83][84] as well as from experiment [85][86][87][88]. Even centuries after its conception, Maxwell's (and Szilard's [89]) thought experiment provides a prime concept for illustrating novel ideas and insights into the thermodynamics of information.…”

“…Studies on Maxwell's demon can broadly be grouped into two categories. Demons which rely on external control [60,61,68,77,78,80,87,88,[90][91][92][93][94][95][96] and autonomous demons [41,64,86,[97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114], where no external control is needed. Connections between autonomous and nonautonomous implementations of Maxwell's demon were investigated in Refs.…”