Thermodynamic cost of measurements.
The measurement of thermal fluctuations provides information about the microscopic state of a thermodynamic system and can be used in order to extract work from a single heat bath in a suitable cyclic process. We present a minimal framework for the modeling of a measurement device and we propose a protocol for the measurement of thermal fluctuations. In this framework, the measurement of thermal fluctuations naturally leads to the dissipation of work. We illustrate this framework on a simple two states system inspired by the Szilard's information engine.
Max Planck Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, Nöthnitzerstrasse 38, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
Léo
L
Granger
Holger
H
Kantz