title: Multiparticle quantum Szilard engine with optimal cycles assisted by a Maxwell's demon.
abstract: We present a complete-quantum description of a multiparticle Szilard engine that consists of a working substance and a Maxwell's demon. The demon is modeled as a multilevel quantum system with specific quantum control, and the working substance consists of identical particles obeying Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics. In this description, a reversible scheme to erase the demon's memory by a lower-temperature heat bath is used. We demonstrate that (1) the quantum control of the demon can be optimized for a single-particle Szilard engine so that the efficiency of the demon-assisted thermodynamic cycle could reach the Carnot cycle's efficiency and (2) the low-temperature behavior of the working substance is very sensitive to the quantum statistics of the particles and the insertion position of the partition.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004735:Energy Transfer; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011789:Quantum Theory; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids