title: Linear irreversible thermodynamics and Onsager reciprocity for information-driven engines.
abstract: In the recent progress in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, information has been recognized as a kind of thermodynamic resource that can drive thermodynamic current without any direct energy injection. In this paper, we establish the framework of linear irreversible thermodynamics for a broad class of autonomous information processing. In particular, we prove that the Onsager reciprocity holds true with information: The linear response matrix is well-defined and is shown symmetric with both of the information affinity and the conventional thermodynamic affinity. As an application, we derive a universal bound for the efficiency at maximum power for information-driven engines in the linear regime. Our result reveals the fundamental role of information flow in linear irreversible thermodynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Science, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Shumpei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Oh-okayama 2-12-1, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan.
authors.forename: Sosuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Science, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoto
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shiraishi
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sagawa