Maxwell's Demon, Szilard's Engine and Quantum Measurements

2003/01/15 by Wojciech H. Zurek, Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Zurek, Wojciech Hubert
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0301076

9 pages, 1 figure

arxiv created 2003/01/15 · openalex publication_date 2003/01/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We propose and analyze a quantum version of Szilard's ``one-molecule engine.'' In particular, we recover, in the quantum context, Szilard's conclusion concerning the free energy ``cost'' of measurements: ΔF ≥ k_B Tln2 per bit of information.

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