2007/10/31 by Takahiro Sagawa, Masahito Ueda · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.080403
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 080403 (2008)
arxiv created 2008/02/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
A new thermodynamic inequality is derived which leads to the maximum work that can be extracted from multi-heat baths with the assistance of discrete quantum feedback control. The maximum work is determined by the free-energy difference and a generalized mutual information content between the thermodynamic system and the feedback controller. This maximum work can exceed that in conventional thermodynamics and, in the case of a heat cycle with two heat baths, the heat efficiency can be greater than that of the Carnot cycle. The consistency of our results with the second law of thermodynamics is ensured by the fact that work is needed for information processing of the feedback controller.