A Maxwell demon model connecting information and thermodynamics

Abstract

In the past decade several theoretical Maxwell's demon models have been proposed exhibiting effects such as refrigerating, doing work at the cost of information, and some experiments have been done to realise these effects. Here we propose a model with a two level demon, information represented by a sequence of bits, and two heat reservoirs. Which reservoir the demon interact with depends on the bit. If information is pure, one reservoir will be refrigerated, on the other hand, information can be erased if temperature difference is large. Genuine examples of such a system are discussed.