Entropic Quantum Machine

Abstract

We study nanomachines whose relevant (effective) degrees of freedom f >> 1 but smaller than f of proteins. In these machines, both the entropic and the quantum effects over the whole system play the essential roles in producing nontrivial functions. We therefore call them entropic quantum machines (EQMs). We propose a systematic protocol for designing the EQMs, which enables a rough sketch, accurate design of equilibrium states, and accurate estimate of response time. As an illustration, we design a novel EQM, which shows two characteristic shapes. One can switch from one shape to the other by changing temperature or by applying a pulsed external field. We discuss two potential applications of this example of an EQM.