A chemical reaction network implementation of a Maxwell demon

Abstract

We study an autonomous model of a Maxwell demon that works by rectifying thermal fluctuations of chemical reactions. It constitutes the chemical analog of a recently studied electronic demon. We characterize its scaling behavior in the macroscopic limit, its performances, and the impact of potential internal delays. We obtain analytical expressions for all quantities of interest, namely, the generated reverse chemical current, the output power, the transduction efficiency, and the correlations between the numbers of molecules. Due to a bound on the nonequilibrium response of its chemical reaction network, we find that, contrary to the electronic case, there is no way for the Maxwell demon to generate a finite output in the macroscopic limit. Finally, we analyze the information thermodynamics of the Maxwell demon from a bipartite perspective. In the limit of a fast demon, the information flow is obtained, its pattern in the state space is discussed, and the behavior of the partial efficiencies related to the measurement and the feedback processes is examined.