Nonequilibrium thermodynamics of feedback-control: a phase-space perspective

Abstract

Maxwell demons can convert knowledge into thermodynamic advantage by using measurement-acquired information. However, standard formulations of this problem assume that the demon has access to the system's entire phase space, an assumption that fails in many practical applications. Here, I address this problem by deriving fluctuation relations for general feedback-controlled systems, including such singular cases. The central quantity is a generalized notion of unavailable information: a portion of the acquired information that cannot be used to extract useful work. Finally, a Szilard engine with finite resolution illustrates these results. In the high-resolution limit, the information acquired by the demon may diverge, yet the extractable work remains finite. This work shows that this occurs because an equally divergent amount of information becomes unavailable.