Experimental demonstration of information-to-energy conversion and validation of the generalized Jarzynski equality
Experimental demonstration of information-to-energy conversion and validation of the generalized Jarzynski equality
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DOI：
10.1038/nphys1821
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发表时间：
2010-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
19.6
通讯作者：
Sano, Masaki
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Toyabe, Shoichi;Sagawa, Takahiro;Sano, Masaki
1929年，利奥·西拉德（Leo Szilard）发明了一种反馈协议（1），在该协议中，一种被假设的智能体——被称为麦克斯韦妖——从等温环境中抽取热量并将其转化为功。经过长期激烈的争论，最终明确麦克斯韦妖的作用并不违背热力学第二定律，这意味着从原则上讲，我们可以将信息转化为自由能（2 - 6）。然而，这种信息到能量转化的实验演示一直难以实现。在此我们证明，基于布朗粒子位置信息对其进行的非平衡反馈操作实现了西拉德式的信息到能量的转化。通过实时反馈控制，使粒子沿着电场施加的类似螺旋楼梯的势场上升，并获得比施加给它的功更大的自由能。这使我们能够验证广义的雅津斯基等式（7），并提出了一种“信息 - 热机”的新基本原理，即通过反馈控制将信息转化为能量。
In 1929, Leo Szilard invented a feedback protocol(1) in which a hypothetical intelligence-dubbed Maxwell's demon-pumps heat from an isothermal environment and transforms it into work. After a long-lasting and intense controversy it was finally clarified that the demon's role does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics, implying that we can, in principle, convert information to free energy(2-6). An experimental demonstration of this information-to-energy conversion, however, has been elusive. Here we demonstrate that a non-equilibrium feedback manipulation of a Brownian particle on the basis of information about its location achieves a Szilard-type information-to-energy conversion. Using real-time feedback control, the particle is made to climb up a spiral-staircase-like potential exerted by an electric field and gains free energy larger than the amount of work done on it. This enables us to verify the generalized Jarzynski equality(7), and suggests a new fundamental principle of an 'information-to-heat engine' that converts information into energy by feedback control.