Designing optimal discrete-feedback thermodynamic engines

Feedback can be utilized to convert information into useful work, making it an effective tool for increasing the performance of thermodynamic engines. Using feedback reversibility as a guiding principle, we devise a method for designing optimal feedback protocols for thermodynamic engines that extract all the information gained during feedback as work. Our method is based on the observation that in a feedback-reversible process the measurement and the time-reversal of the ensuing protocol both prepare the system in the same probabilistic state. We illustrate the utility of our method with two examples of the multi-particle Szilard engine.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, submitted to New J. Phy

Generalized Jarzynski Equality under Nonequilibrium Feedback Control

The Jarzynski equality is generalized to situations in which nonequilibrium systems are subject to a feedback control. The new terms that arise as a consequence of the feedback describe the mutual information content obtained by measurement and the efficacy of the feedback control. Our results lead to a generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem that reflects the readout information, and can be experimentally tested using small thermodynamic systems. We illustrate our general results by an introducing "information ratchet," which can transport a Brownian particle in one direction and extract a positive work from the particle

Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control

In 1929, Leo Szilard invented a feedback protocol in which a hypothetical intelligence called Maxwell's demon pumps heat from an isothermal environment and transduces it to work. After an intense controversy that lasted over eighty years; it was finally clarified that the demon's role does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics, implying that we can convert information to free energy in principle. Nevertheless, experimental demonstration of this information-to-energy conversion has been elusive. Here, we demonstrate that a nonequilibrium feedback manipulation of a Brownian particle based on information about its location achieves a Szilard-type information-energy conversion. Under real-time feedback control, the particle climbs up a spiral-stairs-like potential exerted by an electric field and obtains free energy larger than the amount of work performed on it. This enables us to verify the generalized Jarzynski equality, or a new fundamental principle of "information-heat engine" which converts information to energy by feedback control.Comment: manuscript including 7 pages and 4 figures and supplementary material including 6 pages and 8 figure

Microscopic shell-model description of the exotic nucleus ^{16}C

The structure of the neutron-rich carbon nucleus ^{16}C is described by introducing a new microscopic shell model of no-core type. The model space is composed of the 0s, 0p, 1s0d, and 1p0f shells. The effective interaction is microscopically derived from the CD-Bonn potential and the Coulomb force through a unitary transformation theory. Calculated low-lying energy levels of ^{16}C agree well with the experiment. The B(E2;2_{1}^{+} \to 0_{1}^{+}) value is calculated with the bare charges. The anomalously hindered B(E2) value for ^{16}C, measured recently, is well reproduced.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, considerable results and discussion are added, but the main conclusion is unchanged, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Widths of Isobaric Analog Resonances: a microscopic approach

A self-consistent particle-phonon coupling model is used to investigate the properties of the isobaric analog resonance in $^{208}$Bi. It is shown that quantitative agreement with experimental data for the energy and the width can be obtained if the effects of isospin-breaking nuclear forces are included, in addition to the Coulomb force effects. A connection between microscopic model predictions and doorway state approaches which make use of the isovector monopole resonance, is established via a phenomenological ansatz for the optical potential.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure. To appear on Phys. Rev. C (tentatively scheduled for June 1998