Additional energy-information relations in thermodynamics of small systems

Raam Uzdin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Clausius inequality form of the second law of thermodynamics relates information changes (entropy) to changes in the first moment of the energy (heat and indirectly also work). Are there similar relations between other moments of the energy distribution, and other information measures, or is the Clausius inequality a one of a kind instance of the energy-information paradigm? If there are additional relations, can they be used to make predictions on measurable quantities? Changes in the energy distribution beyond the first moment (average heat or work) are especially important in small systems which are often very far from thermal equilibrium. The additional energy-information relations (AEIR's), here derived, provide positive answers to the two questions above and add another layer to the fundamental connection between energy and information. To illustrate the utility of the new AEIR's, we find scenarios where the AEIR's yield tighter constraints on performance (e.g., in thermal machines) compared to the second law. To obtain the AEIR's we use the Bregman divergence - a mathematical tool found to be highly suitable for energy-information studies. The quantum version of the AEIR's provides a thermodynamic meaning to various quantum coherence measures. It is intriguing to fully map the regime of validity of the AEIR's and extend the present results to more general scenarios including continuous systems and particles exchange with the baths.

Original languageEnglish
Article number032128
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume96
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 18 Sep 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.

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