The thermodynamic cost of measurements

TL;DR

This paper introduces a minimal theoretical framework for measuring thermal fluctuations, demonstrating that such measurements inherently cause work dissipation, exemplified through a two-state system inspired by Szilard's engine.

Contribution

It provides a novel minimal model for thermal fluctuation measurement and links measurement processes to work dissipation in thermodynamic systems.

Findings

Measurement of thermal fluctuations leads to work dissipation.

A simple two-state system illustrates the framework.

Measurement protocols inherently involve thermodynamic costs.

Abstract

The measurement of thermal fluctuations provides information about the microscopic state of a thermodynamic system and can be used in order to extract work from a single heat bath in a suitable cyclic process. We present a minimal framework for the modeling of a measurement device and we propose a protocol for the measurement of thermal fluctuations. In this framework, the measurement of thermal fluctuations naturally leads to the dissipation of work. We illustrate this framework on a simple two states system inspired by the Szilard's information engine.