Thermodynamics of Information Processing Based on Enzyme Kinetics: an Exactly Solvable Model of Information Pump

TL;DR

This paper introduces an exactly solvable enzyme-kinetics-based model of an information pump and eraser, exploring thermodynamics and efficiency in small systems processing information through chemical potential manipulation.

Contribution

It presents a minimal, exactly solvable model of an information engine based on enzyme kinetics, analyzing its operation regimes and thermodynamic properties.

Findings

Exact solution of the model dynamics

Identification of operation phase diagram

Analysis of efficiency and thermodynamic consistency

Abstract

Motivated by the recent proposed models of the information engine [D. Mandal and C. Jarzynski, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 109, 11641 (2012)] and the information refrigerator [D. Mandal, H. T. Quan, and C. Jarzynski, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 030602 (2013)], we propose a minimal model of the information pump and the information eraser based on enzyme kinetics. This device can either pump molecules against the chemical potential gradient by consuming the information encoded in the bit stream or (partially) erase the information encoded in the bit stream by consuming the Gibbs free energy. The dynamics of this model is solved exactly, and the "phase diagram" of the operation regimes is determined. The efficiency and the power of the information machine is analyzed. The validity of the second law of thermodynamics within our model is clarified. Our model offers a simple paradigm for the investigating of the thermodynamics of information processing involving the chemical potential in small systems.