Reversible feedback confinement

TL;DR

This paper introduces a reversible feedback protocol that confines a system to a single micro-state with zero heat dissipation, maintaining equilibrium and reversibility, and can be implemented in finite time, applicable to both continuous and discrete systems.

Contribution

It develops a novel feedback protocol for reversible confinement of systems, ensuring minimal dissipation and broad applicability, including a general theory for discrete states.

Findings

The protocol achieves confinement without heat dissipation.

It maintains feedback reversibility and equilibrium.

Applicable to systems with continuous and discrete states.

Abstract

We present a feedback protocol that is able to confine a system to a single micro-state without heat dissipation. The protocol adjusts the Hamiltonian of the system in such a way that the Bayesian posterior distribution after measurement is in equilibrium. As a result, the whole process satisfies feedback reversibility -- the process is indistinguishable from its time reversal -- and assures the lowest possible dissipation for confinement. In spite of the whole process being reversible it can surprisingly be implemented in finite time. We illustrate the idea with a Brownian particle in a harmonic trap with increasing stiffness and present a general theory of reversible feedback confinement for systems with discrete states.