Information-to-work conversion by Maxwell's demon in a superconducting circuit-QED system

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the implementation of Maxwell's demon in a superconducting circuit-QED system, verifying quantum fluctuation theorems and showcasing information-to-work conversion in a quantum regime.

Contribution

It introduces a superconducting circuit platform for quantum information thermodynamics, combining coherent control and quantum nondemolition measurements to explore feedback-driven work extraction.

Findings

Verification of generalized integral fluctuation theorems

Demonstration of information-to-work conversion in a quantum system

Potential applications in quantum error correction and quantum metrology

Abstract

The gedanken experiment of Maxwell's demon has led to the studies concerning the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The demon measures fluctuations of a system's observable and converts the information gain into work via feedback control. Recent developments have elucidated the relationship between the acquired information and the entropy production and generalized the second law of thermodynamics and the fluctuation theorems. Here we extend the scope to a system subject to quantum fluctuations by exploiting techniques in superconducting circuit quantum electrodynamics. We implement Maxwell's demon equipped with coherent control and quantum nondemolition projective measurements on a superconducting qubit, where we verify the generalized integral fluctuation theorems and demonstrate the information-to-work conversion. This reveals the potential of superconducting circuits as a versatile platform for investigating quantum information thermodynamics under feedback control, which is closely linked to quantum error correction for computation and metrology.