Szilard engines and information-based work extraction for active systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes two innovative active Szilard engines that leverage the non-equilibrium properties of active particles to extract work, surpassing traditional limits and optimizing efficiency in active matter systems.

Contribution

The paper introduces two novel active Szilard engines utilizing active pressure and velocity correlations, demonstrating potential to violate Landauer's principle in active systems.

Findings

Larger work extraction than traditional engines in active baths

Identification of optimal regimes for maximum work and efficiency

Discussion of implications for synthetic and biological active systems

Abstract

The out of equilibrium nature of active systems can be exploited for the design of information-based engines. We design two types of an active Szilard engine that use a Maxwell daemon to extract work from an active bath composed of non-interacting Active Brownian Particles (ABPs). The two engines exploit either the quasi-static active pressure of ABPs or the long correlation time of their velocities. For both engines the Landauer principle can be violated so that larger work can be extracted compared to conventional Szilard engines operating in quasi thermal equilibrium. For both of our engines,we identify the optimal regimes at which the work extracted and the efficiency are maximized. Finally, we we discuss them in the context of synthetic and biological active systems.