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Colloquium: The physics of Maxwell’s demon and information

Koji Maruyama, Franco Nori, and Vlatko Vedral

Koji Maruyama

  • Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Wako-shi 351-0198, Japan and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan

Franco Nori

  • Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Wako-shi 351-0198, Japan; CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan; and Center for Theoretical Physics, Physics Department, Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA

Vlatko Vedral

  • The School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom and Quantum Information Technology Lab, National University of Singapore, 117542 Singapore, Singapore

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Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 1 – Published 6 January, 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.81.1

Abstract

Maxwell’s demon was born in 1867 and still thrives in modern physics. He plays important roles in clarifying the connections between two theories: thermodynamics and information. Here the history of the demon and a variety of interesting consequences of the second law of thermodynamics are presented, mainly in quantum mechanics, but also in the theory of gravity. Also highlighted are some of the recent work that explores the role of information, illuminated by Maxwell’s demon, in the arena of quantum-information theory.

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Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 1– Published 6 January, 2009

    © 2009 American Physical Society

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