Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 13: Poster - Glasses / Stat. Phys. Bio. / Networks (joint session DY/BP/CPP/SOE)

DY 13.37: Poster

Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 09:30–12:30, P1

Fractal distributions in a cyclic information-engine with optimal feedback — •Michael Bauer, Andre C. Barato, and Udo Seifert — II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany

It is known that information obtained by measurements can be converted into work, the paradigmatic example being Szilard’s engine. For a two level system coupled to a heat bath and a work reservoir we obtain the optimal protocol corresponding to the maximal work extraction. Moreover, we consider a controller performing cyclic measurements and changing the protocol accordingly. Analyzing this optimal cyclic machine we find a recursion relation for the initial occupation probability of the level with higher energy, which depends on the measurement error. Through the numerical analysis of this relation we obtain a fractal histogram, which is a strange attractor (common in chaos theory). This fractal structure can be explained with a simplified model leading to the Cantor set.