Berlin 2018 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 40: Talk J. Bechhoefer
DY 40.1: Invited Talk
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 09:30–10:00, BH-N 243
Measurement of the functional form of Shannon entropy by partial erasure of a bit — •John Bechhoefer1, Momčilo Gavrilov1,2, and Raphaël Chétrite1,3,4 — 1Dept. of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada — 2Present address: Dept. of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA — 3Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, UMI 3069, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada — 4Permanent address: Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, LJAD, Parc Valrose, NICE, France
We use a feedback trap to erase a fraction of a bit of information from a memory whose states are encoded in the two states of a double-well potential. The system consists of a colloidal particle in water in a ``virtual" potential. We show experimentally that the minimum amount of work required is proportional to the Shannon entropy function for a two-state system, for arbitrary state probabilities. This is the first experimental confirmation that the Shannon function is the appropriate definition for nonequilibrium system entropy as it relates to thermodynamics.