Enhanced Photonic Maxwell's Demon with Correlated Baths
Guilherme L. Zanin, Michael Antesberger, Maxime J. Jacquet, P. H. Souto Ribeiro, Lee A. Rozema, Philip Walther
Abstract
Maxwell's Demon is at the heart of the interrelation between quantum information processing and thermodynamics. In this thought experiment, a demon generates a temperature gradient between two thermal baths initially at equilibrium by gaining information at the single-particle level and applying classical feed-forward operations, allowing for the extraction of work. Here we implement a photonic version of Maxwell's Demon with active feed-forward in a fibre-based system using ultrafast optical switches. We experimentally show that, if correlations exist between the two thermal baths, the Demon can generate a temperature difference over an order of magnitude larger than without correlations, and so extract more work. Our work demonstrates the great potential of photonic experiments – which provide a unique degree of control on the system – to access new regimes in quantum thermodynamics.