Mechanical work extraction from an error-prone active dynamic Szilard engine
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908363516805120 |
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| author | Cocconi, Luca Malgaretti, Paolo Stark, Holger |
| author_facet | Cocconi, Luca Malgaretti, Paolo Stark, Holger |
| contents | Isothermal information engines operate by extracting net work from a single heat bath through measurement and feedback control. In this work, we analyze a realistic active Szilard engine operating on a single active particle by means of steric interaction with an externally controlled mechanical element. In particular, we provide a comprehensive study of how finite measurement accuracy affects the engine's work and power output, as well as the cost of operation. Having established the existence of non-trivial optima for work and power output, we study the dependence of their loci on the measurement error parameters and identify conditions for their positivity under one-shot and cyclic engine operation. By computing a suitably defined information efficiency, we also demonstrate that this engine design allows for the violation of Landauer's bound on the efficiency of information-to-work conversion. Notably, the information efficiency for one-shot operation exhibits a discontinuous transition and a non-monotonic dependence on the measurement precision. Finally, we show that cyclic operation improves information efficiency by harvesting residual mutual information between successive measurements. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_09523 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Mechanical work extraction from an error-prone active dynamic Szilard engine Cocconi, Luca Malgaretti, Paolo Stark, Holger Statistical Mechanics Isothermal information engines operate by extracting net work from a single heat bath through measurement and feedback control. In this work, we analyze a realistic active Szilard engine operating on a single active particle by means of steric interaction with an externally controlled mechanical element. In particular, we provide a comprehensive study of how finite measurement accuracy affects the engine's work and power output, as well as the cost of operation. Having established the existence of non-trivial optima for work and power output, we study the dependence of their loci on the measurement error parameters and identify conditions for their positivity under one-shot and cyclic engine operation. By computing a suitably defined information efficiency, we also demonstrate that this engine design allows for the violation of Landauer's bound on the efficiency of information-to-work conversion. Notably, the information efficiency for one-shot operation exhibits a discontinuous transition and a non-monotonic dependence on the measurement precision. Finally, we show that cyclic operation improves information efficiency by harvesting residual mutual information between successive measurements. |
| title | Mechanical work extraction from an error-prone active dynamic Szilard engine |
| topic | Statistical Mechanics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.09523 |