A quantum version of the classical Szilard engine

• Authors: Paul Bracken
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A reinvention of the classical Maxwel demon was proposed by Szilard around the time quantum mechanics was developed. His model continues to attract great interest, especially quantum versions of it. A quantum formulation of the Szilard engine is introduced and investigated here. It is made to operate through specified cycles in such a way that all thermodynamic quantities which pertain to the system can be evaluated exactly in closed form along each sequence of steps through a cycle. It is shown that as a result of the structure of the model, it is possible to calculate and compare various thermodynamic quantities as the engine proceeds around a well defined specific cycle.

Keywords

EN

cycle; internal energy; thermodynamics; entropy; quantum system; wavefunction

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Physics
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-8

Dates

published

1 - 1 - 2014

online

2 - 2 - 2014

Contributors

author

Paul Bracken

• Department of Mathematics, University of Texas, Edinburg, TX, 78540, USA

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11534-014-0431-5