Colloquium: The physics of Maxwell's demon and information

Koji Maruyama*, Franco Nori, Vlatko Vedral

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

485 Scopus citations

Abstract

Maxwell's demon was born in 1867 and still thrives in modern physics. He plays important roles in clarifying the connections between two theories: thermodynamics and information. Here the history of the demon and a variety of interesting consequences of the second law of thermodynamics are presented, mainly in quantum mechanics, but also in the theory of gravity. Also highlighted are some of the recent work that explores the role of information, illuminated by Maxwell's demon, in the arena of quantum-information theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-23
Number of pages23
JournalReviews of Modern Physics
Volume81
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009/01/06

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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