Thermodynamics of feedback controlled systems

Abstract

We compute the entropy reduction in feedback controlled systems due to the repeated operation of the controller. This was the lacking ingredient to establish the thermodynamics of these systems, and in particular of Maxwell’s demons. We illustrate some of the consequences of our general results by deriving the maximum work that can be extracted from isothermal feedback controlled systems. As a case example, we finally study a simple system that performs an isothermal information-fueled particle pumping.