Information machine


  Tamir Admon [1]  ,  Dr. Saar Rahav [2]  ,  Dr. Yael Roichman [1]  
[1] Department of physical chemistry, Tel Aviv university
[2] Faculty of chemistry, Technion

We propose a realization of information machine which converts information to work, using the concept of Leo Szilard's feedback protocol. In our realization, a colloidal particle is drifting with fluid flow in a 1D channel until it encounters a barrier. The particle is monitored as it diffuses in the vicinity of the barrier. If the particle is seen to diffuse further enough upstream, the barier is moved closer to the particle without affecting it. Repeating this feedback based action results in transporting the particle againt the fluid flow, without any direct work applied on the particle itself. We implement this model both in molecular dynamics simulations and in experiment using laser light to create a repulsive barrier and study the thermodynamics of this system in terms of fluctuation theorems.