Abstract
Understanding noisy information engines is a fundamental problem of non-equilibrium physics, particularly in biomolecular systems agitated by thermal and active fluctuations in the cell. By the generalized second law of thermodynamics, the efficiency of these engines is bounded by the mutual information passing through their noisy feedback loop. Yet, direct measurement of the interplay between mutual information and energy has so far been elusive. To allow such examination, we explore here the entire phase-space of a noisy colloidal information engine, and study efficiency fluctuations due to the stochasticity of the mutual information and extracted work. We find that the average efficiency is maximal for non-zero noise level, at which the distribution of efficiency switches from bimodal to unimodal, and the stochastic efficiency often exceeds unity. We identify a line of anomalous, noise-driven equilibrium states that defines a refrigerator-to-heater transition, and test the generalized integral fluctuation theorem for continuous engines.
Highlights
Understanding noisy information engines is a fundamental problem of non-equilibrium physics, in biomolecular systems agitated by thermal and active fluctuations in the cell
One is faced with a fundamental problem of information theory: what is the effect of noise on the capacity of a communication channel to transmit information? A seminal result by Shannon is the noisy channel coding theorem: the capacity of the channel is the maximal mutual information between its input and output[7,8]
Testing the fundamental limits set by non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems, such as the integral fluctuation theorem generalized for feedback systems[6,16,23], necessitates an experiment in which the magnitude and distribution of noise can be precisely controlled, which has not been achieved so far
Summary
Understanding noisy information engines is a fundamental problem of non-equilibrium physics, in biomolecular systems agitated by thermal and active fluctuations in the cell. Testing the fundamental limits set by non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems, such as the integral fluctuation theorem generalized for feedback systems[6,16,23], necessitates an experiment in which the magnitude and distribution of noise can be precisely controlled, which has not been achieved so far All these motivate us to examine the noisy information channels within an experimental setting which can directly measure, control, and vary the mutual information passing through the feedback loop. This allows us quantify the interplay between the performance of the engine and the capacity of the channel through the entire non-equilibrium phase space of the engine. In molecular receptors that recurrently bind and unbind signaling ligands[26] and the main synthesis pathways of the central dogma[27]
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