Physical Transformation AtlasPTA
Phenomenon · phenomenon:information-to-work-conversion

Information-to-work conversion

Measuring a fluctuating Brownian particle and applying feedback extracts work from a single thermal bath, paid for by the entropy cost of the measurement record.

Quantum transportfirst reported 2010also: Szilard engine, feedback ratchet

Atlas record: 3 claims reference this phenomenon — 2 established and 1 demonstrated.

Explorerelations · matrix context · sources · cite

conditions: liquid · room temperature
3claims0enumerated routes0routes with complete-composition evidence0candidate routes not searched2cited sources

Relations

drives · 1
Thermal energy at uniform temperature—drives→Information-to-work conversiondemonstrated
  • feedback control based on measurement of a fluctuating particle; the work extracted is bounded by kT·ln2 per bit of information used
Not a violation of the second law — the measurement and erasure of the record cost at least the work extracted.
member of · 1
Information-to-work conversion—member of→Fluctuation / information-drivenestablished
bounded by · 1
Information-to-work conversion—bounded by→Second law of thermodynamicsestablished

Matrix context

D = disequilibrium row · C = coupling family column. A cell reads the state of the atlas for that pair.

D.21 × C.31 · Thermal energy at uniform temperature × Fluctuation / information-driven · Demonstrated
family: Fluctuation / information-driven (C.31)

Cited sources · 2

  1. [1]
    S. Toyabe et al.. Experimental demonstration of information-to-energy conversion and validation of the generalized Jarzynski equality (2010)
    Nature Physics 6, 988–992 · doi:10.1038/nphys1821 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record
  2. [2]
    J. M. R. Parrondo, J. M. Horowitz, T. Sagawa. Thermodynamics of information (2015)
    Nature Physics 11, 131–139 · doi:10.1038/nphys3230 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record

Cite this entity

Physical Transformation Atlas (2026). entity phenomenon:information-to-work-conversion: Information-to-work conversion. Dataset revision rbfbfcbb70e57 (hash of the canonical data). https://physical-transformation-atlas.wldud5192.workers.dev/phenomenon/information-to-work-conversion

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