IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v388y2009i2p113-119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information and flux in a feedback controlled Brownian ratchet

Author

Listed:
  • Cao, F.J.
  • Feito, M.
  • Touchette, H.

Abstract

We study a feedback control version of the flashing Brownian ratchet, in which the application of the flashing potential depends on the state of the particles to be controlled. Taking the view that the ratchet acts as a Maxwell’s demon, we study the relationship that exists between the performance of the demon as a rectifier of random motion and the amount of information gathered by the demon through measurements. In the context of a simple measurement model, we derive analytic expressions for the flux induced by the feedback ratchet when acting on one particle and a few particles, and compare these results with those obtained with its open-loop version, which operates without information. Our main finding is that the flux in the feedback case has an upper bound proportional to the square-root of the information. Our results provide a quantitative analysis of the value of information in feedback ratchets, as well as an effective description of imperfect or noisy feedback ratchets that are relevant for experimental applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, F.J. & Feito, M. & Touchette, H., 2009. "Information and flux in a feedback controlled Brownian ratchet," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(2), pages 113-119.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:388:y:2009:i:2:p:113-119
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2008.10.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437108008327
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2008.10.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:388:y:2009:i:2:p:113-119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.