Maximizing Free Energy Gain
Name
entropy-27-00091.pdf
Size
1.23 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
970f7900b25e1849010ac90019e33019
Author(s)
Kolchinsky, Artemy
Marvian, Iman
Gokler, Can
Liu, Zi-Wen
Shor, Peter
Shtanko, Oles
Thompson, Kevin
Wolpert, David
Lloyd, Seth
Date Issued
January 20, 2025
Journal
Entropy
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Kolchinsky, A.; Marvian, I.; Gokler, C.; Liu, Z.-W.; Shor, P.; Shtanko, O.; Thompson, K.; Wolpert, D.; Lloyd, S. Maximizing Free Energy Gain. Entropy 2025, 27, 91.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Maximizing the amount of work harvested from an environment is important for a wide variety of biological and technological processes, from energy-harvesting processes such as photosynthesis to energy storage systems such as fuels and batteries. Here, we consider the maximization of free energy—and by extension, the maximum extractable work—that can be gained by a classical or quantum system that undergoes driving by its environment. We consider how the free energy gain depends on the initial state of the system while also accounting for the cost of preparing the system. We provide simple necessary and sufficient conditions for increasing the gain of free energy by varying the initial state. We also derive simple formulae that relate the free energy gained using the optimal initial state rather than another suboptimal initial state. Finally, we demonstrate that the problem of finding the optimal initial state may have two distinct regimes, one easy and one difficult, depending on the temperatures used for preparation and work extraction. We illustrate our results on a simple model of an information engine.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/e27010091
