Fluctuation Theorem with Information Exchange: Role of Correlations in Stochastic Thermodynamics

Understand

We establish the fluctuation theorem in the presence of information exchange between a nonequilibrium system and other degrees of freedom such as an observer and a feedback controller, where the amount of information exchange is added to the entropy production.

• The resulting generalized second law sets the fundamental limit of energy dissipation and energy cost during the information exchange.
• Our results apply not only to feedback-controlled processes but also to a much broader class of information exchanges, and provides a unified framework of nonequilibrium thermodynamics of measurement and feedback control.