Multiparticle quantum Szilard engine with optimal cycles assisted by a Maxwell's demon

Abstract

We present a complete-quantum description of a multiparticle Szilard engine that consists of a working substance and a Maxwell's demon. The demon is modeled as a multilevel quantum system with specific quantum control, and the working substance consists of identical particles obeying Bose-Einstein or Fermi-Dirac statistics. In this description, a reversible scheme to erase the demon's memory by a lower-temperature heat bath is used. We demonstrate that (1) the quantum control of the demon can be optimized for a single-particle Szilard engine so that the efficiency of the demon-assisted thermodynamic cycle could reach the Carnot cycle's efficiency and (2) the low-temperature behavior of the working substance is very sensitive to the quantum statistics of the particles and the insertion position of the partition.