Title: Information Thermodynamics: Maxwell's Demon in Nonequilibrium Dynamics

Abstract: Ever since the proposal of the paradox of "Maxwell's demon" in the 19th century, the relationship between thermodynamics and information theory has attracted numerous attentions as it relates to the foundation of the second law of thermodynamics. Due to the recent advances in techniques of manipulating nanoscopic and mesoscopic systems, the Maxwell's demon has become amenable to experimental investigations. In this review article, we will present a theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics of information processing such as feedback control. By starting with an introduction of basic concepts of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and information theory, we will discuss a general framework of the theory of nonequilibrium information processing, and present illustrative examples of feedback control on nonequilibrium systems such as Langevin systems. In particular, we will focus on generalizations of the second law of thermodynamics and the nonequilibrium equalities such as the Jarzynski equality in the presence of feedback control.

Keywords:Maxwell's demon, information theory, feedback control, second law of thermodynamics, fluctuation theorem, Jarzynski equality, Langevin systems