@article{6216,
  title = {Thermodynamic efficiency of information and heat flow},
  journal = {Journal  of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and  Experiment},
  abstract = {A basic task of information processing is information transfer (flow).
  P0
  Here we study a pair of Brownian particles each coupled to a thermal bath
  at temperatures T1 and T2 . The information flow in such a system is defined
  via the time-shifted mutual information. The information flow nullifies at
  equilibrium, and its efficiency is defined as the ratio of the flow to the total
  entropy production in the system. For a stationary state the information flows
  from higher to lower temperatures, and its efficiency is bounded from above by
  (max[T1 , T2 ])/(|T1 − T2 |). This upper bound is imposed by the second law and
  it quantifies the thermodynamic cost for information flow in the present class
  of systems. It can be reached in the adiabatic situation, where the particles
  have widely different characteristic times. The efficiency of heat flow—defined
  as the heat flow over the total amount of dissipated heat—is limited from above
  by the same factor. There is a complementarity between heat and information
  flow: the set-up which is most efficient for the former is the least efficient for the
  latter and vice versa. The above bound for the efficiency can be (transiently)
  overcome in certain non-stationary situations, but the efficiency is still limited
  from above. We study yet another measure of information processing (transfer
  entropy) proposed in the literature. Though this measure does not require any
  thermodynamic cost, the information flow and transfer entropy are shown to be
  intimately related for stationary states.},
  volume = {2009},
  number = {09},
  pages = {P09011},
  organization = {Max-Planck-Gesellschaft},
  school = {Biologische Kybernetik},
  month = sep,
  year = {2009},
  slug = {6216},
  author = {Allahverdyan, AE. and Janzing, D. and Mahler, G.},
  month_numeric = {9}
}