Information and flux in a feedback controlled Brownian ratchet

F. J. Cao, M. Feito, H. Touchette

Published 2007-03-19, updated 2008-11-03Version 2

We study a feedback control version of the flashing Brownian ratchet, in which the application of the flashing potential depends on the state of the particles to be controlled. Taking the view that the ratchet acts as a Maxwell's demon, we study the relationship that exists between the performance of the demon as a rectifier of random motion and the amount of information gathered by the demon through measurements. In the context of a simple measurement model, we derive analytic expressions for the flux induced by the feedback ratchet when acting on one particle and a few particles, and compare these results with those obtained with its open-loop version, which operates without information. Our main finding is that the flux in the feedback case has an upper bound proportional to the square-root of the information. Our results provide a quantitative analysis of the value of information in feedback ratchets, as well as an effective description of imperfect or noisy feedback ratchets that are relevant for experimental applications.