Ben Schumacher, quantum informationista extraordinare, and inventor of the word “qubit” will be givin the next Complexity, Entrophy, and the Physics of Information Distinguished Lecture at the Santa Fe Institute this Wednesday, 3/9/05, reception at 4:15, talk starts at 5:00:
Information Engines and the Second Law
Ben Schumacher
Department of Physics, Kenyon College
Maxwell’s demon, which extracts work from a thermodynamic system by acquiring information about it, has for more than a century been a favorite thought-experiment in the foundations of statistical physics. The demon has variously been viewed as a threat, an exception, an exemplar, and a means for extending the Second Law. I will describe a new formulation of thermodynamics in which such “information engines” play the central role, giving new insights about entropy, information erasure, the meaning of temperature, and the connection between fluctuation and dissipation.
Ben Schumacher also gave a great talk today at Los Alamos on information flow in quantum systems (as related to quantum cellular automata). I believe that he’ll give the same talk at UNM on Friday (3/11) for a physics department colloquium, which I definitely recommend.
Here’s his abstract:
http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/p/qri/qri_abstracts_2002/03_08_05_schumacher.shtml