A chemical reaction network implementation of a Maxwell demon

We study an autonomous model of a Maxwell demon that works by rectifying thermal fluctuations of chemical reactions. It constitutes the chemical analog of a recently studied electronic demon. We characterize its scaling behavior in the macroscopic limit, its performances, and the impact of potential internal delays. We obtain analytical expressions for all quantities of interest: the generated reverse chemical current, the output power, the transduction efficiency, and correlation between the number of molecules. Due to a bound on the nonequilibrium response of its chemical reaction network, we find that, contrary to the electronic case, there is no way for the Maxwell demon to generate a finite output in the macroscopic limit. Finally, we analyze the information thermodynamics of the Maxwell demon from a bipartite perspective. In the limit of a fast demon, the information flow is obtained, its pattern in the state space is discussed, and the behavior of partial efficiencies related to the measurement and feedback processes is examined.

Automated summary

We study an autonomous model of a Maxwell demon that rectifies thermal fluctuations of chemical reactions. We analyze its scaling behavior, performances, and the impact of potential internal delays. Analytical expressions are obtained for all quantities of interest, including the reverse chemical current, output power, transduction efficiency, and correlation between the number of molecules. Due to a bound on the nonequilibrium response, the Maxwell demon is unable to generate a finite output in the macroscopic limit.