Autonomous Maxwell's demon in a cavity QED system

We present an autonomous Maxwell's demon scheme. It is first analyzed theoretically in terms of information exchange in a closed system and then implemented experimentally with a single Rydberg atom and a high-quality microwave resonator. The atom simulates both a qubit interacting with the cavity and a demon carrying information on the qubit state. While the cold qubit crosses the hot cavity, the demon prevents energy absorption from the cavity mode, apparently violating the second law of thermodynamics. Taking into account the change of the mutual information between the demon and the qubit-cavity system gives rise to a generalized expression of the second law that we establish and measure. Finally, considering the closed qubit-cavity-demon system, we establish and measure that the generalized second law can be recast into an entropy conservation law, as expected for a unitary evolution.