Keeping the entropy of measurement: Szilard revisited
The Second Law of Thermodynamics forbids a net gain of information. Yet a measurement provides information. Measurement itself thus becomes paradoxical, until one reflects that the gain in information about the system of interest might be offset by a gain in entropy of some garbage can gc. Indeed, it must be so offset to save the bookkeeping of the Second Law. This apparent and paradoxical gain in information attendant upon observation, presumably due to neglect of some dissipant gc, has long prompted aberrant speculation that intelligent beings and even life in general somehow indeed violate the Second Law, an erroneous view he cites only for perspective. For some time he has fallen prey to a version of this paradox, developed in the context of standard quantum theory of measurement as delineated by von Neumann (1955), a trap he has recently been able to escape with the help of Szilard (1929), the celebrated paper in which the related paradox of Maxwell's demon is broken. Here he describes a precise formulation, then resolution of his paradox of information through measurement.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
- OSTI ID:
- 6112949
- Journal Information:
- Int. J. Theor. Phys.; (United States), Vol. 26:6
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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GENERAL PHYSICS
MEASURE THEORY
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CORRECTIONS
DENSITY MATRIX
GROUND STATES
HAMILTONIANS
INFORMATION THEORY
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
LANDAU FLUCTUATIONS
ORTHOGONAL TRANSFORMATIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
STATISTICAL MECHANICS
THERMODYNAMICS
WAVE FUNCTIONS
ENERGY LEVELS
FLUCTUATIONS
FUNCTIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
MATHEMATICS
MATRICES
MECHANICS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUANTUM OPERATORS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSFORMATIONS
VARIATIONS
657002* - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics- Classical & Quantum Mechanics