Thermodynamics of genuine nonequilibrium states under feedback control

Abstract

For genuine nonequilibrium states that even at fixed external control parameter exhibit dissipation, we extend the Hatano-Sasa equality to processes with feedback control. The resulting bound on the maximal extractable work is substantially sharper than what would follow from applying the Sagawa-Ueda equality to transitions involving such states. For repeated measurements at short enough intervals, the power thus extracted can even exceed the average cost of driving as demonstrated explicitly with a simple, analytically solvable example. © 2012 American Physical Society.