Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping

All clocks, in some form or another, use the evolution of nature toward higher entropy states to quantify the passage of time. Because of the statistical nature of the second law and corresponding entropy flows, fluctuations fundamentally limit the performance of any clock. This suggests a deep rela...

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Autores principales:	A. N. Pearson, Y. Guryanova, P. Erker, E. A. Laird, G. A. D. Briggs, M. Huber, N. Ares
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/58423eff8f654f48817c79d5f8cc4f19
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:58423eff8f654f48817c79d5f8cc4f192021-12-02T14:47:24ZMeasuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping10.1103/PhysRevX.11.0210292160-3308https://doaj.org/article/58423eff8f654f48817c79d5f8cc4f192021-05-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021029http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021029https://doaj.org/toc/2160-3308All clocks, in some form or another, use the evolution of nature toward higher entropy states to quantify the passage of time. Because of the statistical nature of the second law and corresponding entropy flows, fluctuations fundamentally limit the performance of any clock. This suggests a deep relation between the increase in entropy and the quality of clock ticks. Indeed, minimal models for autonomous clocks in the quantum realm revealed that a linear relation can be derived, where for a limited regime every bit of entropy linearly increases the accuracy of quantum clocks. But can such a linear relation persist as we move toward a more classical system? We answer this in the affirmative by presenting the first experimental investigation of this thermodynamic relation in a nanoscale clock. We stochastically drive a nanometer-thick membrane and read out its displacement with a radio-frequency cavity, allowing us to identify the ticks of a clock. We show theoretically that the maximum possible accuracy for this classical clock is proportional to the entropy created per tick, similar to the known limit for a weakly coupled quantum clock but with a different proportionality constant. We measure both the accuracy and the entropy. Once nonthermal noise is accounted for, we find that there is a linear relation between accuracy and entropy and that the clock operates within an order of magnitude of the theoretical bound.A. N. PearsonY. GuryanovaP. ErkerE. A. LairdG. A. D. BriggsM. HuberN. AresAmerican Physical SocietyarticlePhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review X, Vol 11, Iss 2, p 021029 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Physics QC1-999 A. N. Pearson Y. Guryanova P. Erker E. A. Laird G. A. D. Briggs M. Huber N. Ares Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping
description	All clocks, in some form or another, use the evolution of nature toward higher entropy states to quantify the passage of time. Because of the statistical nature of the second law and corresponding entropy flows, fluctuations fundamentally limit the performance of any clock. This suggests a deep relation between the increase in entropy and the quality of clock ticks. Indeed, minimal models for autonomous clocks in the quantum realm revealed that a linear relation can be derived, where for a limited regime every bit of entropy linearly increases the accuracy of quantum clocks. But can such a linear relation persist as we move toward a more classical system? We answer this in the affirmative by presenting the first experimental investigation of this thermodynamic relation in a nanoscale clock. We stochastically drive a nanometer-thick membrane and read out its displacement with a radio-frequency cavity, allowing us to identify the ticks of a clock. We show theoretically that the maximum possible accuracy for this classical clock is proportional to the entropy created per tick, similar to the known limit for a weakly coupled quantum clock but with a different proportionality constant. We measure both the accuracy and the entropy. Once nonthermal noise is accounted for, we find that there is a linear relation between accuracy and entropy and that the clock operates within an order of magnitude of the theoretical bound.
format	article
author	A. N. Pearson Y. Guryanova P. Erker E. A. Laird G. A. D. Briggs M. Huber N. Ares
author_facet	A. N. Pearson Y. Guryanova P. Erker E. A. Laird G. A. D. Briggs M. Huber N. Ares
author_sort	A. N. Pearson
title	Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping
title_short	Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping
title_full	Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping
title_fullStr	Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping
title_full_unstemmed	Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping
title_sort	measuring the thermodynamic cost of timekeeping
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/58423eff8f654f48817c79d5f8cc4f19
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Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping

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