We study the physical mechanism of Maxwells Demon (MD) helping to do extra work in thermodynamic cycles, by describing measurement of position, insertion of wall and information erasing of MD in a quantum mechanical fashion. The heat engine is exempl
ified with one molecule confined in an infinitely deep square potential inserted with a movable solid wall, while the MD is modeled as a two-level system (TLS) for measuring and controlling the motion of the molecule. It is discovered that the the MD with quantum coherence or on a lower temperature than that of the heat bath of the particle would enhance the ability of the whole work substance formed by the system plus the MD to do work outside. This observation reveals that the role of the MD essentially is to drive the whole work substance being off equilibrium, or equivalently working with an effective temperature difference. The elaborate studies with this model explicitly reveal the effect of finite size off the classical limit or thermodynamic limit, which contradicts the common sense on Szilard heat engine (SHE). The quantum SHEs efficiency is evaluated in detail to prove the validity of second law of thermodynamics.
Hermann Feshbach predicted fifty years ago that when two atomic nuclei are scattered within an open entrance channel-- the state observable at infinity, they may enter an intermediate closed channel -- the locally bounded state of the nuclei. If the
energy of a bound state of in the closed channel is fine-tuned to match the relative kinetic energy, then the open channel and the closed channel resonate, so that the scattering length becomes divergent. We find that this so-called Feshbach resonance phenomenon not only exists during the collisions of massive particles, but also emerges during the coherent transport of massless particles, that is, photons confined in the coupled resonator arrays cite{lzhou08}. We implement the open and the closed channels inside a pair of such arrays, linked by a separated cavity or a tunable qubit. When a single photon is bounded inside the closed channel by setting the relevant physical parameters appropriately, the vanishing transmission appears to display this photonic Feshbach resonance. The general construction can be implemented through various experimentally feasible solid state systems, such as the couple defected cavities in photonic crystals. The numerical simulation based on finite-different time-domain(FDTD) method confirms our conceive about physical implementation.
