In many real-world situations, there are constraints on the ways in which a physical system can be manipulated. We investigate the entropy production (EP) and extractable work involved in bringing a system from some initial distribution $p$ to some final distribution $p^{\prime }$, given that the set of master equations available to the driving protocol obeys some constraints. We first derive general bounds on EP and extractable work, as well as a decomposition of the nonequilibrium free energy into an “accessible free energy” (which can be extracted as work, given a set of constraints) and an “inaccessible free energy” (which must be dissipated as EP). In a similar vein, we consider the thermodynamics of information in the presence of constraints and decompose the information acquired in a measurement into “accessible” and “inaccessible” components. This decomposition allows us to consider the thermodynamic efficiency of different measurements of the same system, given a set of constraints. We use our framework to analyze protocols subject to symmetry, modularity, and coarse-grained constraints and consider various examples including the Szilard box, the 2D Ising model, and a multiparticle flashing ratchet.

中文翻译：

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协议约束下信息的工作、熵产生和热力学

在许多现实世界的情况下，对物理系统的操纵方式存在限制。我们研究了从一些初始分布中引入系统所涉及的熵产生 (EP) 和可提取的工作$磷$ 到一些最终分配 ${磷}^{\prime }$，假设可用于驱动协议的主方程组服从一些约束。我们首先推导出 EP 和可提取功的一般界限，以及将非平衡自由能分解为“可获取的自由能”（可以提取为功，给定一组约束）和“不可获取的自由能”（必须作为 EP 消散）。同样，我们在存在约束的情况下考虑信息的热力学，并将测量中获取的信息分解为“可访问”和“不可访问”组件。在给定一组约束的情况下，这种分解使我们能够考虑同一系统不同测量的热力学效率。我们使用我们的框架来分析受对称性、模块化、