Maxwell's Demon and Negative Core–Mantle Boundary Heat Flux — A Match Made in Heaven?

AbstractRecent thermochemical mantle convection simulations show that heat flux at Earth’score–mantle boundary (CMB) can become locally negative beneath large low shearwave velocity provinces (LLSVPs), implying heat transfer from mantle to core. Theseinversions arise when excess internal heating of dense primordial material combineswith temperature-dependent thermal conductivity to suppress conductive extractionof heat from the piles. The resulting spatial heterogeneity produces subadiabatic regions and transient flux spikes associated with slab arrival.This behavior parallels Maxwellian “sorting” systems, where constraints modify accessible transport pathways while global entropy production is preserved. We explorethis conceptual bridge between three scales: Maxwell’s thought experiment, Raizen’satomic-scale laser cooling realization, and planetary-scale negative CMB flux. Wedemonstrate that structured constraints — informational, quantum, or physical —naturally allow local inversions of energy or entropy without violating the Second Law,and that the Earth’s mantle provides a macroscopic realization of a Maxwellian transport architecture.