Beyond Landauer erasure (Q280695)

The Landauer's erasure principle says that the erasure of one bit of information requires a minimum energy cost equal to \(kT\) \(\ln 2\) (\(T\): temperature of the reservoir, \(k\): Boltzmann's constant). This applied to thermodynamics in general means that a thermodynamic system the maximization of entropy is always subject to the conservation of energy, to begin with the classical theory. Now, however, after the fundamental observation of \textit{E. T. Jaynes} [Probability theory. The logic of science. Edited and with a foreword by G. Larry Bretthorst. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2003; Zbl 1045.62001); Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 106, 620--630 (1957; Zbl 0084.43701)] we are aware that, in general, the maximum entropy principle is valid together with any number of conserved quantities. In other words : information erasure may have alternative costs (e. q. conservation of angular momentum and the often more complicated question of spins). Now this paper analyses the question and derives the minimum cost of information erasure for systems, where different conservation laws operate. The result is that for each conserved quantity the minimum resource needed to erase one bit of information memory is \(\alpha^{-1}\ln 2\), where is related to the average value of the conserved quantity. The final conclusion is that the costs of erasure depend on both the nature of the physical memory element and the reservoir with which it is coupled.