dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaNotes on Landauer's principle, Reversible Computation and Maxwell's Demon
| Authors | Charles H. Bennett |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0210005 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0210005 |
| Journal | Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics vol. 34 pp. 501-510 (2003) |
Abstract
Landauer's principle, often regarded as the foundation of the thermodynamics of information processing, holds that any logically irreversible manipulation of information, such as the erasure of a bit or the merging of two computation paths, must be accompanied by a corresponding entropy increase in non-information bearing degrees of freedom of the information processing apparatus or its environment. Conversely, it is generally accepted that any logically reversible transformation of information can in principle be accomplished by an appropriate physical mechanism operating in a thermodynamically reversible fashion. These notions have sometimes been criticized either as being false, or as being trivial and obvious, and therefore unhelpful for purposes such as explaining why Maxwell's Demon cannot violate the Second Law of thermodynamics. Here I attempt to refute some of the arguments against Landauer's principle, while arguing that although in a sense it is indeed a trivial and obvious restatement of the Second Law, it still has considerable pedagogic and explanatory power, especially in the context of other influential ideas in 19'th and 20'th century physics. Similar arguments have been given by Jeffrey Bub [arXiv:quant-ph/0203017].
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"abstract": "Landauer\u0027s principle, often regarded as the foundation of the thermodynamics\nof information processing, holds that any logically irreversible manipulation\nof information, such as the erasure of a bit or the merging of two computation\npaths, must be accompanied by a corresponding entropy increase in\nnon-information bearing degrees of freedom of the information processing\napparatus or its environment. Conversely, it is generally accepted that any\nlogically reversible transformation of information can in principle be\naccomplished by an appropriate physical mechanism operating in a\nthermodynamically reversible fashion. These notions have sometimes been\ncriticized either as being false, or as being trivial and obvious, and\ntherefore unhelpful for purposes such as explaining why Maxwell\u0027s Demon cannot\nviolate the Second Law of thermodynamics. Here I attempt to refute some of the\narguments against Landauer\u0027s principle, while arguing that although in a sense\nit is indeed a trivial and obvious restatement of the Second Law, it still has\nconsiderable pedagogic and explanatory power, especially in the context of\nother influential ideas in 19\u0027th and 20\u0027th century physics. Similar arguments\nhave been given by Jeffrey Bub [arXiv:quant-ph/0203017].",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0210005",
"authors": [
"Charles H. Bennett"
],
"categories": [
"physics.class-ph",
"cond-mat.stat-mech",
"physics.hist-ph"
],
"journal_ref": "Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics vol. 34 pp.\n 501-510 (2003)",
"title": "Notes on Landauer\u0027s principle, Reversible Computation and Maxwell\u0027s Demon",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0210005"
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