dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaThe physics of forgetting: Landauer's erasure principle and information theory
| Authors | M. B. Plenio, V. Vitelli |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0103108 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0103108 |
| DOI | 10.1080/00107510010018916 |
| Journal | Contemporary Physics 42, 25 - 60 (2001) |
Abstract
This article discusses the concept of information and its intimate relationship with physics. After an introduction of all the necessary quantum mechanical and information theoretical concepts we analyze Landauer's principle that states that the erasure of information is inevitably accompanied by the generation of heat. We employ this principle to rederive a number of results in classical and quantum information theory whose rigorous mathematical derivations are difficult. This demonstrates the usefulness of Landauer's principle and provides an introduction to the physical theory of information.
{
"annotation_id": "a93a75b3-1e5f-4326-81f4-32f3d7ccd6ad",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:42.362000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:42.362000Z",
"file_hash": "4056760bd7413268c9d71c91e8afd7edc40280662472963f2932b5e33b4968f7",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "This article discusses the concept of information and its intimate\nrelationship with physics. After an introduction of all the necessary quantum\nmechanical and information theoretical concepts we analyze Landauer\u0027s principle\nthat states that the erasure of information is inevitably accompanied by the\ngeneration of heat. We employ this principle to rederive a number of results in\nclassical and quantum information theory whose rigorous mathematical\nderivations are difficult. This demonstrates the usefulness of Landauer\u0027s\nprinciple and provides an introduction to the physical theory of information.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0103108",
"authors": [
"M. B. Plenio",
"V. Vitelli"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1080/00107510010018916",
"journal_ref": "Contemporary Physics 42, 25 - 60 (2001)",
"title": "The physics of forgetting: Landauer\u0027s erasure principle and information theory",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0103108"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "e8ae378e-23ef-4f8f-9b30-b8ebf80c11eb",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}