2023/12/22 by Stephen Whitelam, Whitelam, Stephen
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2312.16195
Landauer's principle states that erasing a bit of information at fixed temperature T costs at least kT ln 2 units of work. Here we investigate erasure at varying temperature, to which Landauer's result does not apply. We formulate bit erasure as a stochastic nonequilibrium process involving a compression of configuration space, with physical and logical states associated in a symmetric way. Erasure starts and ends at temperature T, but temperature can otherwise vary with time in an arbitrary way. Defined in this way, erasure is governed by a set of nonequilibrium fluctuation relations that show that varying-temperature erasure can done with less work than k T ln 2. As a result, erasure and the complementary process of bit randomization can be combined to form a work-producing engine cycle.