Vaccaro, J.A. and Barnett, S.M. (2011) Information erasure without an energy cost. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 467(2130), pp. 1770-1778. (doi: 10.1098/rspa.2010.0577)
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Abstract
Landauer argued that the process of erasing the information stored in a memory device incurs an energy cost in the form of a minimum amount of mechanical work. We find, however, that this energy cost can be reduced to zero by paying a cost in angular momentum or any other conserved quantity. Erasing the memory of Maxwell’s demon in this way implies that work can be extracted from a single thermal reservoir at a cost of angular momentum and an increase in total entropy. The implications of this for the second law of thermodynamics are assessed.
Item Type: | Articles |
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Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Barnett, Professor Stephen |
Authors: | Vaccaro, J.A., and Barnett, S.M. |
College/School: | College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy |
Journal Name: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
ISSN: | 1364-5021 |
ISSN (Online): | 1471-2946 |
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