Information erasure without an energy cost

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
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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