Thermodynamical versus Logical Irreversibility: A Concrete Objection to Landauer's Principle

Entropy (Basel). 2023 Aug 1;25(8):1155. doi: 10.3390/e25081155.

Abstract

Landauer's principle states that the logical irreversibility of an operation, such as erasing one bit, whatever its physical implementation, necessarily implies its thermodynamical irreversibility. In this paper, a very simple counterexample of physical implementation (that uses a two-to-one relation between logic and thermodynamic states) is given that allows one bit to be erased in a thermodynamical quasistatic manner (i.e., one that may tend to be reversible if slowed down enough).

Keywords: Landauer’s eraser; information theory; thermodynamics.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.