On the Precise Link Between Energy and Information

Cameron Witkowski; Stephen Brown; Kevin Truong

doi:10.20944/preprints202401.0761.v2

Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 8 January 2024 / Approved: 10 January 2024 / Online: 10 January 2024 (10:01:46 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 13 January 2024 / Approved: 15 January 2024 / Online: 15 January 2024 (08:23:04 CET)

We present a modified version of the Szilard Engine, demonstrating that an explicit measurement procedure is entirely unnecessary for its operation. By considering our modified engine, we are able to provide a new interpretation of Landauer’s original argument for the cost of erasure. From this view, we demonstrate that a reset operation is strictly impossible in a dynamical system with only conservative forces. Then, we prove that to approach a reset yields an unavoidable instability at the reset point. Finally, we present an original proof of Landauer’s principle that is completely independent from the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Maxwell’s Demon; Landauer’s Principle; Szilard’s Engine; Erasure; Cost; Energy; Information; Measurement

Physical Sciences, Thermodynamics

Comment 1

Received: 15 January 2024
Commenter: Cameron Witkowski
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author

Comment: Fixed small notational errors, added detail to acknowledgments, and elaborated footnote 2.

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On the Precise Link Between Energy and Information

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