Information erasure without an energy cost
Vaccaro, Joan A. and Barnett, Stephen M. (2011) Information erasure without an energy cost. Proceedings A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 467 (2130). pp. 1770-1778. ISSN 1471-2962 (https://doi.org/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.
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Item type: Article ID code: 31065 Dates: DateEvent8 June 2011PublishedSubjects: Science > Physics Department: Faculty of Science > Physics Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 16 May 2011 10:29 Last modified: 11 Nov 2024 09:44 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/31065