English

Quantum memory as a perpetuum mobile? Stability v.s. reversibility of information processing

Quantum Physics 2012-08-14 v5

Abstract

It is argued using a Gedankenexperiment that a scalable quantum memory could be used as a perpetuum mobile of the second kind and hence cannot be realized in Nature. The reasoning is based on the assumption that the Landauer's principle for measurements is a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics and not an independent postulate. This implies a modification of the Landauer's principle when applied for discrimination of equilibrium (metastable) states. While identification of the metastable state can be done at the infinitesimally low cost, a change of such a state involves dissipation of energy proportional to its stability factor.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0901.0811,
  title  = {Quantum memory as a perpetuum mobile? Stability v.s. reversibility of information processing},
  author = {Robert Alicki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0901.0811},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

15 pages,no figures, amended text

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:58:15.341Z