English

The (absence of a) relationship between thermodynamic and logical reversibility

History and Philosophy of Physics 2009-12-11 v1 Statistical Mechanics General Physics

Abstract

Landauer erasure seems to provide a powerful link between thermodynamics and information processing (logical computation). The only logical operations that require a generation of heat are logically irreversible ones, with the minimum heat generation being kTln2kT \ln 2 per bit of information lost. Nevertheless, it will be shown logical reversibility neither implies, nor is implied by thermodynamic reversibility. By examining thermodynamically reversible operations which are logically irreversible, it is possible to show that information and entropy, while having the same form, are conceptually different.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0406137,
  title  = {The (absence of a) relationship between thermodynamic and logical reversibility},
  author = {O. J. E. Maroney},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0406137},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

19 pages, 5 figures. Based on talk at ESF Conference on Philosophical and Foundational Issues in Statistical Physics, Utrecht, November 2003. Submitted to Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics