English

The Channel Capacity of a Relativistic String

High Energy Physics - Theory 2024-05-24 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

I explore the limitations on the capacity of a relativistic channel to transmit power and information that arise because of the finiteness of the transverse speed of light. As a model system, I consider a rope constructed from a fundamental string, for which relativistic invariance is built in. By wiggling one end of the string, both power and information may be transmitted to the other end. I argue that even though an unbounded amount of power and information may be traveling down the string, there is a bound on how much may be transmitted. Further, I conjecture that the two kinds of channel capacity -- power and information -- interfere with each other, so that the only way to transmit the maximum amount of power is to send no information, and vice versa.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.14856,
  title  = {The Channel Capacity of a Relativistic String},
  author = {Adam R. Brown},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.14856},
  year   = {2024}
}