Thermodynamic Advantage of Quantum Time-Reversal
Statistical Mechanics
2026-02-17 v2 Quantum Physics
Abstract
Classical computations inherently require energy dissipation that increases significantly as the reliability of the computation improves. This dissipation arises when transitions between memory states are not balanced by their time-reversed counterparts. While classical memories exhibit a discrete set of possible time-reversal symmetries, quantum memory offers a continuum. This continuum enables the design of quantum memories that minimize irreversibility. As a result, quantum memory reduces energy dissipation several orders of magnitude below classical memory.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.04865,
title = {Thermodynamic Advantage of Quantum Time-Reversal},
author = {Alexander B. Boyd and Paul M. Riechers},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.04865},
year = {2026}
}