Entropy Cost of ‘Erasure’ in Physically Irreversible Processes

Autor: Ruth E. Kastner, Andreas Schlatter
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Mathematics, Vol 12, Iss 2, p 206 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 12020206
2227-7390
DOI: 10.3390/math12020206
Popis: A restricted form of Landauer’s principle, independent of computational considerations, is shown to hold for thermal systems by reference to the joint entropy associated with conjugate observables. It is shown that the source of the compensating entropy for irreversible physical processes is due to the ontological uncertainty attending values of such mutually incompatible observables, rather than due to epistemic uncertainty, as traditionally assumed in the information-theoretic approach. In particular, it is explicitly shown that erasure of logical (epistemic) information via reset operations is not equivalent to erasure of thermodynamic entropy, so that the traditional, information-theoretic form of Landauer’s principle is not supported by the physics. A further implication of the analysis is that, in principle, there can be no Maxwell’s Demon in the real world.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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