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arXiv · 1004.5330

Information erasure without an energy cost

Joan A. Vaccaro·Stephen M. Barnett
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Abstract

Landauer argued that the process of erasing the information stored in a memory device incurs an energy cost in the form of a minimum amount of mechanical work. We find, however, that this energy cost can be reduced to zero by paying a cost in angular momentum or any other conserved quantity. Erasing the memory of Maxwell's demon in this way implies that work can be extracted from a single thermal reservoir at a cost of angular momentum and an increase in total entropy. The implications of this for the second law of thermodynamics are assessed.

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Joan A. Vaccaro, Stephen M. Barnett. 2011-06-01. Information erasure without an energy cost. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2010.0577

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