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Erasure without Work in an Asymmetric Double-Well Potential.
Momčilo Gavrilov1, John Bechhoefer1
1Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
Physical Review Letters
|November 26, 2016
Summary
Researchers experimentally studied memory erasure in asymmetric potentials, finding work less than kTln2 is possible. Subtle protocol differences, related to time-reversal symmetry, impact erasure work and clarify thermodynamic vs. logical reversibility.
Area of Science:
- Thermodynamics
- Information Theory
- Experimental Physics
Background:
- Landauer's principle states erasing one bit of information requires at least kTln2 average work.
- Previous experiments confirmed this principle for symmetric double-well potentials.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally investigate memory erasure in asymmetric double-well potentials.
- To explore if work less than kTln2 is achievable under these conditions.
- To analyze the impact of subtle protocol variations on erasure work.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a feedback trap for experimental control.
- Encoded memory in an asymmetric double-well potential.
- Compared different erasure protocols with varying time-reversal symmetry.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that average work to erase memory can be less than kTln2.
- Observed measurably different asymptotic work values for subtly different erasure protocols.
- Linked these differences to the time-reversal symmetry of the protocols.
Conclusions:
- Experimental erasure of information in asymmetric potentials can be more efficient than predicted by Landauer's principle under certain conditions.
- The distinction between thermodynamic and logical reversibility is clarified by analyzing time-reversal symmetry in erasure protocols.
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