Single-Atom Demonstration of the Quantum Landauer Principle

Area of Science:

• Quantum Information Science
• Thermodynamics
• Information Processing

Background:

• The Landauer principle establishes a fundamental energy cost for deleting classical information.
• Experimental verification of the Landauer principle, especially in a quantum context, remains a significant challenge.
• Quantum systems offer potential for exploring information thermodynamics at a fundamental level.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally demonstrate a quantum mechanical version of the Landauer principle.
• To investigate the relationship between the energy cost of information erasure and entropy change in a quantum system.
• To explore the link between information thermodynamics and quantum information processing.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a trapped ultracold ion as a quantum system.
• Performing experiments to measure energy consumption during information erasure.
• Quantifying the entropy change in the associated quantized environment.

Main Results:

• Experimental demonstration of a quantum equality related to the Landauer principle.
• Confirmation of the energy cost associated with quantum information erasure.
• Observation of a direct link between information thermodynamics and the quantum system's entropy.

Conclusions:

• The study provides an experimental realization of the quantum Landauer principle.
• It establishes a concrete connection between information thermodynamics and quantum information processing candidates.
• The findings pave the way for more energy-efficient quantum computing architectures.