11/5/2019 Landauer's principle - Wikipedia

Landauer's principle
Landauer's principle is a physical principle pertaining to the lower theoretical limit of energy consumption of
computation. It holds that "any logically irreversible manipulation of information, such as the erasure of a bit or the
merging of two computation paths, must be accompanied by a corresponding entropy increase in non-information-
bearing degrees of freedom of the information-processing apparatus or its environment".[1]

Another way of phrasing Landauer's principle is that if an observer loses information about a physical system, the
observer loses the ability to extract work from that system.

A so-called logically-reversible computation, in which no information is erased, may in principle be carried out
without releasing any heat. This has led to considerable interest in the study of reversible computing. Indeed, without
reversible computing, increases in the number of computations-per-joule-of-energy-dissipated must come to a halt by
about 2050: because the limit implied by Landauer's principle will be reached by then, according to Koomey's law.

At 20 °C (room temperature, or 293.15 K), the Landauer limit represents an energy of approximately 0.0175 eV, or
2.805 zJ. Theoretically, room‑temperature computer memory operating at the Landauer limit could be changed at a
rate of one billion bits per second with energy being converted to heat in the memory media at the rate of only 2.805
trillionths of a watt (that is, at a rate of only 2.805 pJ/s). Modern computers use millions of times as much energy per
second.[2][3][4]

Contents
History
Rationale
Equation
Challenges
See also
References
Further reading
External links

History
Rolf Landauer first proposed the principle in 1961 while working at IBM.[5] He justified and stated important limits to
an earlier conjecture by John von Neumann. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as being simply the Landauer
bound or Landauer limit.

In 2011, the principle was generalized to show that while information erasure requires an increase in entropy, that
increase could theoretically occur at no energy cost[6]. Instead, the cost can be taken in another conserved quantity,
such as angular momentum.

In a 2012 article published in Nature, a team of physicists from the École normale supérieure de Lyon, University of
Augsburg and the University of Kaiserslautern described that for the first time they have measured the tiny amount of
heat released when an individual bit of data is erased.[7]

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In 2014, physical experiments tested Landauer's principle and confirmed its predictions.[8]

In 2016, researchers used a laser probe to measure the amount of energy dissipation that resulted when a
nanomagnetic bit flipped from off to on. Flipping the bit required 26 millielectron volts (4.2 zeptojoules).[9]

A 2018 article published in Nature Physics features a Landauer erasure performed at cryogenic temperatures (T = 1K)
on an array of high-spin (S = 10) quantum molecular magnets. The array is made to act as a spin register where each
nanomagnet encodes a single bit of information.[10] The experiment has laid the foundations for the extension of the
validity of the Landauer principle to the quantum realm. Owing to the fast dynamics and low "inertia" of the single
spins used in the experiment, the researchers also showed how an erasure operation can be carried out at the lowest
possible thermodynamic cost — that imposed by the Landauer principle — and at a high speed.[10]

Rationale
Landauer's principle can be understood to be a simple logical consequence of the second law of thermodynamics—
which states that the entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease—together with the definition of thermodynamic
temperature. For, if the number of possible logical states of a computation were to decrease as the computation
proceeded forward (logical irreversibility), this would constitute a forbidden decrease of entropy, unless the number of
possible physical states corresponding to each logical state were to simultaneously increase by at least a compensating
amount, so that the total number of possible physical states was no smaller than it was originally (i.e. total entropy has
not decreased).

Yet, an increase in the number of physical states corresponding to each logical state means that, for an observer who is
keeping track of the logical state of the system but not the physical state (for example an "observer" consisting of the
computer itself), the number of possible physical states has increased; in other words, entropy has increased from the
point of view of this observer.

The maximum entropy of a bounded physical system is finite. (If the holographic principle is correct, then physical
systems with finite surface area have a finite maximum entropy; but regardless of the truth of the holographic
principle, quantum field theory dictates that the entropy of systems with finite radius and energy is finite due to the
Bekenstein bound.) To avoid reaching this maximum over the course of an extended computation, entropy must
eventually be expelled to an outside environment.

Equation
Landauer's principle asserts that there is a minimum possible amount of energy required to erase one bit of
information, known as the Landauer limit:

kT ln 2,
where k is the Boltzmann constant (approximately 1.38×10−23 J/K), T is the temperature of the heat sink in kelvins,
and ln 2 is the natural logarithm of 2 (approximately 0.69315). After setting T equals to room temperature 20 °C
(293.15 K), we can get Landauer limit 0.0175 eV (2.805 zJ)

For an environment at temperature T, energy E = ST must be emitted into that environment if the amount of added
entropy is S. For a computational operation in which 1 bit of logical information is lost, the amount of entropy
generated is at least k ln 2, and so, the energy that must eventually be emitted to the environment is E ≥ kT ln 2.

Challenges

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The principle is widely accepted as physical law, but in recent years it has been challenged for using circular reasoning
and faulty assumptions, notably in Earman and Norton (1998), and subsequently in Shenker (2000)[11] and Norton
(2004,[12] 2011[13]), and defended by Bennett (2003)[1] and Ladyman et al. (2007).[14]

In 2016, researchers at the University of Perugia claimed to have demonstrated a violation of Landauer’s principle.[15]
However, according to Laszlo Kish (2016)[16], their results are invalid because they "neglect the dominant source of
energy dissipation, namely, the charging energy of the capacitance of the input electrode".

See also
Margolus–Levitin theorem
Bremermann's limit
Bekenstein bound
Kolmogorov complexity
Entropy in thermodynamics and information theory
Information theory
Jarzynski equality
Limits to computation
Extended mind thesis

References
1. Charles H. Bennett (2003), "Notes on Landauer's principle, Reversible Computation and Maxwell's Demon" (htt
p://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall06/cos576/papers/bennett03.pdf) (PDF), Studies in History and
Philosophy of Modern Physics, 34 (3): 501–510, arXiv:physics/0210005 (https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0210005),
Bibcode:2003SHPMP..34..501B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003SHPMP..34..501B), doi:10.1016/S1355-
2198(03)00039-X (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS1355-2198%2803%2900039-X), retrieved February 18, 2015
2. "Tikalon Blog by Dev Gualtieri" (http://tikalon.com/blog/blog.php?article=2011/Landauer). Tikalon.com. Retrieved
May 5, 2013.
3. "Nanomagnet memories approach low-power limit | bloomfield knoble" (http://www.bloomweb.com/nanomagnet-m
emories-approach-low-power-limit/). Bloomweb.com. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
4. "Landauer Limit Demonstrated - IEEE Spectrum" (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/landauer-limit-de
monstrated). Spectrum.ieee.org. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
5. Rolf Landauer (1961), "Irreversibility and heat generation in the computing process" (http://worrydream.com/refs/L
andauer%20-%20Irreversibility%20and%20Heat%20Generation%20in%20the%20Computing%20Process.pdf)
(PDF), IBM Journal of Research and Development, 5 (3): 183–191, doi:10.1147/rd.53.0183 (https://doi.org/10.114
7%2Frd.53.0183), retrieved February 18, 2015
6. Joan Vaccaro; Stephen Barnett (June 8, 2011), "Information Erasure Without an Energy Cost", Proc. R. Soc. A,
467 (2130): 1770–1778, arXiv:1004.5330 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.5330), Bibcode:2011RSPSA.467.1770V (http
s://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011RSPSA.467.1770V), doi:10.1098/rspa.2010.0577 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Fr
spa.2010.0577)
7. Antoine Bérut; Artak Arakelyan; Artyom Petrosyan; Sergio Ciliberto; Raoul Dillenschneider; Eric Lutz (March 8,
2012), "Experimental verification of Landauer's principle linking information and thermodynamics" (http://www.phy
sik.uni-kl.de/eggert/papers/raoul.pdf) (PDF), Nature, 483 (7388): 187–190, arXiv:1503.06537 (https://arxiv.org/ab
s/1503.06537), Bibcode:2012Natur.483..187B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012Natur.483..187B),
doi:10.1038/nature10872 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature10872), PMID 22398556 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go
v/pubmed/22398556)
8. Yonggun Jun; Momčilo Gavrilov; John Bechhoefer (November 4, 2014), "High-Precision Test of Landauer's
Principle in a Feedback Trap", Physical Review Letters, 113 (19): 190601, arXiv:1408.5089 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1
408.5089), Bibcode:2014PhRvL.113s0601J (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014PhRvL.113s0601J),
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.190601 (https://doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevLett.113.190601), PMID 25415891 (htt
ps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25415891)

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9. Hong, Jeongmin; Lambson, Brian; Dhuey, Scott; Bokor, Jeffrey (March 1, 2016). "Experimental test of Landauer's
principle in single-bit operations on nanomagnetic memory bits" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4
795654). Science Advances. 2 (3): e1501492. Bibcode:2016SciA....2E1492H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2
016SciA....2E1492H). doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501492 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fsciadv.1501492). ISSN 2375-2548
(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2375-2548). PMC 4795654 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC479565
4). PMID 26998519 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26998519).
10. Rocco Gaudenzi; Enrique Burzuri; Satoru Maegawa; Herre van der Zant; Fernando Luis (March 19, 2018),
"Quantum Landauer erasure with a molecular nanomagnet" (http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c3926045-6e1a-4dd7-a
584-df4a5c6b51b6), Nature Physics, 14 (6): 565–568, doi:10.1038/s41567-018-0070-7 (https://doi.org/10.1038%
2Fs41567-018-0070-7)
11. Logic and Entropy (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00000115/) Critique by Orly Shenker (2000)
12. Eaters of the Lotus (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00001729/) Critique by John Norton (2004)
13. Waiting for Landauer (http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/papers/Waiting_SHPMP.pdf) Response by Norton (2011)
14. The Connection between Logical and Thermodynamic Irreversibility (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/000026
89/) Defense by Ladyman et al. (2007)
15. https://m.phys.org/news/2016-07-refutes-famous-physical.html
16. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304582612_Comments_on_Sub-kBT_Micro-
Electromechanical_Irreversible_Logic_Gate/

Further reading
Prokopenko, Mikhail; Lizier, Joseph T. (2014), "Transfer entropy and transient limits of computation", Scientific
Reports, 4: 5394, Bibcode:2014NatSR...4E5394P (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014NatSR...4E5394P),
doi:10.1038/srep05394 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fsrep05394), PMC 4066251 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm
c/articles/PMC4066251), PMID 24953547 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24953547)

External links
Public debate on the validity of Landauer's principle (conference Hot Topics in Physical Informatics, November 12,
2013) (http://www.ece.tamu.edu/~noise/HotPI_2013/HotPI_2013.html)
Introductory article on Landauer's principle and reversible computing (http://strangepaths.com/reversible-computa
tion/2008/01/20/en/)
Maroney, O.J.E. "Information Processing and Thermodynamic Entropy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/informatio
n-entropy/)" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Eurekalert.org: "Magnetic memory and logic could achieve ultimate energy efficiency" (http://www.eurekalert.org/p
ub_releases/2011-07/uoc--mma063011.php), July 1, 2011

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