Quantum memories and Landauer's principle

TL;DR

This paper examines the feasibility of scalable quantum memories, discusses ergodic properties of Kitaev models, proposes a revised Landauer's principle, and explores the thermodynamic implications of quantum information stability.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic perspective on quantum memory limitations and revises Landauer's principle in the context of quantum information.

Findings

Kitaev models show stable qubit observables but lack Hamiltonian control.

A revised Landauer's principle links quantum memory to thermodynamic constraints.

Quantum memory existence implies a form of perpetual motion of the second kind.

Abstract

Two types of arguments concerning (im)possibility of constructing a scalable, exponentially stable quantum memory equipped with Hamiltonian controls are discussed. The first type concerns ergodic properties of open Kitaev models which are considered as promising candidates for such memories. It is shown that, although the 4D Kitaev model provides stable qubit observables, the Hamiltonian control is not possible. The thermodynamical approach leads to the new proposal of the revised version of Landauer's principle and suggests that the existence of quantum memory implies the existence of the perpetuum mobile of the second kind. Finally, a discussion of the stability property of information and its implications is presented.