Implications of non-Markovian dynamics for the Landauer bound

TL;DR

This paper explores how non-Markovian dynamics in a spin system interacting with a thermal environment influence thermalization, information-to-energy conversion, and the validity of the Landauer principle, revealing conditions for breakdowns of classical thermodynamic bounds.

Contribution

It introduces a collision-based model to study non-Markovian effects on thermodynamics and Landauer bound violations in spin systems with thermal environments.

Findings

Non-Markovian dynamics can cause deviations from expected thermalization behavior.

System-environment correlations influence the breakdown of Landauer's principle.

Temperature distribution across the environment affects heat exchange and information processing.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of a spin-1/2 particle interacting with a multi-spin environment, modelling the corresponding open system dynamics through a collision-based model. The environmental particles are prepared in individual thermal states, and we investigate the effects of a distribution of temperatures across the spin environment on the evolution of the system, particularly how thermalisation in the long-time limit is affected. %We also address the conditions under which the system reaches a stationary state, with particular attention to whether homogenization to the average environmental state occurs. We study the phenomenology of the heat exchange between system and environment and consider the information-to-energy conversion process, induced by the system-environment interaction and embodied by the Landauer principle. Furthermore, by considering an interacting-particles environment, we tune the dynamics of the system from an explicit Markovian evolution up to a strongly non-Markovian one, investigating the connections between non-Markovianity, the establishment of system-environment correlations, and the breakdown of the validity of Landauer principle.