# Information-thermodynamics link revisited

## TL;DR

This paper critically examines the foundational links between information theory and thermodynamics, especially in quantum systems, challenging traditional interpretations and exploring implications for quantum mechanics and information processing.

## Contribution

It revisits the information-thermodynamics connection using quantum models, highlighting objections to standard interpretations and discussing implications for quantum foundations and information stability.

## Key findings

- Objections to Szilard engine interpretation illustrated with quantum models
- Superselection rules impact thermodynamics and quantum foundations
- Discussion on non-ergodic systems and thermodynamic costs of information

## Abstract

The so-called information-thermodynamics link created by a thought experiment of Szilard became a core of the modern orthodoxy in the field of quantum information and resources theory in quantum thermodynamics. We remind existing objections against standard interpretation of Szilard engine operation and illustrate them by two quantum models: particle in a box with time-dependent thin potential barrier and the spin-boson model. The consequences of the emerging superselection rules for thermodynamics and foundations of quantum mechanics are discussed. The role of non-ergodic systems as information carriers and the thermodynamic cost of stability and accuracy of information processing is briefly discussed and compared to the generally accepted Landauer's principle.