Finite-time Landauer principle

TL;DR

This paper investigates the minimal thermodynamic work required to erase a bit within finite time, providing bounds and optimal protocols that significantly reduce energy dissipation compared to heuristic methods.

Contribution

It introduces a general framework for minimizing work in finite-time bit erasure, deriving bounds and explicit expressions for the optimal protocols.

Findings

Bounds proportional to the variance of the microscopic distribution

Closed-form expression for minimal work in short-time limit

Optimal protocols can reduce dissipation by up to a factor of four

Abstract

We study the thermodynamic cost associated with the erasure of one bit of information over a finite amount of time. We present a general framework for minimizing the average work required when full control of a system's microstates is possible. In addition to exact numerical results, we find simple bounds proportional to the variance of the microscopic distribution associated with the state of the bit. In the short-time limit, we get a closed expression for the minimum average amount of work needed to erase a bit. The average work associated with the optimal protocol can be up to a factor of four smaller relative to protocols constrained to end in local equilibrium. Assessing prior experimental and numerical results based on heuristic protocols, we find that our bounds often dissipate an order of magnitude less energy.