Quantum fluctuations hinder finite-time information erasure near the Landauer limit

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum coherence generated during finite-time information erasure affects thermodynamic fluctuations, revealing that quantum effects can lead to rare, extreme dissipation events with observable signatures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum coherence during finite-time erasure causes significant thermodynamic fluctuations, highlighting quantum effects on dissipation beyond classical expectations.

Findings

Quantum coherence contributes positively to dissipation fluctuations.

Extreme dissipation events are caused by quantum coherence and are experimentally observable.

Full statistics of heat dissipation reveal quantum-induced rare events.

Abstract

Information is physical but information is also processed in finite time. Where computing protocols are concerned, finite-time processing in the quantum regime can dynamically generate coherence. Here we show that this can have significant thermodynamic implications. We demonstrate that quantum coherence generated in the energy eigenbasis of a system undergoing a finite-time information erasure protocol yields rare events with extreme dissipation. These fluctuations are of purely quantum origin. By studying the full statistics of the dissipated heat in the slow driving limit, we prove that coherence provides a non-negative contribution to all statistical cumulants. Using the simple and paradigmatic example of single bit erasure, we show that these extreme dissipation events yield distinct, experimentally distinguishable signatures.