Finite-time Landauer principle beyond weak coupling

TL;DR

This paper develops a finite-time version of Landauer's principle for a fermionic system strongly coupled to a reservoir, providing optimal erasure processes that account for non-Markovian and strong coupling effects.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric approach to optimize finite-time information erasure processes beyond weak coupling and Markovian assumptions.

Findings

Derived analytic expressions for thermodynamic metric and geodesic equations.

Identified finite-time corrections to Landauer's bound considering strong coupling.

Provided numerical solutions for optimal erasure protocols.

Abstract

Landauer's principle gives a fundamental limit to the thermodynamic cost of erasing information. Its saturation requires a reversible isothermal process, and hence infinite time. We develop a finite-time version of Landauer's principle for a bit encoded in the occupation of a single fermionic mode, which can be strongly coupled to a reservoir. By solving the exact non-equilibrium dynamics, we optimize erasure processes (taking both the fermion's energy and system-bath coupling as control parameters) in the slow driving regime through a geometric approach to thermodynamics. We find analytic expressions for the thermodynamic metric and geodesic equations, which can be solved numerically. Their solution yields optimal processes that allow us to characterize a finite-time correction to Landauer's bound, fully taking into account non-markovian and strong coupling effects.