Thermodynamical versus logical irreversibility: a concrete objection to Landauer's principle

TL;DR

This paper presents a counterexample challenging Landauer's principle by demonstrating a physical process that erases a bit in a thermodynamically quasistatic manner, questioning the link between logical and thermodynamic irreversibility.

Contribution

It provides a simple physical implementation that erases a bit quasistatically, serving as a concrete objection to Landauer's principle.

Findings

Erasure can be thermodynamically quasistatic and nearly reversible

Counterexample uses a two-to-one relation between logic and thermodynamics

Challenges the universality of Landauer's principle

Abstract

Landauer's principle states that the logical irreversibility of an operation, such as erasing one bit, whatever its physical implementation, necessarily implies its thermodynamical irreversibility. In this paper, a very simple counterexample of physical implementation (that uses a two-to-one relation between logic and thermodynamic states) is given that allows to erase one bit in a thermodynamical quasistatic manner (i.e. that may tend to be reversible if slowed down enough).