Generalized Landauer bound from absolute irreversibility

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the Landauer bound for erasure processes by accounting for absolute irreversibility, providing a tighter or equal bound applicable to imperfect erasure and asymmetric bits, supported by theoretical and numerical evidence.

Contribution

It introduces a new generalized Landauer bound based on absolute irreversibility, extending applicability to more realistic erasure scenarios.

Findings

Derived a generalized bound valid for imperfect erasure

Bound is tighter or equal to existing bounds

Numerical experiments support theoretical predictions

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a generalization of the Landauer bound for erasure processes that stems from absolutely irreversible dynamics. Assuming that the erasure process is carried out in an absolutely irreversible way so that the probability of observing some trajectories is zero in the forward process but finite in the reverse process, we derive a generalized form of the bound for the average erasure work, which is valid also for imperfect erasure and asymmetric bits. The generalized bound obtained is tighter or, at worst, as tight as existing ones. Our theoretical predictions are supported by numerical experiments and the comparison with data from previous works.