Group Seminar 2021/22

Abstract:

The interplay between information and physics is a deep and active area of research. It has its pre-history in thermodynamics, beginning with Maxwell's Demon and the question of 'what is entropy?'. In this talk I will focus on the fundamentals of how thermodynamics and information theory overlap. I will discuss the core concepts that lead to the fact that given any bit of information one can associate a maximal thermodynamic energy value of kT ln2. Moreover, if one wishes to erase a single bit of information then one must suffer a minimal thermodynamic cost of this same value (the famous Landauer bound), which constitutes an information-theoretic statement of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. I will then highlight lesser known fine-print details to this fundamental result, and discuss potential subtleties in the context of quantum spin systems.

Meeting ID: 833 9035 6509

Passcode: j9y!^G