Understanding the thermodynamics of computation: a pedagogical overview

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发表日期：

2025年9月23日

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Pritam Chattopadhyay,
Goutam Paul

摘要

Computation and information theory are fundamental across disciplines such as physics, computer science, chemistry, biology, and even philosophy. A central focus of research in computation is optimizing its cost, with energy being a key resource required to drive processes. The thermodynamic cost of computation has come into sharp focus, rooted in Landauer’s seminal work, which established that a computer consumes $k_BT \, \ln 2$ $k_{B} T ln 2$ units of energy to erase one bit of information, where T is the system’s temperature and $k_B$ $k_{B}$ is Boltzmann’s constant. In this tutorial, we will first cover the fundamental concepts of computation in detail. Following that, we will explore their connection and significance from a thermodynamic perspective.