Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The erasure of information is fundamentally an irreversible logical operation, carrying profound consequences for the energetics of computation and information processing. We investigate the thermodynamic costs associated with erasing (and preparing) quantum processes. Specifically, we analyze an arbitrary bipartite unitary gate acting on logical and ancillary input-output systems, where the ancillary input is always initialized in the ground state. We focus on the adversarial erasure cost of the reduced dynamics—that is, the minimal thermodynamic work cost to erase the logical output of the gate for any logical input, assuming full access to the ancilla but no access to any purifying reference of the logical input state. We determine that this adversarial erasure cost is directly proportional to the negative min-entropy of the reduced dynamics, thereby giving the dynamical min-entropy a clear operational meaning. The dynamical min-entropy can take positive and negative values, depending on the underlying quantum dynamics. The negative value of the erasure cost implies that the extraction of thermodynamic work is possible instead of its consumption during the process. A key foundation of this result is the quantum process decoupling theorem, which quantitatively relates the decoupling ability of a process with its min-entropy. This insight bridges thermodynamics, information theory, and the fundamental limits of quantum computation.
Source: Quantum Science and Technology
Authors: Himanshu Badhani, Dhanuja GS, Swati Choudhary, Vishal Anand, Siddhartha Das
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India, Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Ministry of Electronics and Information technology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Science and Engineering Research Board
Awards: G2167299296, G2292594631, G784737808
OpenAlex ID: W4416138691