The Address Is Cheap: Information Content and Thermodynamic Floor of a Phase Destination
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: A phase coordinate is also an address space. This paper counts it. At a readout resolution of 0.0667 rad, one turn holds 94.2 distinguishable addresses, carrying 6.558 bits; four turns of address depth hold 7.874e+07 addresses and 26.231 bits. The thermodynamic floor for handling that information is then computed from the Landauer limit: at 300 K one bit costs at least 2.871e-21 J, so reading one turn's address costs at least 1.883e-20 J, or 1.883e-17 W when performed in a millisecond; at 4 K the per-bit floor falls to 3.828e-23 J. The information floor lies far below any plausible drive energy, which establishes that addressing is thermodynamically cheap and that the cost of transit is set by the drive, not by the address. Computed; not measured. SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED.
Author: Aldred, William Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225804388
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