When is a bit worth much more than kT ln2?

Synopsis

Can Gokler, Artemy Kolchinsky, Zi-Wen Liu, Iman Marvian, Peter Shor, Oles Shtanko, Kevin Thompson, David Wolpert, Seth Lloyd
arXiv (26 May, 2017)

Physical processes that obtain, process, and erase information involve tradeoffs between information and energy. The fundamental energetic value of a bit of information exchanged with a reservoir at temperature T is kT ln2. This paper investigates the situation in which information is missing about just what physical process is about to take place. The fundamental energetic value of such information can be far greater than kT ln2 per bit.