Minimal Energy Requirements in Communication
Abstract
The literature describing the energy needs for a communications channel has been dominated by analyses of linear electromagnetic transmission, often without awareness that this is a special case. This case leads to the conclusion that an amount of energy equal to kT ln 2, where kT is the thermal noise per unit bandwidth, is needed to transmit a bit, and more if quantized channels are used with photon energies h ν > kT . Alternative communication methods are proposed to show that there is no unavoidable minimal energy requirement per transmitted bit. These methods are invoked as part of an analysis of ultimate limits and not as practical procedures.
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There is no minimum energy expenditure necessarily associated with information flows; in theory, the information flow could be made reversible.
“physicist Rolf Landauer (1996) has devised a thought experiment which supports his argument that there is no minimum energy expenditure that is necessarily associated with information flows; in theory, the information flow could be made reversible”
From Control information theory: the ‘missing link’ in the science of cybernetics (2007) · cites this paper as Landauer (1996)
Cites
A single quantum cannot be cloned
Wootters, W. K., & Zurek, W. H. (1982) · Nature · doi:10.1038/299802a0 · Cited by 5,406 · see citing works
DiVincenzo, D. P. (1995) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.270.5234.255 · Cited by 1,651 · see citing works
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Quantum computation with quantum dots
Loss, D., & DiVincenzo, D. P. (1998) · Physical Review A · doi:10.1103/physreva.57.120 · Cited by 6,840 · see citing works
A device architecture for computing with quantum dots
Lent, C. S., & Tougaw, P. D. (1997) · Proceedings of the IEEE · doi:10.1109/5.573740 · Cited by 1,273 · see citing works
The thermodynamic efficiency of computations made in cells across the range of life
Kempes, C. P., Wolpert, D., Cohen, Z., & Pérez-Mercader, J. (2017) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences · doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0343 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Control information theory: the ‘missing link’ in the science of cybernetics
Corning, P. A. (2007) · Systems Research and Behavioral Science · doi:10.1002/sres.808 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
- Authors
- Landauer, R.
- Affiliations
- IBM (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Landauer, Rolf
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 1996-06-28
- Volume
- 272
- Issue
- 5270
- Pages
- 1914-1918
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2049450494
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 3.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Error Correcting Code Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Keywords
- thermal noise, photon energy, information theory
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