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arXiv:2407.21690 · Nature Physics

Experimentally probing Landauer’s principle in the quantum many-body regime

Stefan Aimet, Mohammadamin Tajik, Gabrielle Tournaire, Philipp Schüttelkopf, João Sabino, Spyros Sotiriadis, Giacomo Guarnieri, Jörg Schmiedmayer, Jens Eisert

Published Jun 5, 2025• 13 citations
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Abstract

Abstract Landauer’s principle bridges information theory and thermodynamics by linking the entropy change of a system during a process to the average energy dissipated to its environment. Although typically discussed in the context of erasing a single bit of information, Landauer’s principle can be generalized to characterize irreversibility in out-of-equilibrium processes, such as those involving complex quantum many-body systems. Specifically, the relation between the entropy change of a system and the energy dissipated to its environment can be decomposed into changes in quantum mutual information and a difference in the relative entropies of the environment. Here, we experimentally probe Landauer’s principle in the quantum many-body regime using a quantum field simulator of ultracold Bose gases. Employing a dynamical tomographic reconstruction scheme, we track the temporal evolution of the quantum field following a global mass quench from a massive to a massless Klein–Gordon model and analyse the thermodynamic and information-theoretic contributions to a generalized entropy production for various system–environment partitions of the composite system. Our results verify the quantum field theoretical calculations, interpreted using a semi-classical quasiparticle picture. Our work demonstrates the ability of ultracold atom-based quantum field simulators to experimentally investigate quantum thermodynamics.

DOI
10.1038/s41567-025-02930-9

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Abstract Landauer’s principle bridges information theory and thermodynamics by linking the entropy change of a system during a process to the average energy dissipated to its environment. Although typically discussed in the context of erasing a single bit of information, Landauer’s principle can be generalized to characterize irreversibility in out-of-equilibrium processes, such as those involving complex quantum many-body systems. Specifically, the relation between the entropy change of a system and the energy dissipated to its environment can be decomposed into changes in quantum mutual information and a difference in the relative entropies of the environment. Here, we experimentally probe Landauer’s principle in the quantum many-body regime using a quantum field simulator of ultracold Bose gases. Employing a dynamical tomographic reconstruction scheme, we track the temporal evolution of the quantum field following a global mass quench from a massive to a massless Klein–Gordon model and analyse the thermodynamic and information-theoretic contributions to a generalized entropy production for various system–environment partitions of the composite system. Our results verify the quantum field theoretical calculations, interpreted using a semi-classical quasiparticle picture. Our work demonstrates the ability of ultracold atom-based quantum field simulators to experimentally investigate quantum thermodynamics.
One of the outstanding challenges to information processing is the eloquent suppression of energy consumption in the execution of logic operations. The Landauer principle sets an energy constraint in deletion of a classical bit of information. Although some attempts have been made to experimentally approach the fundamental limit restricted by this principle, exploring the Landauer principle in a purely quantum mechanical fashion is still an open question. Employing a trapped ultracold ion, we experimentally demonstrate a quantum version of the Landauer principle, i.e., an equality associated with the energy cost of information erasure in conjunction with the entropy change of the associated quantized environment. Our experimental investigation substantiates an intimate link between information thermodynamics and quantum candidate systems for information processing.
The Landauer's principle, a cornerstone of information thermodynamics, provides a fundamental lower bound on the energetic cost of information erasure in terms of the information content change. However, its traditional formulation is largely confined to systems exchanging solely energy with an ideal thermal bath. In this work, we derive general information-cost trade-off relations that go beyond the scope of Landauer's principle by developing a thermodynamic inference approach based on the maximum entropy principle. These relations require only information about the system and are applicable to complex quantum scenarios involving multiple conserved charges and non-thermal environments. Specifically, we present two key results: (i) In scenarios where only the mean values of observables are accessible, we derive an information-content-informed upper bound on the thermodynamic cost which complements an existing generalized Landauer lower bound. (ii) When second-order fluctuations can also be measured, we obtain an information-content-informed lower bound on the change in variances of observables, thereby extending the Landauer's principle to constrain higher-order fluctuation costs. We numerically validate our information-cost trade-off relations using a coupled-qubit system exchanging energy and excitations, a driven qubit implementing an information erasure process, and a driven double quantum dot system that can operate as an inelastic heat engine. Our results underscore the broad utility of maximum-entropy inference in constraining thermodynamic costs for generic finite-time quantum processes, with direct relevance to quantum information processing and quantum thermodynamic applications.
The quantitative measure of disorder or randomness based on the entropy production characterizes thermodynamical irreversibility, which is relevant to the conventional second law of thermodynamics.Here we report, in a quantum mechanical fashion, the first theoretical prediction and experimental exploration of an information-theoretical bound on the entropy production.Our theoretical model consists of a simplest two-level dissipative system driven by a purely classical field, and under the Markovian dissipation, we find that such an information-theoretical bound, not fully validating quantum relaxation processes, strongly depends on the drive-to-decay ratio and the initial state.Furthermore, we carry out experimental verification of this informationtheoretical bound by means of a single spin embedded in an ultracold trapped 40 Ca + ion.Our finding, based on a two-level model, is fundamental to any quantum thermodynamical process and indicates much difference and complexity in quantum thermodynamics with respect to the conventionally classical counterpart.
The dynamical role of system-environment correlations will lead to the violation of Landauer's principle and may result in a non-Markovian dynamics of the system. Here, we employ entropic quantities called the telescopic relative entropy, to detect non-Markovianity [N. Megier, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 030401 (2021)], and study the relation between information backflow of non-Markovian dynamics and the validity of Landauer's principle. We consider a class of energy-conserving system-environment interactions in qubit systems, and we prove that the violation of Landauer's principle corresponds to information backflow of a thermalizing process without coherence and vice versa. Then we study the effect of quantum coherence of the system on the relationship between non-Markovianity and Landauer's principle, and we find that coherence will break the corresponding relation in the information backflow and violation of Landauer's principle. Based on this, we explain the physical mechanism of non-Markovianity in this irreversible process of heat dissipation and information erasure. We further numerically confirm the above theoretical results by means of a collision model.
We investigate experimentally the relation between thermodynamical irreversibility and dissipation on a superconducting Xmon qubit. This relation also implies the second law and the Landauer principle on dissipation in the irreversible computations. In our experiment, the qubit is initialized to states according to Gibbs distribution. Work injection and extraction processes are conducted through two kinds of unitary driving protocols, for both a forward process and its corresponding mirror reverses. Relative entropy and relative Re'nyi entropy are employed to measure the asymmetry between paired forward and backward work injection or extraction processes. We show experimentally that relative entropy and relative Re'nyi entropy measured irreversibility are related to the average of work dissipation and average of exponentiated work dissipation respectively. Our work provides solid experimental support for the theory of quantum thermodynamics.
The first law of thermodynamics, which governs energy conservation, is traditionally formulated as an equality. Surprisingly, we demonstrate that the first law alone implies a universal Landauer-like inequality linking changes in system entropy and energy. However, contrasting with the Landauer principle derived from the second law of thermodynamics, our obtained Landauer-like inequality solely relies on system information and is applicable in scenarios where implementing the Landauer principle becomes challenging. Furthermore, the Landauer-like inequality can complement the Landauer principle by establishing a dual {\it upper} bound on heat dissipation. We illustrate the practical utility of the Landauer-like inequality in dissipative quantum state preparation and quantum information erasure applications. Our findings offer new insights into identifying thermodynamic constraints relevant to the fields of quantum thermodynamics and the energetics of quantum information processing and more specifically, this approach could facilitate investigations into systems coupled to non-thermal baths or scenarios where access to bath information is limited.