Landauer Entropy and Timekeeping: Exploring Information-Theoretic Limits via Planck Time with Experimental Tests on IBM Quantum Hardware

AYDIN HUSEYIN

Published Dec 24, 2025• 0 citations

Abstract

We explore timekeeping through the lens of Landauer's principle of bit erasure, where each erasure event produces exactly ln(2) bits of entropy. We reformulate the entropy-time connection as dt = dS/k, where k = R ln(2) is the entropy production rate determined by the erasure rate R. We introduce a dimensionless coupling constant alpha = k t_P, where t_P is the Planck time. At the Planck frequency limit, this yields alpha = ln(2) approximately 0.693. We note a numerical coincidence with loop quantum gravity: the Immirzi parameter, recently derived from Landauer's principle, is gamma = ln(2)/(pi sqrt(3)). Both expressions contain ln(2), though whether this indicates a fundamental connection remains an open question. We present new experimental results from IBM Quantum hardware (ibm_torino), testing a proxy for our temperature-independence prediction. Using the reset gate as a Landauer erasure operation, we measure reset fidelity across different initial states parametrized by angle theta. We find a coefficient of variation CV = 0.31%, indicating that reset performance is largely independent of initial state. Additionally, Ramsey interferometry experiments show that Landauer erasure destroys quantum coherence (visibility drops from 98.5% to 4.7%), consistent with irreversible entropy production. Two-qubit experiments demonstrate entropy transfer from system to reservoir. While these results are consistent with our framework, we emphasize that they do not constitute direct verification of the temperature-independence prediction, which requires controlled temperature variation in trapped-ion or similar systems.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18049904

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