Researchers from Vienna Technical University and Berlin's free university for the first time recorded by experimenting on how the quantum system forgot the information, and confirmed the basic physical principle: the removal of information is always accompanied by energy loss and Entropy growth. The work is published in the Journal of Natural Physics.
In the 1960s, the physicist Rolf Landauer gave the thesis: The removal of information could not occur without energy-energy-that always led to heat release. Now, after many decades, this principle was first confirmed in a complex multi -digesting quantum system.
The team cooled the clouds of thousands of rubidia atoms that were almost absolutely not absolutely and put them in the trap on the atomic chip. After that, the two clouds were produced and collided. The system is divided into two parts: part of the quantum system, the rest is its environment, in which the exchange of information has taken place.
By measuring the degree of interaction of clouds, scientists were able to monitor the information and how Entropy increased – the measure of the mess. This is a direct confirmation that the principle of Landauer works even in complex quantum systems. Although the system is isolated, its condition may be predicted or restored to data. But it is worth interacting with the external environment – for example, with a measuring device – lost information and the process becomes inverted.
Professor Yorg Schmidmeier said it was not only an abstract act. It has a physical price, Professor Yorg Schmidmeier from Vienna Technical University said.
According to theorist Jens Ayrte from the Berlin Free University, the foundation of ultrasonic atoms offers the only opportunity to quantify the basic problems: how to measure in quantum mechanics and what to lose information means.