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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Extra cost of erasure due to quantum lifetime broadening

Joe Dunlop1,*, Federico Cerisola1, Juliette Monsel2, Sofia Sevitz3, Jorge Tabanera-Bravo4, Jonathan Dexter5, Federico Fedele6, Natalia Ares6, and Janet Anders1,3,†

  • *Contact author: j.dunlop@exeter.ac.uk, he/him
  • †Contact author: janet@qipc.org, she/her
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Phys. Rev. A 112, L010601 – Published 10 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pc2t-ybtz

Abstract

The energy cost of erasing a bit of information was fundamentally lower bounded by Landauer, in terms of the temperature of its environment, W≥kBTln2. Energy consumption and heat generation in computers is now a pressing issue, but real electronic devices operate out of equilibrium and are subject to other noise sources besides temperature. Considering a quantum dot charge bit as a concrete model, we here derive a tighter bound, rigorously quantifying the dissipative impact of lifetime broadening and potential difference, in terms of a few experimentally measurable parameters. In practical contexts, these additional contributions may significantly outweigh the cost due to temperature alone. The results shed light not only on theoretical limits of erasure but also on constraints in realistic devices.

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Phys. Rev. A 112, L010601– Published 10 July, 2025
  • Received 10 October 2024
  • Revised 26 February 2025
  • Accepted 6 June 2025
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