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New work extends the thermodynamic theory of computation
In a paper published in Physical Review X on May 13, a quartet of physicists and computer scientists expand the modern theory of the thermodynamics of computation. By combining approaches from statistical physics and computer science, the researchers introduce mathematical equations that reveal the minimum and maximum predicted energy cost of computational processes that depend on randomness, which is a powerful tool in modern computers.
This isn’t the price, which is easy to discern, but an energy cost connected to the work required to run a program and the heat dissipated in the process. Across the Atlantic, co-authors Manzano and Roldán have been developing a tool from the mathematics of finance — the martingale theory — to address the thermodynamic behavior of small fluctuating systems at stopping times. Wolpert, Kardes, Roldán, and Manzano extend these tools from stochastic thermodynamics to the calculation of a mismatch cost to common computational problems in their PRX paper.
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