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Energy dissipation in small-scale shape-change dynamics

L. Gammaitoni
Phys. Rev. E 85, 020104(R) – Published 23 February 2012

Abstract

Shape is an important feature of physical systems, although very seldom is it addressed in the framework of a quantitative description approach. In this paper we propose to interpret the shape of things as a physical manifestation of the content of information associated with each thing and show that a change of shape in a physical system is necessarily connected with a change of its entropy and thus involves energy. We estimate the amount of energy dissipated during a shape change and propose experimental tests to be performed in nanoscale systems to verify this prediction by measuring the expected dissipation in a few simple cases. Relevant implications in the design of future zero-power logic switches are discussed.

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  • Received 12 September 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.020104

©2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

L. Gammaitoni*

  • NiPS Laboratory, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Perugia, and Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, I-06100 Perugia, Italy

  • *luca.gammaitoni@pg.infn.it

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Vol. 85, Iss. 2 — February 2012

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