Executive Summary : | Standard computation in computers releases heat due to the erasure of memory, which is essential for irreversible logic operations. The laws of thermodynamics set a limit for the heat evolution associated with this erasure step and eventually for the computation. To keep this heat as low as possible, it is desirable to perform computation infinitely slowly. A field of research has emerged recently focusing on optimizing heat evolution for finite-time computation. This significant and practical problem has been attempted with different approaches, but no definite solution has been suggested yet. The author is interested in understanding how to control relevant parameters in the environment to perform computation efficiently. This emerging field of research aims to address important practical issues and addresses numerous research questions that are yet to be answered. To carry out the study, the heat of erasure must be calculated for a given set-up and modelled in an appropriate physical framework. The Langevin dynamics of the physical memory in the proper set-up should be theoretically studied using numerical and analytical tools. To understand the effect of the environment on the erasure phenomenon and heat release during computation, the study should be conducted for a range of environmental parameter sets and compared with theoretical results from designed experiments. Refined experiments have been conducted with a single Brownian particle in an optical trap, where the erasure process is mimicked by appropriately adjusting the laser intensity of optical tweezers. |