Minimum energy required to copy one bit of information

Abstract

In this paper, we calculate energy required to copy one bit of useful information in the presence of thermal noise. For this purpose, we consider a quantum system capable of storing one bit of classical information, which is initially in a mixed state corresponding to temperature T. We calculate how many of these systems must be used to store useful information and control bits protecting the content against transmission errors. Finally, we analyze how adding these extra bits changes the total energy consumed during the copying.