FROM BLACK HOLES TO QUANTUM COMPUTERS: THE UNIVERSALITY OF INFORMATION DYNAMICS

Abstract

Establishing a thermodynamic cost due to the manipulation and processing of information led to Landauer?s famous statement ?information is physical?. This thermodynamic view of information hints at a more fundamental underlying concept: the physicality of quantum information. However, a consistent framework to probe the physical nature of information in quantum systems is still lacking. In fact, in order to move closer towards a universal physical description of quantum information, clear links need to be made between the dynamics of quantum information and various physical concepts: emergence of classicality, environment-assisted invariance (envariance), work extraction, information processing in black holes and quantum computers, etc. This thesis presents research results for developing a fundamental understanding of major concepts in physics through information dynamics, with emphasis on a quantum thermodynamics perspective.