Aifer, MaxwellMyers, NathanDeffner, Sebastian2023-01-042023-01-042023-06-15Aifer, Maxwell, Nathan M. Myers, and Sebastian Deffner. “Thermodynamics of Quantum Information in Noisy Polarizers.” PRX Quantum 4, no. 2 (June 15, 2023): 020343. https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.020343.https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.020343http://hdl.handle.net/11603/26537Among the emerging technologies with prophesied quantum advantage, quantum communications has already led to fascinating demonstrations—including quantum teleportation to and from satellites. However, all optical communication necessitates the use of optical devices, the comprehensive quantum thermodynamic description of which is still severely lacking. In the present analysis, we prove several versions of Landauer’s principle for noisy polarizers, namely, absorbing linear polarizers and polarizing beam splitters. As main results, we obtain statements of the second law quantifying the minimal amount of heat that is dissipated in the creation of linearly polarized light. Our findings are illustrated with an experimentally tractable example, namely, the temperature dependence of a quantum eraser.21 pagesen-USThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Text