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Monday, April 22, 2024
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Colloquium

Non-equilibrium statistical physics of computation and communication

David Wolpert
Santa Fe Institute

In this talk I will summarize recent results on how the thermodynamics of a physical system implementing a computation depends on the computation being performed and the precise physical system being used to perform it. I will start with some new results concerning the minimal thermodynamic costs of performing a communication within a computer. Next I will summarize some results concerning the thermodynamiccosts of implementing a deterministic finite automaton (DFA). After that, time allowing I will review results on how considering the minimal thermodynamic costs of computing a desired output on a Turing machine (TM), rather than the minimal size of an input string that causes the TMto produce that output (i.e., the output's Kolmogorov complexity), results in a correction term to Kolmogorov complexity. I will end by describing the vast new set of research issues at the intersection of stochastic thermodynamics and computer science theory, issues that expand both fields.

Host: Francesco Caravelli (T-4), caravelli@lanl.gov