@ARTICLE{10.21494/ISTE.OP.2021.0756, 

TITLE={Information-entropy equivalence, Maxwell’s demon and the information paradox}, 
  
AUTHOR={Jean Argouarc’h, }, 
	
JOURNAL={Entropy: Thermodynamics – Energy – Environment – Economy }, 
	
VOLUME={2}, 

NUMBER={Issue 3}, 
	
YEAR={2021}, 

URL={http://openscience.fr/Information-entropy-equivalence-Maxwell-s-demon-and-the-information-paradox}, 
	
DOI={10.21494/ISTE.OP.2021.0756}, 
	
ISSN={2634-1476}, 
	
ABSTRACT={Several experiments have been carried out to confirm the Landauer’s principle, according to which the erasure of one bit of information requires a minimum energy dissipation of $$$K$$$B $$$ T$$$  Log 2. They are based on the principle of bistable memory. Further experiments on the thermal fluctuation motor principle provide a complementary point of view based on a tilt-type memory. By deepening their analysis we show that their results are sufficiently precise to conclude on the contrary that we have to modify the Landauer’s principle. Going back to the sources of Landauer’s work, we reconsider the machine imagined by Szilard to resolve the paradox of Maxwell’s demon, which led von Neumann to propose a form of equivalence between entropy and information. The study of a new variant of Szilard’s machine shows that its process does not depend on some information hold by an observer. The result is a new theoretical approach to solve the Maxwell’s paradox. It suggests the existence of a quantum phenomenon, which causes a sudden increase of entropy during the inversion or vanishing of a bit of information. The entropy variation is reversible if that inversion or vanishing is spontaneous, it is irreversible if the inversion or vanishing is forced by means of a control parameter. This theory falsifies the principle of equivalence between information and entropy, which was spread widely under the influence of Shannon and Brillouin, and which is in particular at the origin of the information paradox relating to black holes. This paradox which results from theories of Bekenstein and Hawking therefore disappears with this principle.}}