Imagine cooling a supercomputer not with fans or freezers, but by deleting some of its memory. New calculations show that this is possible, provided some of the bits that make up the computer's memory are "entangled"– a spooky property that can link two quantum systems, no matter how far apart they sit in physical space.

The notion of cooling by erasure seemingly violates a principle articulated by physicist Rolf Landauer in 1961. He showed that erasing information is akin to a decrease in entropy or disorder. As entropy overall must always increase, the deletion of bits must therefore be accompanied by an increase in the entropy of the surroundings, which manifests itself as heat.

To read the rest of the article, click here.