Quantum measurements and Landauer's principle

Information processing systems must obey laws of physics. One of particular examples of this general statement is known as Landauer's principle - irreversible operations (such as erasure) performed by any computing device at finite temperature have to dissipate some amount of heat bound from below. Together with other results of this kind, Landauer's principle represents a fundamental limit any modern or future computer must obey. We discuss interpretation of the physics behind the Landauer's principle using a model of Unruh-DeWitt detector. Of particular interest is the validity of this limit in quantum domain. We systematically study finite time effects. It is shown, in particular, that in high temperature limit finiteness of measurement time leads to renormalization of the detector's temperature.