Thermodynamical cost of accessing quantum information

Thermodynamics is a macroscopic physical theory whose two very general laws are independent of any underlying dynamical laws and structures. Nevertheless, its generality enables us to understand a broad spectrum of phenomena in physics, information science and biology. Does thermodynamics then imply any results in quantum information theory? Taking accessible information in a system as an example, we show that thermodynamics implies a weaker bound on it than the quantum mechanical one (the Holevo bound). In other words, if any post-quantum physics should allow more information storage it could still be under the umbrella of thermodynamics. Π2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.