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Title: Generative Thermodynamic Computing

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kwyy-1xln · OSTI ID:3024985
ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry

Here, we introduce a generative modeling framework for thermodynamic computing, in which structured data are synthesized from noise by the natural time evolution of a physical system governed by Langevin dynamics. While conventional diffusion models use neural networks to perform denoising, here the information needed to generate structure from noise is encoded by the dynamics of a thermodynamic system. Training proceeds by maximizing the probability with which the computer generates the reverse of a noising trajectory, which ensures that the computer generates data with minimal heat emission. We demonstrate this framework within a digital simulation of a thermodynamic computer. If realized in analog hardware, such a system would function as a generative model that produces structured samples without the need for artificially injected noise or active control of denoising.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
3024985
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 136; ISSN 1079-7114; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Controlled erasure as a building block for universal thermodynamically robust superconducting computing
  • Pratt, Christian Z.; Ray, Kyle J.; Crutchfield, James P.
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journal April 2025
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Nonequilbrium physics of generative diffusion models journal January 2025
Information and Thermodynamics: Fast and Precise Approach to Landauer's Bound in an Underdamped Micromechanical Oscillator journal April 2021
Harnessing fluctuations in thermodynamic computing via time-reversal symmetries journal August 2021
Diffusion Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Methods and Applications journal November 2023
Thermodynamic Neural Network journal February 2020

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