[traskjd]

Armchair interest only, so please tell me if I'm wrong or at least we theorize how I could be wrong.

My understanding is that even in the full vacuum of space, we do not get to absolute zero. Quantum fluctuations keep it ever so slightly above it.

So perhaps information does actually not exist at absolute zero?

[zamalek]

> My understanding

Correct. The current zero point energy is believed to be a false vacuum (local minimum). One of the end-of-the-universe scenarios involve it tunelling to a lower state (bubble nucleation). Things become progressively more dire the lower the energy of the next (false or real) vaccum is, including matter and gravity ceasing to exist. Not only does this sound a lot like "no information at absolute zero," it is also a terrifying existential crisis (you're welcome).

[beaconstudios]

Well I understand that information, like energy, cannot be destroyed (hence Hawking radiation) so it couldn't just be reduced to zero, it'd have to be transformed. Also the parent's argument about freezing and then reheating to destroy and restore information is a good one because that would be reversing entropy in a closed system (assuming the info was indeed destroyed) and thus impossible.

IANA physicist though, just a lay person with an interest in information theory.

[chroma]

According to the paper, the amount of information that can be stored decreases as one gets closer to absolute zero. Our current information storage technologies and refrigeration technologies don't let us actually test this, but with a high enough information density and a low enough temperature, one should expect to lose information if this theory were true.