Catalytic Leverage of Correlations and Mitigation of Dissipation in Information Erasure

Correlations are a valuable resource for quantum information processing and quantum thermodynamics. However, the preparation of some correlated states can carry a substantial cost that should be compared against its value. We show that classical correlations generated in information erasure can be catalytically exploited, which enables us to mitigate the resulting dissipation of heat and entropy. Because these correlations are a byproduct of erasure, they can be considered free. Our framework consists of a composition of two transformations, where an initial erasure transformation is followed by a catalytic mitigation of dissipation. Although we also show that maximum erasure with minimum dissipation and no correlations is theoretically possible, catalysts are always useful in practical erasure settings, where correlations are expected to take place.