Information Without Mass: Theoretical Limits of the Mass-Energy-Information Equivalence

Boris M. Menin

Boris M. Menin Refrigeration Consultant, Beer-Sheva 8467209 Israel

Keywords: Information Theory, Thermodynamics, Quantum Gravity, Landauer's Principle, Vopson's Hypothesis

Abstract

The mass-energy-information (M/E/I) equivalence hypothesis states that physical information has mass and can be directly related to energy via an extended form of the Landauer principle. Although this idea is theoretically attractive, it introduces serious contradictions into established thermodynamic and quantum principles. We show that the representation of information as a material entity violates the third law of thermodynamics and is inconsistent with the behavior of entropy at low temperatures. From a quantum perspective, information is nonlocal and manifests itself in correlations rather than in individual particles, making interpretations that imply mass or a carrier physically untenable. Moreover, the implications of the Page curve and the holographic principle emphasize that information acts as a constraint on the possible boundary conditions of a system rather than as a localized physical quantity. Experimental results from quantum teleportation and Bose-Einstein condensates support this view: information changes without measurable mass transfer. We conclude that information plays a fundamental role in physics, not as a substance, but as a structure — governing what is possible, not what is material.

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