The Role of Statistical Mechanics in Classical Physics

1977 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID LAVIS
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Mechanics ◽  
Classical Physics

scholarly journals Role of Chaos for the Validity of Statistical Mechanics Laws: Diffusion and Conduction

2007 ◽  
pp. 123-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Cencini ◽  
Fabio Cecconi ◽  
Massimo Falcioni ◽  
Angelo Vulpiani
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Mechanics

Convergent and Divergent Amplification and its Meaning for Social Science

1977 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan D. London
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Basic Characteristic ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Stability And Change ◽  
Phenotypic Specificity ◽  
Expected Outcomes

Social science is viewed as requiring a paradigm fundamentally different from that currently in use which reflects essentially the habits of classical physics. Its basic characteristic is the prevalence of minor and major events which amplify sequentially in such a way as to converge toward or diverge from expected outcomes. Other distinguishing characteristics of social science are discussed in the context of amplification and include the historicity of its subject matter, the everpresent tension between stability and change, the frequent primacy of phenotypic specificity over a genotypic generality, the importance of context and meaning in the constitution of data, and the altering effects of theory on reality. Recognition of these characteristics requires a change in the role of the investigator so as to include him more intimately in the research process. It also suggests the usefulness of substitution of an orientative sample for the usual representative sample to take into account the researcher's new role, especially in the context of amplification. The orientative sample permits an accretionary N ≥ 1 initially, as the investigator is sensitized and instructed in the course of his research.

Time in Thermodynamics

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill North
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Mechanics ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Equilibrium States ◽  
Temporal Asymmetry ◽  
Heat Flows ◽  
Foundations Of Statistical Mechanics ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Closed Systems ◽  
The Many

It is often claimed, or hoped, that some temporal asymmetries are explained by the thermodynamic asymmetry in time. Thermodynamics, the macroscopic physics of pressure, temperature, volume, and so on, describes many temporally asymmetric processes. Heat flows spontaneously from hot objects to cold objects (in closed systems), never the reverse. More generally, systems spontaneously move from non-equilibrium states to equilibrium states, never the reverse. Delving into the foundations of statistical mechanics, this chapter reviews the many open questions in that field as they relate to temporal asymmetry. Taking a stand on many of them, it tackles questions about the nature of probabilities, the role of boundary conditions, and even the nature and scope of statistical mechanics.

scholarly journals THE HATSOPOULOS–GYFTOPOULOS RESOLUTION OF THE SCHRÖDINGER–PARK PARADOX ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF "STATE" IN QUANTUM STATISTICAL MECHANICS

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (37) ◽  
pp. 2799-2811 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIAN PAOLO BERETTA
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Statistical Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Statistical Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Information Theory ◽  
Individual State ◽  
Fundamental Difficulty ◽  
Quantum Statistical ◽  
Theory Interpretation

A seldom recognized fundamental difficulty undermines the concept of individual "state" in the present formulations of quantum statistical mechanics (and in its quantum information theory interpretation as well). The difficulty is an unavoidable consequence of an almost forgotten corollary proved by Schrödinger in 1936 and perused by Park, Am. J. Phys.36, 211 (1968). To resolve it, we must either reject as unsound the concept of state, or else undertake a serious reformulation of quantum theory and the role of statistics. We restate the difficulty and discuss a possible resolution proposed in 1976 by Hatsopoulos and Gyftopoulos, Found. Phys.6, 15; 127; 439; 561 (1976).

Einstein: the classical physicist

2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.S Rowlinson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Statistical Mechanics ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Foundations Of Physics ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Einstein is remembered for his contributions to the re-ordering of the foundations of physics in the first years of the twentieth century. Much of his achievement was, however, based on the classical physics of the late nineteenth century and it was his work on statistical mechanics that underlay his first contributions to quantum theory. This essay is an account of an aspect of his achievement that is often overlooked.

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