Individualist and Ensemblist Approaches to the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics

I will contrast the two main approaches to the foundations of statistical mechanics: the individualist (Boltzmannian) approach and the ensemblist approach (associated with Gibbs). I will indicate the virtues of each, and argue that the conflict between them is perhaps not as great as often imagined.

Quantum thermodynamics and canonical typicality

We present here a set of lecture notes on quantum thermodynamics and canonical typicality. Entanglement can be constructively used in the foundations of statistical mechanics. An alternative version of the postulate of equal a priori probability is derived making use of some techniques of convex geometry.