Justifying typicality measures of Boltzmannian statistical mechanics and dynamical systems

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2013.08.006MaRDI QIDQ2436285zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Charlotte Werndl

Publication date 21 February 2014

Published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1573

zbMATH Keywords

Boltzmannian statistical mechanicsdynamical systems theorymeasureprobabilitytranslation-closetranslation-continuoustypicality

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) Classical dynamic and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics (general) (82C05) Kinetic theory of gases in time-dependent statistical mechanics (82C40)

Abstract: A popular view in contemporary Boltzmannian statistical mechanics is to interpret the measures as typicality measures. In measure-theoretic dynamical systems theory measures can similarly be interpreted as typicality measures. However, a justification why these measures are a good choice of typicality measures is missing, and the paper attempts to fill this gap. The paper first argues that Pitowsky's (2012) justification of typicality measures does not fit the bill. Then a first proposal of how to justify typicality measures is presented. The main premises are that typicality measures are invariant and are related to the initial probability distribution of interest (which are translation-continuous or translation-close). The conclusion are two theorems which show that the standard measures of statistical mechanics and dynamical systems are typicality measures. There may be other typicality measures, but they agree about judgements of typicality. Finally, it is proven that if systems are ergodic or epsilon-ergodic, there are uniqueness results about typicality measures.

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Cited in

(8)

• Reconceptualising equilibrium in Boltzmannian statistical mechanics and characterising its existence
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3107554 (Why is no real title available?)
• Probability as typicality
• When do Gibbsian phase averages and Boltzmannian equilibrium values agree?
• A justification of the probabilistic explanation of the entropy principle
• On how to approach the approach to equilibrium
• Rethinking Boltzmannian equilibrium
• Typicality in the foundations of statistical physics and Born's rule

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