Typical = random

Probabilistic measure theory (60A10) Algorithmic information theory (Kolmogorov complexity, etc.) (68Q30) Foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics (82B03)

Abstract: This expository paper advocates an approach to physics in which typicality is identified with algorithmic randomness. To this end various theorems from mathematics and physics are reviewed whose original version states that some property F(x) holds for P-almost all x in X, where P is a probability measure on some space X, but whose more refined (and typically more recent) formulation shows that F(x) holds for all P-random x in X. The notion of P-randomness used here generalizes the one introduced by Martin-L"of in 1966 in a way now standard in algorithmic randomness. Examples come from probability theory, analysis, dynamical systems/ergodic theory, statistical mechanics, and quantum mechanics (especially hidden variable theories). An underlying philosophical theme, inherited from von Mises and Kolmogorov, is the interplay between probability and randomness: which comes first?

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