English

Derivation of Bose-Einstein statistics from the uncertainty principle

Statistical Mechanics 2025-10-08 v4 Quantum Physics

Abstract

The microstate of any degree of freedom of any classical dynamical system can be represented by a point in its two dimensional phase space. Since infinitely precise measurements are impossible, a measurement can, at best, constrain the location of this point to a region of phase space whose area is finite. This paper explores the implications of assuming that this finite area is bounded from below. I prove that if the same lower bound applied to every degree of freedom of a sufficiently cold classical dynamical system, the distribution of the system's energy among its degrees of freedom would be a Bose-Einstein distribution.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.02069,
  title  = {Derivation of Bose-Einstein statistics from the uncertainty principle},
  author = {Paul Tangney},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.02069},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Correction of a confusing misrepresentation of Claude Shannon, which did not impact the substance of the paper