English

Probability as typicality

History and Philosophy of Physics 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

The concept of typicality refers to properties holding for the "overwhelming majority" of cases and is a fundamental idea of the qualitative approach to dynamical problems. We argue that measure-theoretical typicality would be the adequate viewpoint of the role of probability in classical statistical mechanics, particularly in understanding the micro to macroscopic change of levels of description.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0611172,
  title  = {Probability as typicality},
  author = {Sergio B. Volchan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0611172},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

17 pages.Conceptual and historical discussion, foundations of statistical mechanics. Accepted for publication in SHPMP (Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics)