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I argue that both digital and analog information are important in the foundations of quantum physics. If it is possible for information present in one system to become present in others without being erased in the original system I will say…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2011-02-16 Alan Forrester

Model independent arguments following from the Covariant Entropy Principle imply that causal diamonds in the very early universe were entirely filled with a single equilibrated system with finite entropy. A universe where this condition…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-09-14 Tom Banks , Willy Fischler

The formulation of quantum mechanics within the framework of entropic dynamics includes several new elements. In this paper we concentrate on one of them: the implications for the theory of time. Entropic time is introduced as a…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2011-04-15 Ariel Caticha

This contribution analyses the classical laws of motion by means of an approach relating time and entropy. We argue that adopting the notion of change of states as opposed to the usual derivation of Newton's laws in terms of fields a…

General Physics · Physics 2007-06-19 R Assumpcao

The thermodynamic arrow-of-time problem is thought to be resolved by the observation that our universe initially was---and still is---far from equilibrium. The psychological arrow-of-time problem is often attributed the same resolution, but…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2018-12-19 Lucas Johns

This thesis addresses two major problems in the philosophy of physics. The first is how to identify the minimal physical content of a theory; that is, what features of a theory are truly needed to make predictions, and what can be removed…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-09-19 Sean Gryb

Current theoretical physics suggests the flow of time is an illusion: the entire universe just is, with no special meaning attached to the present time. This paper points out that this view, in essence represented by usual space-time…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2008-12-02 George F R Ellis

In statistical thermodynamics the 2nd law is properly spelled out in terms of conditioned probabilities. As such it makes the statement, that `entropy increases with time' without preferring a time direction. In this paper I try to explain…

General Physics · Physics 2022-06-27 Domenico Giulini

This paper presents a unified formulation of the origin of the arrow of time in classical and quantum mechanics. We begin with a mechanical analysis of a one-dimensional three-particle system, which provides a concrete example in which…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-12-19 Shuhei Kobayashi

I show that whenever a system undergoes a reproducible macroscopic process the mutual distinguishability of macrostates, as measured by their relative entropy, diminishes. This extends the second law which regards only ordinary entropies,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-08-10 Jochen Rau

These notes provide a brief primer on the basic aspects of "observational entropy" (also known as "quantum coarse-grained entropy"), a general framework for applying the concept of coarse-graining to quantum systems. We review the basic…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-10-02 Joseph Schindler

Gravity is a macroscopic manifestation of a microscopic quantum theory of space-time, just as the theories of elasticity and hydrodynamics are the macroscopic manifestation of the underlying quantum theory of atoms. The connection of…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2011-01-31 George F. Smoot

The hypothesis of low entropy in the initial state of the universe usually explains the observed entropy increase is in only one time direction: the thermodynamic arrow of time. The Hamiltonian formalism is commonly used in the context of…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-08-27 Jackie C. H. Liu

According to thermodynamics, the inevitable increase of entropy allows the past to be distinguished from the future. From this perspective, any clock must incorporate an irreversible process that allows this flow of entropy to be tracked.…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-03-18 Emanuel Schwarzhans , Maximilian P. E. Lock , Paul Erker , Nicolai Friis , Marcus Huber

Many physicists think that the maximum entropy formalism is a straightforward application of Bayesian statistical ideas to statistical mechanics. Some even say that statistical mechanics is just the general Bayesian logic of inductive…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 Cosma Rohilla Shalizi

We demonstrate that temporal observables, which are sensitive to a system's history (as opposed to its state), implicate entangled histories. We exemplify protocols for measuring such observables, and algorithms for predicting the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-02-21 Jordan Cotler , Frank Wilczek

The irreversibility in a statistical system is traced to its probabilistic evolution, and the molecular chaos assumption is not its unique consequence as is commonly believed. Under the assumption that the rate of change of the each…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2008-03-10 P. D. Gujrati

This paper argues that the common identification of time with entropy is a category error. Entropy accounts for the arrow of time but not for time itself. Even in a maximally entropic universe the so called heat death temporal structure…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-08-22 Joseph S. Finberg

There is a relation between the irreversibility of thermodynamic processes as expressed by the breaking of time-reversal symmetry, and the entropy production in such processes. We explain on an elementary mathematical level the relations…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2007-05-23 C. Maes , K. Netocny

What is time? Why does it "flow" and why are we sure that it flows from past towards future? Why is there such a gigantic distinction between the Past of our world, which we believe to be fixed, and the Future, which we consider…

General Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. Mazur
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