Related papers: How to distinguish between indistinguishable parti…
Here we continue with the ideas expressed in "On the strangeness of quantum mechanics" aiming to demonstrate more concretely how this philosophical outlook might be used as a key for resolving the measurement problem. We will address in…
The statistics of velocity differences between very heavy inertial particles suspended in an incompressible turbulent flow is found to be extremely intermittent. When particles are separated by distances within the viscous subrange, the…
It is shown that the phenomenon of irreversibility in many-body and few-body systems can be explained and described within the framework of the concept of direct (not instantaneous) interaction of particles without using probabilistic…
Through extended consideration of two wide classes of case studies -- dilute gases and linear systems -- I explore the ways in which assumptions of probability and irreversibility occur in contemporary statistical mechanics, where the…
An approach to analyse the properties of a particle system is to compare it with different processes to understand when one of them is larger than other ones. The main technique for that is coupling, which may not be easy to construct. We…
Gibbs paradox in the context of statistical mechanics addresses the issue of additivity of entropy of mixing gases. The usual discussion attributes the paradoxical situation to classical distinguishability of identical particles and credits…
How can quantum mechanics be (i) the fundamental theoretical framework of contemporary physics and (ii) a probability calculus that presupposes the events to which, and on the basis of which, it assigns probabilities? The question is…
A century ago, the foundations of equilibrium statistical mechanics were laid. For a system in equilibrium with a thermal bath, much is understood through the Boltzmann factor, exp{-H[C]/kT}, for the probability of finding the system in any…
In this PhD thesis the ancient question of determinism ('Does every event have a cause ?') will be re-examined. In the philosophy of science and physics communities the orthodox position states that the physical world is indeterministic:…
Heuristic arguments and order of magnitude estimates for partial differential equations highlight essential features of the physics they describe. We present order of magnitude estimates, and their limitations, for the three classic second…
We consider systems of n particles that move with constant velocity between collisions. Their total momentum but not necessarily their kinetic energy is preserved at collisions. As there are no further constraints, these systems are…
Testing hypotheses is an issue of primary importance in the scientific research, as well as in many other human activities. Much clarification about it can be achieved if the process of learning from data is framed in a stochastic model of…
In Poincare-Wigner-Dirac theory of relativistic interactions, boosts are dynamical. This means that - just like time translations - boost transformations have non-trivial effect on internal variables of interacting systems. This is…
Two particles are identical if all their intrinsic properties, such as spin and charge, are the same, meaning that no quantum experiment can distinguish them. In addition to the well known principles of quantum mechanics, understanding…
Consider a finite system of Brownian particles on the real line. Each particle has drift and diffusion coefficients depending on its current rank relative to other particles, as in Karatzas, Pal and Shkolnikov (2012). We prove some…
It is well known that the problem of divergence in the physical interpretation of quantum mechanics originating from the uncertainty principle has not yet been resolved. Attempting to clear the constraints and confusion of this situation…
Quantum mechanics marks a radical departure from the classical understanding of Nature, fostering an inherent randomness which forbids a deterministic description; yet the most fundamental departure arises from something different. As shown…
According to classical physics particles are basic building blocks of the world. Classical particles are distinguishable objects, individuated by physical characteristics. By contrast, in quantum mechanics the standard view is that…
Dynamics of systems of structured particles consisting of potentially interacting material points is considered in the framework of classical mechanics. Equations of interaction and motion of structured particles have been derived. The…
The Heisenberg position-momentum uncertainty principle shares with the equivalence principle the role of main pillar of our current description of nature. However, in its original formulation it is inconsistent with special relativity, and…