Related papers: Anthropic Selection for a Low-Entropy Past
Probabilistic models (developped by workers such as Boltzmann, on foundations due to pioneers such as Bayes) were commonly regarded merely as approximations to a deterministic reality before the roles were reversed by the quantum revolution…
We initiate a quantitative exploration of the entire landscape. Predictions thus far have focused on subsets of landscape vacua that share most properties with our own. Using the entropic principle (the assumption that entropy production…
The backbone of nonequilibrium thermodynamics is the stability structure, where entropy is related to a Lyapunov function of thermodynamic equilibrium. Stability is the background of natural selection: unstable systems are temporary, and…
According to our current conception of physics, any valid physical theory is supposed to describe the objective evolution of a unique external world. However, this condition is challenged by quantum theory, which suggests that physical…
Preserving biodiversity and ecosystem stability is a challenge that can be pursued through modern statistical mechanics modeling. Here we introduce a variational maximum entropy-based algorithm to evaluate the entropy in a minimal ecosystem…
The paper analyzes the entropy of a system composed by non-interacting and indistinguishable particles whose quantum state numbers are modelled as independent and identically distributed classical random variables. The crucial observation…
Gathering the most information by picking the least amount of data is a common task in experimental design or when exploring an unknown environment in reinforcement learning and robotics. A widely used measure for quantifying the…
This note addresses the relevance of rare events in system dynamics, inspired by Jill North reflections on the origin of the arrow of time in thermodynamics. After identifying the existence of rare events, characterized by a Pareto…
We derive a formula for the nonequilibrium entropy of a classical stochastic field in terms of correlation functions of this field. The formalism is then applied to define the entropy of gravitational perturbations (both gravitational waves…
Maximum-entropy ensembles are key primitives in statistical mechanics from which thermodynamic properties can be derived. Over the decades, several approaches have been put forward in order to justify from minimal assumptions the use of…
We discuss a Bayesian model selection approach to high dimensional data in the deep under sampling regime. The data is based on a representation of the possible discrete states $s$, as defined by the observer, and it consists of $M$…
The anthropic principle is an inevitable constraint on the space of possible theories. As such it is central to determining the limits of physics. In particular, we contend that what is ultimately possible in physics is determined by…
The dynamics of molecular collisions in a macroscopic body are encoded by the parameter Thermodynamic entropy - a statistical measure of the number of molecular configurations that correspond to a given macrostate. Directionality in the…
Entropy is a fundamental thermodynamic quantity that is a measure of the accessible microstates available to a system, with the stability of a system determined by the magnitude of the total entropy of the system. This is valid across truly…
The information shared among observables representing processes of interest is traditionally evaluated in terms of macroscale measures characterizing aggregate properties of the underlying processes and their interactions. Traditional…
In stationary spacetimes global equilibrium states can be defined, applying the maximum entropy principle, by the introduction of local thermodynamic fields determined solely by geometry. As an example, we study a class of equilibrium…
We introduce a definition of coarse-grained entropy that unifies measurement-based (observational entropy) and max-entropy-based (Jaynes) approaches to coarse-graining, by identifying physical constraints with information theoretic priors.…
We propose a new way of defining entropy of a system, which gives a general form which may be nonextensive as Tsallis entropy, but is linearly dependent on component entropies, like Renyi entropy, which is extensive. This entropy has a…
Thermodynamic entropy is determined by a heat measurement through the Clausius equality. The entropy then formalizes a fundamental limitation of operations by the second law of thermodynamics. The entropy is also expressed as the Shannon…
We study the statistical underpinnings of life. We question some common assumptions about the thermodynamics of life and illustrate how, contrary to widespread belief, even in a closed system entropy growth can accompany an increase in…