Related papers: A Didactic Journey from Statistical Physics to The…
I discuss in parallel two universal phenomena: the independence of statistics of the heat capacity and entropy of ideal gases of the same, constant, density of states, on one hand, and the independence of statistics of the heat and entropy…
Statistical analysis is used throughout biomedical research and elsewhere to assess strength of evidence. We have previously argued that typical outcome statistics (including p-values and maximum likelihood ratios) have poor…
We develop a thermodynamic framework for modeling innovation adoption and abandonment dynamics using statistical mechanics. Starting from a mathematical model for an adoption distribution that fits empirically obtained date, we construct a…
Do negative absolute temperatures matter physics and specifically Statistical Physics? We provide evidence that we can certainly answer positively to this vexata quaestio. The great majority of models investigated by statistical mechanics…
Some interactions between classical or quantum fields and matter are known to be irreversible processes. Here we associate an entropy to the electromagnetic field from well-known notions of statistical quantum mechanics, in particular the…
The purpose of this work is to discuss recent progress in deriving the fundamental laws of thermodynamics (0th, 1st and 2nd-law) from nonequilibrium quantum statistical mechanics. Basic thermodynamic notions are clarified and different…
Thermodynamics and information have intricate inter-relations. The justification of the fact that information is physical, is done by inter-linking information and thermodynamics - through Landauer's principle. This modern approach towards…
Building on the fundamental equation, this study revisits key thermodynamic concepts in a cohesive and innovative manner. It demonstrates the consistency of thermodynamic theory while addressing and clarifying common misconceptions and…
Thermodynamics is based on a coarse-grained approach, from which its fundamental variables emerge, effectively erasing the complicate details of the microscopic dynamics within a macroscopic system. The strength of Thermodynamics lies in…
In a macroscopic (quantum or classical) Hamiltonian system, we prove the second law of thermodynamics in the forms of the minimum work principle and the law of entropy increase, under the assumption that the initial state is described by a…
Combining intuitive probabilistic assumptions with the basic laws of classical thermodynamics, using the latter to express probabilistic parameters in terms of the thermodynamic quantities, we get a simple unified derivation of the…
The proper definition of entropy is fundamental to the relationship between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. It also plays a major role in the recent debate about the validity of the concept of negative temperature. In this paper,…
We address the problem of the foundation of generalized ensembles in statistical physics. The approach is based on Boltzmann's concept of orthodes. These are the statistical ensembles that satisfy the heat theorem, according to which the…
Stochastic field theories are often constructed phenomenologically, without a systematic assessment of thermodynamic consistency or local detailed balance. This may hinder a physical description of irreversibility at the field-theoretic…
The significance of statistical physics concepts such as entropy extends far beyond classical thermodynamics. We interpret the similarity between partitions in statistical mechanics and partitions in Bayesian inference as an articulation of…
We show, in two different ways, that the Tsallis' partition function and its derivatives are related to thermodynamic quantities such as entropy, internal energy, etc., in the same way as in Boltzmann-Gibbs' formalism, with the Lagrange…
This paper is a non-technical, informal presentation of our theory of the second law of thermodynamics as a law that is independent of statistical mechanics and that is derivable solely from certain simple assumptions about adiabatic…
We outline a phenomenological theory of evolution and origin of life by combining the formalism of classical thermodynamics with a statistical description of learning. The maximum entropy principle constrained by the requirement for…
Experimental data bases are typically very large and high dimensional. To learn from them requires to recognize important features (a pattern), often present at scales different to that of the recorded data. Following the experience…
The division by N! in the expression of statistical entropy is usually justified to students by the statement that classical particles should be counted as indistinguishable. Sometimes, quantum indistinguishability is invoked to explain it.…