Related papers: Introduction to Statistical Physics outside Physic…
I give a concise introduction to some essential concepts of statistical mechanics: 1. Probability theory (constrained distributions, concentration theorem, frequency estimation, hypothesis testing); 2. Macroscopic systems in equilibrium…
Gibbs measures are the main object of study in equilibrium statistical mechanics, and are used in many other contexts, including dynamical systems and ergodic theory, and spatial statistics. However, in a large number of natural instances…
The present discussion concerning certain fundamental physical theories (such as string theory and multiverse cosmology) has reopened the demarcation problem between science and non-science. While parts of the physics community see the…
We discuss several ways of illustrating fundamental concepts in statistical and thermal physics by considering various models and algorithms. We emphasize the importance of replacing students' incomplete mental images by models that are…
The main issues in non-accelerator astroparticle physics are reviewed and discussed. A short description is given of the experimental methods, of many experiments and of their experimental results.
Many have argued that statistics students need additional facility to express statistical computations. By introducing students to commonplace tools for data management, visualization, and reproducible analysis in data science and applying…
The image of physics is connected with simple "mechanical" deterministic events: that an apple always falls down, that force equals mass times acceleleration. Indeed, applications of such concept to social or historical problems go back two…
In 1963-71, a group of people, myself included, formulated and perfected a new approach to physics problems, which eventually came to be known under the names of scaling, universality, and renormalization. This work formed the basis of a…
The exponential family of models is defined in a general setting, not relying on probability theory. Some results of information geometry are shown to remain valid. Exponential families both of classical and of quantum mechanical…
This is an extensive review of recent work on the foundations of statistical mechanics. Subject matters discussed include: interpretation of probability, typicality, recurrence, reversibility, ergodicity, mixing, coarse graining, past…
A critical examination of some basic conceptual issues in classical statistical mechanics is attempted, with a view to understanding the origins, structure and statuts of that discipline. Due attention is given to the interplay between…
Without attempting to summarize the vast field of statistical mechanics, we briefly mention some of the progress that was made in areas which have enjoyed Barry Simon's interests. In particular, we focus on rigorous non-perturbative results…
The basic physical problems that necessitated the emergence of quantum physics are summarized, along with the elements of wave mechanics and its traditional statistical interpretation. Alternative interpretations to the statistical one,…
Mesoscopic systems in a slowly fluctuating environment are often well described by superstatistical models. We develop a generalized statistical mechanics formalism for superstatistical systems, by mapping the superstatistical complex…
Using a variational technique, we generalize the statistical physics approach of learning from random examples to make it applicable to real data. We demonstrate the validity and relevance of our method by computing approximate estimators…
Perhaps more than other physical sciences, astronomy is frequently statistical in nature. The objects under study are inaccessible to direct manipulation in the laboratory, so the astronomer is restricted to observing a few external…
This paper gives a short review of the history of statistical physics starting from D. Bernoulli's kinetic theory of gases in the 18th century until the recent new developments in nonequilibrium kinetic theory in the last decades of this…
The study of associations and their causal explanations is a central research activity whose methodology varies tremendously across fields. Even within specialized subfields, comparisons across textbooks and journals reveals that the basics…
Superstatistics is a widely employed tool of non-equilibrium statistical physics which plays an important role in analysis of hierarchical complex dynamical systems. Yet, its "canonical" formulation in terms of a single nuisance parameter…
We will discuss the link between scientific explanations and probabilities, specially in relationship with statistical mechanics and the derivation of macroscopic laws from microscopic ones.