Is Entropy Associated with Time's Arrow?
Abstract
We start with reviewing the origin of the idea that entropy and the Second Law are associated with the Arrow of Time. We then introduced a new definition of entropy based on Shannons Measure of Information, SMI. The SMI may be defined on any probability distribution, and therefore it is a very general concept. On the other hand entropy is defined on a very special set of probability distributions. More specifically the entropy of a thermodynamic system is related the probability distribution of locations and velocities or momenta of all the particles, which maximized the Shannon Measure of Information. As such, entropy is not a function of time. We also show that the H function, as defined by Boltzmann is an SMI but not entropy. Therefore, while the H-function, as an SMI may change with time, Entropy, as a limit of the SMI does not change with time.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1705.01467,
title = {Is Entropy Associated with Time's Arrow?},
author = {Arieh Ben-Naim},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.01467},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
27 pages and 7 figures