English

Planck's Legacy to Statistical Mechanics

Statistical Mechanics 2007-05-23 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

In this talk I will describe the deep influence Planck had on the development of statistical mechanics. At this end I will first outline the theoretical situation of statistical mechanics before Planck. I will then describe his main contributions to this field and the progresses obtained as an immediate consequence of his work. I will also outline the later evolution of statistical mechanics in relation with Planck's work. I will finally report on a still unsolved problem in statistical mechanics, historically related to the properties of black-body radiation.

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0101293,
  title  = {Planck's Legacy to Statistical Mechanics},
  author = {Giorgio Parisi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0101293},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

11 pages, historical talk given at the Accademia dei Lincei at the conference on Max Planck

R2 v1 2026-07-22T10:15:31.168Z