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Typicality and the Approach to Equilibrium in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Roman Frigg
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Abstract

An important contemporary version of Boltzmannian statistical mechanics explains the approach to equilibrium in terms of typicality. The problem with this approach is that it comes in different versions, which are, however, not recognized as such and not clearly distinguished. This article identifies three different versions of typicality-based explanations of thermodynamic-like behavior and evaluates their respective successes. The conclusion is that the first two are unsuccessful because they fail to take the system's dynamics into account. The third, however, is promising. I give a precise formulation of the proposal and present an argument in support of its central contention.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 5 , December 2009 , pp. 997 - 1008
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

Special thanks goes to Charlotte Werndl for invaluable discussions about dynamical systems. I also would like to thank Craig Callender, Hartry Field, Shelly Goldstein, Stephan Hartmann, Carl Hoefer, Wolfgang Pietsch, and Nino Zanghì for valuable comments on earlier drafts and helpful discussions. Thanks to the audiences in Madrid, Oxford, Pittsburgh, and Jerusalem for stimulating discussions.

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