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On the Brussels School's Arrow of Time in Quantum Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Vassilios Karakostas
Vassilios Karakostas*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
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Abstract

This paper examines the problem of founding irreversibility on reversible equations of motion from the point of view of the Brussels school's recent developments in the foundations of quantum statistical mechanics. A detailed critique of both their ‘subdynamics’ and ‘transformation’ theory is given. It is argued that the subdynamics approach involves a generalized form of ‘coarse-graining’ description, whereas, transformation theory cannot lead to truly irreversible processes pointing to a preferred direction of time. It is concluded that the Brussels school's conception of microscopic temporal irreversibility, as such, is tacitly assumed at the macroscopic level. Finally a logical argument is provided which shows, independently of the mathematical formalism of the theory concerned, that statistical reasoning alone is not sufficient to explain the arrow of time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 374 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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Footnotes

†

I wish to thank Michael Redhead and Jeremy Butterfield for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript, and an anonymous referee for useful remarks. I also thank the Arnold Gerstenberg Fund and the British Academy for generous financial support while this work was being done.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, England.

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