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Measures over Initial Conditions

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Probability in Physics

Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection ((FRONTCOLL))

Abstract

This paper concerns the meaning of the idea of typicality in classical statistical mechanics and how typicality is related to the notion of probability.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For various formulations and extensive discussions of the typicality approach, see Dürr et al. [4], Maudlin [5], Callender [6].

  2. 2.

    This inference is a subtle issue which depends on how probability is understood. We don’t address this question here.

  3. 3.

    This implies that the transition to a given macrostate need not be equal to the entropy of that macrostate, even if both are measured by the same measure μ.

  4. 4.

    This last condition needs to be flashed out; we skip this here.

  5. 5.

    For details concerning Lanford’s theorem see Uffink [11].

  6. 6.

    The fact that a Maxwellian Demon is compatible with classical statistical mechanics demonstrates that there can be no theorem in mechanics that implies a universal entropy increase. See Albert [10, Chap. 5] and Hemmo and Shenker [12, 13].

References

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Acknowledgement

This research is supported by the Israel Science Foundation, grant numbers 240/06 and 713/10.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Meir Hemmo

  2. Department of Philosophy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Orly Shenker

Authors
  1. Meir Hemmo
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  2. Orly Shenker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Meir Hemmo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Philosophy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel

    Yemima Ben-Menahem

  2. Dept. Philosophy, University of Haifa, Haifa, 31905, Israel

    Meir Hemmo

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Hemmo, M., Shenker, O. (2012). Measures over Initial Conditions. In: Ben-Menahem, Y., Hemmo, M. (eds) Probability in Physics. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21329-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21329-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21328-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21329-8

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