Boltzmann's Approach to Statistical Mechanics

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dc.creatorGoldstein, Sheldon
dc.date2001-05-11
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:41:23Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:41:23Z
dc.descriptionIn the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Ludwig Boltzmann explained how irreversible macroscopic laws, in particular the second law of thermodynamics, originate in the time-reversible laws of microscopic physics. Boltzmann's analysis, the essence of which I shall review here, is basically correct. The most famous criticisms of Boltzmann's later work on the subject have little merit. Most twentieth century innovations -- such as the identification of the state of a physical system with a probability distribution $\varrho$ on its phase space, of its thermodynamic entropy with the Gibbs entropy of $\varrho$, and the invocation of the notions of ergodicity and mixing for the justification of the foundations of statistical mechanics -- are thoroughly misguided.
dc.description16 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Chance in Physics: Foundations and Perspectives, edited by Jean Bricmont, Detlef Durr, Maria C. Galavotti, Giancarlo Ghirardi, Francesco Petruccione, and Nino Zanghi, Lecture Notes in Physics 574, (Springer-Verlag)
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0105242
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0105242
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/17725
dc.subjectStatistical Mechanics
dc.subjectMathematical Physics
dc.subjectHistory and Philosophy of Physics
dc.subjectQuantum Physics
dc.titleBoltzmann's Approach to Statistical Mechanics
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