Boltzmannian non-equilibrium and local variables

Frigg, Roman ORCID: 0000-0003-0812-0907 and Werndl, Charlotte (2023) Boltzmannian non-equilibrium and local variables. In: Soto, Cristián, (ed.) Current debates in philosophy of science: in honor of Roberto Torretti. Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK.

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Abstract

Boltzmannian statistical mechanics (BSM) partitions a system’s space of microstates into cells and refers to these cells as ‘macro-states’. One of these cells is singled out as the equilibrium macro-state while the others are non-equilibrium macro-states. It remains unclear, however, how these states are characterised at the macro-level as long as only real-valued macro-variables are available. We argue that physical quantities like pressure and temperature should be treated as field-variables and show how field variables fit into the framework of our own version of BSM, the long-run residence time account of BSM. The introduction of field variables into the theory makes it possible to give a full macroscopic characterisation of the approach to equilibrium.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	© 2022 Routledge
Divisions:	Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HA Statistics Q Science > QA Mathematics
Date Deposited:	11 Apr 2022 14:21
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 18:06
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/114859

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