Can somebody please say what Gibbsian statistical mechanics says?

Frigg, Roman ORCID: 0000-0003-0812-0907 and Werndl, Charlotte (2021) Can somebody please say what Gibbsian statistical mechanics says? British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 72 (1). 105 - 129. ISSN 0007-0882

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Abstract

Gibbsian statistical mechanics (GSM) is the most widely used version of statistical mechanics among working physicists. Yet a closer look at GSM reveals that it is unclear what the theory actually says and how it bears on experimental practice. The root cause of the difficulties is the status of the Averaging Principle, the proposition that what we observe in an experiment is the ensemble average of a phase function. We review different stances toward this principle, and eventually present a coherent interpretation of GSM that provides an account of the status and scope of the principle.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://academic.oup.com/bjps
Additional Information:	© 2018 The Author
Divisions:	Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Date Deposited:	13 Jun 2018 14:32
Last Modified:	17 Nov 2024 00:21
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/88342

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