Category: thermodynamics

Back to Boltzmann! Macrostate entropy. Non-equilibrium macrostates and microstates. Entropy of non-equilibrium states and kinetics. Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics in practice.

Maxwell’s demon. Brownian motion and the second law. Smoluchowski: naturalization of Maxwell’s demon. Szilard’s demon. Brillouin: negentropy principle of information. Landauer and thermodynamics of computation.

Maxwell and Gibbs on the role of perception. Shannon information theory. Arrival of information in statistical mechanics. Edwin Jaynes and principle of maximum information entropy. Carnap on the objectivity of entropy.

The evolution of Ludwig Boltzmann’s views. Loschmidt paradox and statistical foundations. Zermelo paradox and fluctuation hypothesis. Boltzmann’s Suicide. Statistical interpretation of the second law. Gibbs statistical entropy. Phase space mixing

Key events in the development of statistical mechanics. Probability distribution and phase space. Microcanonical and canonical distribution. Partition function for ideal polyatomic gas.

Classical statistical mechanics. Quantum statistical mechanics. The Born-Oppenheimer Approximation. Molecular Mechanics and Molecular Dynamics. Quantum effects in the quasi-classical approximation.

Outline of the second part of the book. Semiclassical approximation. The Clausius inequality and the arrow of time. Information entropy.

Entropy in classical thermodynamics. Non-equilibrium states in discontinuous systems. From temperature field to non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Limits of applicability of classical thermodynamics.