Chance in Physics

by Bricmont, J.; Durr, D.; Galavotti, Maria Carla; Ghirardi, G.; Petruccione, F.; Zanghi, N.

• ISBN13: 9783540420569
• ISBN10: 3540420568
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

This selection of reviews and papers is intended to stimulate renewed reflection on the fundamental and practical aspects of probability in physics. While putting emphasis on conceptual aspects in the foundations of statistical and quantum mechanics, the book deals with the philosophy of probability in its interrelation with mathematics and physics in general. Addressing graduate students and researchers in physics and mathematics together with philosophers of science, the contributions avoid cumbersome technicalities in order to make the book worthwhile reading for nonspecialists and specialists alike.

Table of Contents

Part I Introduction
Bayes, Boltzmann and Bohm: Probabilities in Physics	3	(22)
Jean Bricmont
Part II Classical Statistical Mechanics
The Rise of Statistical Mechanics	25	(14)
Carlo Cercignani
Boltzmann's Approach to Statistical Mechanics	39	(16)
Sheldon Goldstein
Microscopic Time Reversibility and the Boltzmann Equation	55	(6)
Herbert Spohn
The Direction of Time	61	(22)
Oliver Penrose
How to Implement Boltzmann's Probabilistic Ideas in a Relativistic World?	83	(20)
Michael K.-H. Kiessling
Part III Quantum Mechanics
Probability in Orthodox Quantum Mechanics: Probability as a Postulate Versus Probability as an Emergent Phenomenon	103	(12)
Stephen L. Adler
Bohmian Mechanics	115	(18)
Detlef Durr
Chance of Reduction as Chance of Spontaneous Localisation	133	(16)
Alberto Rimini
Probabilities, Decohering Histories, and the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics	149	(8)
Roland Omnes
Space Time and Probability	157	(8)
Simon W. Saunders
Hidden Variables, Statistical Mechanics and the Early Universe	165	(18)
Antony Valentini
Perspectives of the Dynamical Reduction Program	183	(12)
Gian Carlo Ghirardi
Relativistic Theory of Continous Measurements	195	(18)
Heinz-Peter Breuer
Francesco Petrurccione
Probabilistic Results for Six Detectors in a Three-Particle GHZ Experiment	213	(12)
Jose Acacio de Barros
Patrick Suppes
Classical Versus Quantum Probabilities	225	(10)
Enrico G. Beltrametti
Part IV Chaotic Systems
Does Quantum Chaos Exist?	235	(8)
Andreas Knauf
Time-Scales for the Approach to Thermal Equilibrium	243	(10)
Stefano Ruffo
Einstein's Nonconventional Conception of the Photon and the Modern Theory of Dynamical Systems	253	(12)
Andrea Carati
Luigi Galgani
Part V Philosophy of Probability
What Interpretation for Probability in Physics?	265	(6)
Maria Carla Galavotti
Statistical Mechanics and the Propensity Interpretation of Probability	271	(12)
Peter J. Clark
Interpreting Probabilities: What's Interference Got to Do with It?	283
Tim Maudlin