The Road to Maxwell's Demon
eBook - PDF

The Road to Maxwell's Demon

Conceptual Foundations of Statistical Mechanics

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Road to Maxwell's Demon

Conceptual Foundations of Statistical Mechanics

Book details
Table of contents
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About This Book

Time asymmetric phenomena are successfully predicted by statistical mechanics. Yet the foundations of this theory are surprisingly shaky. Its explanation for the ease of mixing milk with coffee is incomplete, and even implies that un-mixing them should be just as easy. In this book the authors develop a new conceptual foundation for statistical mechanics that addresses this difficulty. Explaining the notions of macrostates, probability, measurement, memory, and the arrow of time in statistical mechanics, they reach the startling conclusion that Maxwell's Demon, the famous perpetuum mobile, is consistent with the fundamental physical laws. Mathematical treatments are avoided where possible, and instead the authors use novel diagrams to illustrate the text. This is a fascinating book for graduate students and researchers interested in the foundations and philosophy of physics.

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Yes, you can access The Road to Maxwell's Demon by Meir Hemmo,Orly R. Shenker in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Physical Sciences & Physics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2012
ISBN
9781139575119
Topic
Physical Sciences
Subtopic
Physics
Index
Physics

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. The Road to Maxwell's Demon: Conceptual Foundations of Statistical Mechanics
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. 1 Introduction
  9. 2 Thermodynamics
  10. 3 Classical mechanics
  11. 4 Time
  12. 5 Macrostates
  13. 6 Probability
  14. 7 Entropy
  15. 8 Typicality
  16. 9 Measurement
  17. 10 The past
  18. 11 Gibbs
  19. 12 Erasure
  20. 13 Maxwells Demon
  21. Appendix A Szilard's engine
  22. Appendix B Quantum mechanics
  23. References
  24. Index