The coarse-graining approach to statistical mechanics: how blissful is our ignorance?
✍ Scribed by Katinka Ridderbos
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2002
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 129 KB
- Volume
- 33
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1355-2198
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In this paper I first argue that the objection which is most commonly levelled against the coarse-graining approachFviz. that it introduces an element of subjectivity into what ought to be a purely objective formalismFis ultimately unfounded. I then proceed to argue that two different objections to the coarse-graining approach indicate that it is an inadequate approach to statistical mechanics. The first objection is based on the fact that the appeal to appearances by the coarse-graining approach fails to justify the coarse-graining strategy of ignoring the physical differences between so-called quasi-equilibrium distributions and equilibrium distributions. The second objection is centred on the notion of a coarse-grained entropy. I will argue that the required increase in the coarse-grained entropy is obtained by disregarding the dynamical constraints on the system. This undermines the very task statistical mechanics has set out to accomplish, viz. to provide a microdynamical underpinning of thermodynamics.