Jean Bricmont / Detlef Dürr / Maria C. Galavotti / Giancarlo Ghirardi / Francesco Petruccione / Nino Zanghi (eds.)

Gebundenes Buch

Chance in Physics

Foundations and Perspectives

Herausgegeben: Bricmont, J.; Dürr, D.; Galavotti, M. C.; Ghirardi, G.; Petruccione, F.; Zanghi, Nino

Beschreibung

TheconferenceChanceinPhysics:FoundationsandPerspectiveswasheldfrom 29thNovemberto3rdDecember1999inIschia,Italy. Itwassponsoredbythe IstitutoItalianoPerGliStudiFiloso?ciinNaples,bytheDeutscheForschun- gemeinschaft(DFG),andbytheSociet`aItalianaDiFondamentiDellaFisica. SponsoringbytheInternationalSchoolforAdvancedStudies(ISAS)ofTrieste, Italy,madethecompilationofthisvolumepossible;thefundingbytheIs- tutoItalianoPerGliStudiFiloso?ciwascrucialfortheconferenceandisvery gratefullyacknowledged. TheIstitutomanagedtoprovideauniqueatmosphere foraninterdisciplinarymeeting,andtheseproceedingsre?ectindeedthevery friendlybutneverthelessintenseandneverendingdiscussionsononeofthemost debatedissuesofscience:probability,andinparticularprobabilityinphysics. Wegratefullyacknowlegdetheorganisationalworkaswellastheeditorialwork donebyoursecretaryofthemeetingPhDstudentRoderichTumulka. Themeetingwasintendedtostimulaterenewedre?ectiononthefundam- talandpracticalaspectsofprobabilityinphysics,inparticularthefoundations ofstatisticalsechanics,theprobabilityinthefoundationsofquantummech- ics,thealgebraicviewofprobabilityandthephilosophyofprobabilityinits interrelationwithphysics. Questionslikewhatprobabilityis,orwhatitisabout,orhowprobability entersphysicsareofasubtlekind. Theyaredi?cultinvariousways,often mixedupwiththeenormouscomplexityandtheinescapablelackofmat- maticalrigorinthephysicalapplication,orwiththefoundationalproblemsof quantummechanics,wheretheprobabilisticignoranceconcerningthevaluesof certainphysicalquantitieshasevenbeenelevatedtoamatterofprinciple. At present,theunderstandingofprobabilityinphysicsisalmostaspersonalasthe understandingofquantumtheory. Theaimoftheconferencewasthustofocusonideasaboutprobabilityin physics,itsmeaninganditsphilosophicalimplications,byreviewingthedi?erent facetsofprobabilityinphysicsinitsmodernsettingsandbytakingintoaccount modernquantumtheorieswithoutobservers,wheretheoriginofprobabilityis notmysti?edbydogmatism. Thereviewsweregiveninone-hourtalks,andthediscussionswereheldin theformofroundtables,whereshortercontributionswerealsogiven. Thespeakerswereaskednottodilutethemainthemesoftheconference withtechnicalitiesandtofocussharplyontheissueofprobability. Thiswas VI Preface takentoheartbyallspeakersandthemeetingthusprovedverysuccessful. The contributionsinthisvolumeconsequentlyfocusonconceptualissues,andthey makeworthwhilereadingforspecialistsinthe?eldoffoundationsaswellasfor nonspecialists,becauseextensivetechnicalpriorknowledgeisnotrequired. The contributionshavebeenleftintheordertheywerediscussedinthemeeting, whichprovedtobeaverynaturalone: 1. ClassicalStatisticalMechanics,whereBoltzmann sunderstandingofstat- ticalmechnanicsasarisingfromkineticgastheoryisreviewedandputinto modernperspectives,withanoutlookonrelativisticstatisticalmechanics. Therelativelackofemphasisonthee?ectofchaoticbehaviouronthefo- dationsofprobabilityisnoteworthy. 2. QuantumMechanics,wherewereviewthoseontologicalquantumtheories, thathavebeenmostseriouslydiscussedintherecentyears. Amongthese areadeterministictheory(Bohmianmechanics)andboththeintrinsically randomtheoriesofwavepacketreductionandtheoperator-basedconsistent (decoherent)histories. Itstartswiththe orthodox view,againwith- phasisontheprobabilisticaspectsofthesetheories. 3. Chaoticsystems,wherethedynamicalaspectsforthefoundationsofpro- bilityinphysicsareadressed. 4. PhilosophyofProbability,wheretheissuesoftheearliersectionsarefurther scrutinizedonphilosophicalgrounds. Thesecontributionshavenoabstracts. Thebookstartswithanintroductorypaper,inwhichalmostallthetopics whicharediscussedbythelatercontributionsarecriticallypresented. M unchen, J. Bricmont,D. Durr, M. C. Galavotti, January2001 G. C. Ghirardi,F. Petruccione,N. Zangh`? TableofContents PartI Introduction Bayes,BoltzmannandBohm:ProbabilitiesinPhysics JeanBricmont. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PartII ClassicalStatisticalMechanics TheRiseofStatisticalMe

Produktdetails

• Lecture Notes in Physics 574
• Verlag: Springer / Springer Berlin Heidelberg / Springer, Berlin
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 978-3-540-42056-9
• 2001
• Seitenzahl: 308
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Juli 2001
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 241mm x 160mm x 22mm
• Gewicht: 612g
• ISBN-13: 9783540420569
• ISBN-10: 3540420568
• Artikelnr.: 22923734