Chance in Physics: Foundations and Perspectives

Jean Bricmont (auth.), Jean Bricmont, Giancarlo Ghirardi, Detlef Dürr, Francesco Petruccione, Maria Carla Galavotti, Nino Zanghi (eds.)3540420568, 9783540420569

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 togehter 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 :
Bayes, Boltzmann and Bohm: Probabilities in Physics….Pages 3-21
The Rise of Statistical Mechanics….Pages 25-38
Boltzmann’s Approach to Statistical Mechanics….Pages 39-54
Microscopic Time Reversibility and the Boltzmann Equation….Pages 55-59
The Direction of Time….Pages 61-82
How to Implement Boltzmann’s Probabilistic Ideas in a Relativistic World?….Pages 83-100
Probability in Orthodox Quantum Mechanics: Probability as a Postulate Versus Probability as an Emergent Phenomenon….Pages 103-114
Bohmian Mechanics….Pages 115-131
Chance of Reduction as Chance of Spontaneous Localisation….Pages 133-147
Probabilities, Decohering Histories, and the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics….Pages 149-156
Space Time and Probability….Pages 157-165
Hidden Variables, Statistical Mechanics and the Early Universe….Pages 165-181
Perspectives of the Dynamical Reduction Program….Pages 183-193
Relativistic Theory of Continuous Measurements….Pages 195-212
Probabilistic Results for Six Detectors in a Three-Particle GHZ Experiment….Pages 213-223
Classical Versus Quantum Probabilities….Pages 225-232
Does Quantum Chaos Exist?….Pages 235-241
Time-Scales for the Approach to Thermal Equilibrium….Pages 243-251
Einstein’s Nonconventional Conception of the Photon and the Modern Theory of Dynamical Systems….Pages 253-261
What Interpretation for Probability in Physics?….Pages 265-269
Statistical Mechanics and the Propensity Interpretation of Probability….Pages 271-281
Interpreting Probabilities: What’s Interference Got to Do with It?….Pages 283-288