Time's Arrow: Origins of Thermodynamic Behaviour - Softcover

Mackey, Michael C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3540977023 ISBN 13: 9783540977025

Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K, 1991

Synopsis

Directed at physicists interested in the foundations of statistical mechanics, this book deals with questions about the origins and evolution of entropy and the "arrow of time". Proofs of many important theorums are included as well as new material on, for example, the demonstration that the black body radiation law can be deduced from maximal entropy principles, the addition of sufficient conditions for the existence of at least one state of thermodynamic equilibrium, a fuller description of the behaviour of entropy in asymptotically periodic systems, the use of the Koopman and Frobenius Perron operators for deriving the evolution equation for densities under the action of a continuous time dynamical system described by a system of ODEs; and a presentation of the three main types of ergodic theorums and their proofs.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book explores the dynamical basis for the Second Law, that is, he seeks to illuminate the fundamental dynamical properties required for the construction of a successful statistical mechanics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3540977023
• ISBN 13: 9783540977025
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 190