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Von Neumann's Entropy Does Not Correspond to Thermodynamic Entropy

Shenker, Orly and Hemmo, Meir (2006) Von Neumann's Entropy Does Not Correspond to Thermodynamic Entropy. UNSPECIFIED.

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    Abstract

    Abstract Von Neumann (1932, Ch. 5) argued by means of a thought experiment involving measurements of spin observables that the quantum mechanical quantity is conceptually equivalent to thermodynamic entropy. We analyze Von Neumann's thought experiment and show that his argument fails. Over the past few years there has been a dispute in the literature regarding the Von Neumann entropy. It turns out that each contribution to this dispute (Shenker 1999, Henderson 2001, Hemmo 2003) addressed a different special case. In this paper we generalize the discussion and examine the full matrix of possibilities that are relevant for the evaluation and understanding of Von Neumann’s argument.

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    Item Type: Other
    Keywords: entropy, Von Neumann entropy, information entropy, Second Law of thermodynamics, though experiment, measurement
    Subjects: General Issues > Thought Experiments
    General Issues > Philosophers of Science
    Specific Sciences > Physics
    General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
    General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
    General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism
    Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
    General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
    Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
    Depositing User: Dr Orly R. Shenker
    Date Deposited: 11 Dec 2007
    Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 11:15
    Item ID: 3716
    URI: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3716

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