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Von Neumann's Entropy Does Not Correspond to Thermodynamic Entropy

Shenker, Orly R. 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
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Shenker, Orly R.
Hemmo, Meir
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: Orly Shenker
Date Deposited: 11 Dec 2007
Last Modified: 11 Nov 2016 17:31
Item ID: 3716
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
Date: 2006
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3716

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