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.
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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.
| Keywords: | entropy, Von Neumann entropy, information entropy, Second Law of thermodynamics, though experiment, measurement |
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| 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 |
| ID Code: | 3716 |
| Deposited By: | Shenker, Orly R. |
| Deposited On: | 11 December 2007 |
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