Saunders, Simon (2020) The Concept 'Indistinguishable'. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The concept of indistinguishable particles in quantum theory is fundamental to questions of ontology. All ordinary matter is made of electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons and they are all indistinguishable particles. Yet the concept itself has proved elusive, in part because of the interpretational difficulties that afflict quantum theory quite generally, and in part because the concept was so central to the discovery of the quantum itself, by Planck in 1900; it came encumbered with revolution.
I offer a deflationary reading of the concept ‘indistinguishable’ that is identical to Gibbs’ concept ‘generic phase’, save that it is defined for state spaces with only finitely-many states of bounded volume and energy (finitely-many orthogonal states, in quantum mechanics). That, and that alone, makes for the difference between the quantum and Gibbs concepts of indistinguishability.
This claim is heretical on several counts, but here we consider only the content of the claim itself, and its bearing on the early history of quantum theory rather than in relation to contemporary debates about particle indistinguishability and permutation symmetry. It powerfully illuminates that history.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Saunders, Simon simon.saunders@philosophy.ox.ac.uk 0000-0002-8292-3014
Additional Information:	to be published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Keywords:	indistinguishable particles, entropy, Gibbs paradox, generic phase, extensivity, light quanta, photon, black-body, quantum statistics, history of quantum mechanics, Planck, Einstein, Bose, Dirac.
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	simon saunders
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2020 04:11
Last Modified:	29 Jul 2020 04:11
Item ID:	17675
Official URL:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2020.02.003
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1016/j.shpsb.2020.02.003
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	28 July 2020
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/17675

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