2018/07/11 by Roman Frigg, Charlotte Werndl, Frigg, Roman +1 · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1807.04218
openalex publication_date 2018/07/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Gibbsian statistical mechanics (GSM) is the most widely used version of statistical mechanics among working physicists. Yet a closer look at GSM reveals that it is unclear what the theory actually says and how it bears on experimental practice. The root cause of the difficulties is the status of the Averaging Principle, the proposition that what we observe in an experiment is the ensemble average of a phase function. We review different stances toward this principle, and eventually present a coherent interpretation of GSM that provides an account of the status and scope of the principle.