[PhilPhys] Warsaw Spacetime Colloquium: Tim Maudlin (7 May on Zoom)

[Antonio Vassallo]

(With apologies for cross-posting)

On Friday, 7 May, Tim Maudlin (New York University) will give a talk
entitled “S = k ln(B(W)): Boltzmann entropy, the Second Law, and the
Architecture of Hell” (abstract below).

The meeting will take place online on Zoom (17:00-19:00 CEST). If you have
not registered yet, you can do so by sending a message to
antonio.vassallo at pw.edu.pl.

The Colloquium is organized by the Philosophy of Physics Group at the
International Center for Formal Ontology (Faculty of Administration and
Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology).

The program for the summer semester can be found here
<https://ssqg.ans.pw.edu.pl/en/index.php/warsaw-spacetime-colloquium-2020-2021-online/>,
while the recordings of the previous meetings are available on the
ICFO's YouTube
channel
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM-1yNCyvJJAfiq7LDFjfYc1I5OOxhJ1A>.

ABSTRACT
The concept of entropy was introduced in the setting of classical
thermodynamics, which was agnostic about the microscopic structure of
matter. The advent of the atomic theory and the kinetic theory of heat
allowed for the same phenomena to be approached from the standpoint of
statistical mechanics, a plan originated by Maxwell and Boltzmann. But in
order to “translate” or “reduce” classical thermodynamics into the language
of statistical mechanics and the kinetic theory, one needs definitions of
terms like “temperature” and “pressure” and “entropy” in the language of
the microphysics. One famous such definition—commonly ascribe to Boltzmann
but actually due to Planck—is S = k ln(W).
I will propose that in a certain explanatory sense this is the wrong
definition. And further, that the proper definition sheds light on the
reversibility paradoxes and on the role—or lack of one—of the Past
Hypothesis in the reduction of classical thermodynamics to statistical
mechanics.
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