Chance in Physics Foundations and Perspectives [Paperback]

This selection of reviews and papers is intended to stimulate renewed reflection on the fundamental and practical aspects of probability in physics. While putting emphasis on conceptual aspects in the foundations of statistical and quantum mechanics, the book deals with the philosophy of probability in its interrelation with mathematics and physics in general. Addressing graduate students and researchers in physics and mathematics togehter with philosophers of science, the contributions avoid cumbersome technicalities in order to make the book worthwhile reading for nonspecialists and specialists alike.This selection of reviews and papers is intended to stimulate renewed reflection on the fundamental and practical aspects of probability in physics. While putting emphasis on conceptual aspects in the foundations of statistical and quantum mechanics, the book deals with the philosophy of probability in its interrelation with mathematics and physics in general. Addressing graduate students and researchers in physics and mathematics togehter with philosophers of science, the contributions avoid cumbersome technicalities in order to make the book worthwhile reading for nonspecialists and specialists alike.Bayes, Boltzmann and Bohm: Probabilities in Physics.- Classical Statistical Mechanics.- The Rise of Statistical Mechanics.- Boltzmanns Approach to Statistical Mechanics.- Microscopic Time Reversibility and the Boltzmann Equation.- The Direction of Time.- How to Implement Boltzmanns Probabilistic Ideas in a Relativistic World?.- Quantum Mechanics.- Probability in Orthodox Quantum Mechanics: Probability as a Postulate Versus Probability as an Emergent Phenomenon.- Bohmian Mechanics.- Chance of Reduction as Chance of Spontaneous Localisation.- Probabilities, Decohering Histories, and the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.- Space Time and Probability.- Hidden Variables, Statistical Mechanics and the Early Universe.- Perspectives of the Dynamical Reduction Program.- RelalG