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=
P
b
x
b
P
b
1
Macrostates: labeled by A
S
s,A
n
= log
Z
ds
0
Y
n
(A
n
(s
0
) A
n
(s)).
Second law is veried:
S
s,A
(t)
dt)
0.
t
a
t
b
Time t
b
< t
a
Time
t
a
t
b
t
a
t
b
Time t
a
< t
b
: subset of the set of balls in the box
Observable:
Macrostates: labeled by
Entropy: number of microstates states in a macro state
Second law is veried:
A
=
P
b
x
b
P
b
1
S
s,A
(t)
dt)
0.
t = t
Time
t
a
t
b
: subset formed by the red balls in the box
(t)
dt
0.
S
s,A
(t)
dt
0.
For each history of the system there is an observable
dening a growing entropy in each direction of time.
Message #1:
Entropy increase (passing of time)
can depend on the macroscopical observable
dening the coarse graining
rather than the micro-state of the world.
Strong conjecture:
For almost every microscopic history
of a sufciently rich ergodic system,
there is always a macroscopic observable
that denes an increasing entropy,
in either time direction.
Does this mean that
entropy increase is arbitrary:
depends only on denition
and is therefore unphysical?
No, of course
Because the coarse graining
and the choice of the relevant macroscopical observables
is not free: it is dictated by the physics.
N heavy particles
2
N
small watcher particles
One watcher particle for each subset of heavy particles
The watcher particle is attracted by the subset of heavy particles
N heavy particles
2
N
small watcher particles
One watcher particle for each subset of heavy particles
The watcher particle is attracted by the subset of heavy particles
Time
t
a
t
b
t
a
t
b
Time t
b
< t
a
t
a
t
b
Time t
a
< t
b
Observable:
The macrostates of the heavy particles
are objectively described by the
coarse graining dened by
for what concerns their interactions
with
Therefore interacts with a world
where the second law is true:
A
=
P
b
x
b
P
b
1
S
s,A
(t)
dt
0.
The quantity is precisely the macroscopic
observable that governs the interaction of
the heavy balls with
A
(t)
dt
0.
S
s,A
(t)
dt
0.
The same world is seen as having
increasing or decreasing entropy
by different subsystems having
different couplings with the rest.
Message #2:
Entropy increase (passing of time)
experienced by a subsystem depend
on the coupling of this subsystem
rather than the micro-state of the world.
Strong conjecture:
For almost every microscopic history
of a sufciently rich ergodic system,
there is always a subsystem
which experiences entropy increase.
Message #1: Entropy increase (passing of time)
depend on the macroscopic observables.
For almost every microscopic history of a
sufciently rich ergodic system, there is
always a macroscopic observable that denes
an increasing entropy, in either time direction.
Conjecture 1:
Message #2:
Entropy increase (passing of time) experienced
by a subsystem depend on its coupling.
For almost every microscopic history of a
sufciently rich ergodic system, there is always a
subsystem which experiences entropy increase.
Conjecture 2:
Why is the future different from the past?
There are numerous arrows of time in science:
Second law of thermodynamics
Retarded potential in electromagnetism
Biological (individuals go from birth to death)
Biological (species evolution in one time direction)
Psychological
in
>
out
S
in
< S
out
With respect to the
macroscopic variables
energy and frequency,
there is entropy
production in the
biosphere
It is not the (microstate) of the universe to be peculiar.
It is ourself (the system we belong to), to be peculiar observers,
we couple to macroscopic variables
giving low entropy at one end.
The low initial entropy is not due to the state.
It is due to the coarse graining observables.
The real world:
Cosmology: It is not the dynamics of everything. It is the dynamics of a few very
coarse grained degrees of freedom (see J Barrows talk). Comology is a feast of coarse
graining!
General relativity: The dynamics does not have a single preferred time variable. Even
less a direction.
Quantum mechanics: Entropy includes von Neumann entropy, which event more
than in the classical case, depends on the splitting in subsystems and the coupling
between these.
Quantum Gravity: Loop Quantum Gravity: Space and time emerge in the
semiclassical approximation. Cosmology is a violently coarse grained description of
reality.
H
= L
2
[SU(2)
L
/SU(2)
N
]
L
i
a
, L
j
b
= i
ab
ij
k
L
k
a
W
v
= (P
SL(2,C)
Y
v
)(1I)
The scale factor may be like
The variable.
A
t
a
t
b
Time t
a
< t
b
Related ideas and issues:
Simon Saunders David Wallace: Branching of the universal wave function is time
oriented. Why? Could it be that it is with respect to a subsystem with suitable
couplings that the branching is time oriented?
or ?
Jenann Ismael: Which aspects of the world depend on our own perspective on
them?
Max Tegmark: How unitary cosmology generalizes thermodynamics and solves the
inationary entropy problem (2012).
David Albert: The low entropy initial condition is what allows us to reconstruct the
past.
Jim Hartle: Predictability emerges in the quantum state from quasi classical realms.
The relevant observables are averages of densities of conserved quantities over
small volumes. In quantum gravity, does locality emerges after the establishment of
a semiclassical approximation? Is coarse graining determined or determining
locality?
- Entropy increase (passage of time) depend on the coarse graining, hence the
subsystem, not the micro-state of the world.
For almost every microscopic history of a sufciently
rich ergodic system, there is always a subsystem which
experiences entropy increase.
- Conjecture:
Summary
- Time asymmetry, and time ow, might be a feature of a subsystem to
which we belong, (needed for information gathering creatures like us to be
what we are), not features of the universe at large.
The second law of thermodynamics is true,
but it is perspectival.
CR: Why do we remember the past and not the future?
The time oriented coarse graining hypothesis
arXiv: 1407.3384.