Statistical mechanics provides the framework for deriving macroscopic thermodynamic properties from the microscopic characteristics of matter. Central to this discipline is the concept of entropy, ...

In a recent paper, SFI Professor David Wolpert, SFI Fractal Faculty member Carlo Rovelli, and physicist Jordan Scharnhorst examine a longstanding, paradoxical thought experiment in statistical physics ...

In the context of Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics, this entropy is extensive, i.e., it grows proportionally to the size of the system. However, at critical points and phase transitions, this ...

This is why statistical thermodynamics and Claude Shannon’s information theory are essentially the same theory: Shannon’s entropy, called information entropy, is a measure of how many states a system ...

Entropy is surely one of the most intriguing and misunderstood concepts in all of physics. The entropy of the universe must always increase – so says the second law of thermodynamics. It’s a law that ...