Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe
AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik
AGPhil 5: Quantum Particles
AGPhil 5.1: Hauptvortrag
Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 10:00–10:45, BEY 154
Distinguishable Quantum Particles and the Gibbs Paradox — •Dennis Dieks — Utrecht University, Institute for History and Foundations of Science, P.O. Box 80.010,NL-3508 TA Utrecht
The Gibbs paradox in classical statistical mechanics has often been interpreted as a sign that particles of the same kind are fundamentally indistinguishable; and that quantum mechanics, with its identical fermions and bosons, is indispensable for making sense of this. However, further thinking about the paradox shows that classical particles are always *distinguishable*. Perhaps surprisingly, this analysis extends to quantum mechanics: even according to quantum mechanics there exist distinguishable particles of the same kind. The universally accepted notion that quantum particles of the same kind are necessarily indistinguishable rests on a confusion about how particles are represented in quantum theory.