From being to becoming : time and complexity in the physical sciences /
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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San Francisco :
W.H. Freeman,
©1980.
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Table of Contents:
- Introduction: time in physics : The dynamical description and its limits ; The second law of thermodynamics ; Molecular description of irreversible processes ; Time and dynamics
- The physics of being : Classical dynamics : Introduction ; Hamiltonian equations of motion and ensemble theory ; Operators ; Equilibrium ensembles ; Integrable systems ; Ergodic systems ; Dynamical systems neither integrable nor ergodic ; Weak stability
- Quantum mechanics : Introduction ; Operators and complementarity ; Quantization rules ; Time change in quantum mechanics ; Ensemble theory in quantum mechanics ; Schrodinger and Heisenberg representations ; Equilibrium ensembles ; The measurement problem ; Decay of unstable particles ; Is quantum mechanics complete?
- The physics of becoming : Thermodynamics : Entropy and Boltzmann's order principle ; Liner nonequilibrium thermodynamics ; Thermodynamic stability theory ; Application to chemical reactions
- Self-organization : Stability, bifurcation, and catastrophes ; Bifurcations: the Brusselator ; A solvable model for bifurcation ; Coherent structures in chemistry and biology ; Ecology ; Concluding remarks
- Nonequilibrium fluctuations : The breakdown of the law of large numbers ; Chemical games ; Nonequilibrium phase transitions ; Critical fluctuations in nonequilibrium systems ; Oscillations and time symmetry breaking ; Limits to complexity ; Effect of environmental noise ; Concluding remarks
- The bridge from being to becoming : Kinetic theory : Introduction ; Boltzmann's kinetic theory ; Correlations and the entropy of rejuvenation ; Gibbs entropy ; The Poincare ́-Misra theorem ; A new complementarity
- The microscopic theory of irreversible processes : Irreversibility and the extension of formalism of classical and quantum mechanics ; A new transformation theory ; Construction of the entropy operator and the transformation theory: the Baker transformation ; Entropy operator and the Poincare ́ catastrophe ; Microscopic interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics: collective modes ; Particles and dissipation: a non-Hamiltonian microworld
- The laws of change : Einstein's dilemma ; Time and change ; Time and entropy as operators ; Levels of description ; Past and future ; An open world.