What is the role and meaning of probability in physical theory, in particular in two of the most successful theories of our age, quantum physics and statistical mechanics? Laws once conceived as unive
Foundational issues in statistical mechanics and the more general question of how probability is to be understood in the context of physical theories are both areas that have been neglected by philosophers of physics. This book fills an important gap in the literature by providing a most systematic study of how to interpret probabilistic assertions in the context of statistical mechanics. The book explores both subjectivist and objectivist accounts of probability, and takes full measure of work in the foundations of probability theory, in statistical mechanics, and in mathematical theory. It will be of particular interest to philosophers of science, physicists and mathematicians interested in foundational issues, and also to historians of science.
Praised by the American Journal of Physics as "an outstanding and ambitious textbook for nonscience majors," this book introduces the uses of probability and statistics in the physical scien
This volume defends a novel approach to the philosophy of physics: it is the first book devoted to a comparative study of probability, causality, and propensity, and their various interrelations, with
This is a comprehensive discussion of complexity as it arises in physical, chemical, and biological systems, as well as in mathematical models of nature. Common features of these apparently unrelated fields are emphasised and incorporated into a uniform mathematical description, with the support of a large number of detailed examples and illustrations. The quantitative study of complexity is a rapidly developing subject with special impact in the fields of physics, mathematics, information science, and biology. Because of the variety of the approaches, no comprehensive discussion has previously been attempted. This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in physics (nonlinear dynamics, fluid dynamics, solid-state, cellular automata, stochastic processes, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics), mathematics (dynamical systems, ergodic and probability theory), information and computer science (coding, information theory and algorithmic complexity), electrical engi
Second edition includes a new chapter on queuing problems and introduces a new method for dealing with experiments in which only a few events are observed.
This book introduces the reader to statistical reasoning and its use in physics, based on a course developed for non-science majors at Cornell. It differs from other treatments by its wide-ranging use
This book introduces the reader to statistical reasoning and its use in physics, based on a course developed for non-science majors at Cornell. It differs from other treatments by its wide-ranging use
This conference was devoted to fundamental questions raised by quantum mechanics, especially in quantum information theory. As has become customary in our series of conference in Vaxjo, we were glad t
This is the 12th conference in Vaxjo, Sweden, which is devoted to quantum foundations and quantum information, especially the clarification of fundamental questions. The Vaxjo series is the longest co
This book comprehensively presents the basic concepts of probability and Bayesian inference with sufficient generality to make them applicable to current problems in scientific research. The first cha
This book is designed as a practical and intuitive introduction to probability, statistics and random quantities for physicists. The book aims at getting to the main points by a clear, hands-on exposi
Probability theory is nowadays applied in a huge variety of fields including physics, engineering, biology, economics and the social sciences. This book is a modern, lively and rigorous account which has Doob's theory of martingales in discrete time as its main theme. It proves important results such as Kolmogorov's Strong Law of Large Numbers and the Three-Series Theorem by martingale techniques, and the Central Limit Theorem via the use of characteristic functions. A distinguishing feature is its determination to keep the probability flowing at a nice tempo. It achieves this by being selective rather than encyclopaedic, presenting only what is essential to understand the fundamentals; and it assumes certain key results from measure theory in the main text. These measure-theoretic results are proved in full in appendices, so that the book is completely self-contained. The book is written for students, not for researchers, and has evolved through several years of class testing. Exercis
This second edition of the popular textbook contains a comprehensive course in modern probability theory. Overall, probabilistic concepts play an increasingly important role in mathematics, physics, b
The authors believe that a proper treatment of probability theory requires an adequate background in the theory of finite measures in general spaces. The first part of their book sets out this material in a form that not only provides an introduction for intending specialists in measure theory but also meets the needs of students of probability. The theory of measure and integration is presented for general spaces, with Lebesgue measure and the Lebesgue integral considered as important examples whose special properties are obtained. The introduction to functional analysis which follows covers the material (such as the various notions of convergence) which is relevant to probability theory and also the basic theory of L2-spaces, important in modern physics. The second part of the book is an account of the fundamental theoretical ideas which underlie the applications of probability in statistics and elsewhere, developed from the results obtained in the first part. A large number of examp
The 20 papers contained in this volume span the areas of mathematical physics, dynamical systems, and probability. Yakov Sinai is one of the most important and influential mathematicians of our time,
This is the second of two volumes containing the revised and completed notes of lectures given at the school "Quantum Independent Increment Processes: Structure and Applications to Physics". This scho
