{"id":158584,"date":"2023-02-20T18:23:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T00:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/david-wallace-thermodynamics-as-control-theory"},"modified":"2023-02-20T18:23:42","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T00:23:42","slug":"david-wallace-thermodynamics-as-control-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/david-wallace-thermodynamics-as-control-theory","title":{"rendered":"David Wallace: Thermodynamics as control theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TnZTlZN2LiQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I explore the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics by treating the former as a control theory: a theory of which transitions between states can be induced on a system (assumed to obey some known underlying dynamics) by means of operations from a fixed list. I recover the results of standard thermodynamics in this framework on the assumption that the available operations do not include measurements which affect subsequent choices of operations. I then relax this assumption and use the framework to consider the vexed questions of Maxwell\u2019s demon and Landauer\u2019s principle. Throughout I assume rather than prove the basic irreversibility features of statistical mechanics, taking care to distinguish them from the conceptually distinct assumptions of thermodynamics proper.<\/p>\n<p>Annual UWO Philosophy of Physics Conference.<br \/> Thermodynamics as a Resource Theory: Foundational and Philosophical Implications.<br \/> June 20\u201322, 2018<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/philphysics.uwo.ca\">http:\/\/philphysics.uwo.ca<\/a>.<br \/> David Wallace, University of Southern California.<\/p>\n<p>Visit the Rotman website for more information on applications, events, project descriptions, and openings. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rotman.uwo.ca\">http:\/\/www.rotman.uwo.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Follow The Rotman Institute on Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rotmanphilo\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/rotmanphilo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Like The Rotman Institute on Facebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rotmanphilosophy\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rotmanphilosophy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I explore the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics by treating the former as a control theory: a theory of which transitions between states can be induced on a system (assumed to obey some known underlying dynamics) by means of operations from a fixed list. I recover the results of standard thermodynamics in this framework [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}