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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 5: Quantum Particles

AGPhil 5.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 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.