Regensburg 2022 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 44: Poster Session: Statistical Physics and Critical Phenomena

DY 44.1: Poster

Donnerstag, 8. September 2022, 15:00–18:00, P2

How to distinguish between indistinguishable particles — •Michael te Vrugt — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Center for Soft Nanoscience, Philosophisches Seminar, 48149 Münster, Germany

Does exchanging two indistinguishable particles lead to a new physical state? While the answer appears to be clear in quantum mechanics (no), the situation in classical statistical mechanics is up to considerable debate. In this work [1], we show that order-preserving dynamics, a recently developed formalism that allows for an accurate treatment of single-file diffusion within dynamical density functional theory, provides a strong argument for haecceitism (the view that such an exchange does make a difference) since it requires treating observationally indistinguishable particle configurations as being different. This result turns out to have interesting consequences for the concept of thermodynamic equilibrium.

[1] M. te Vrugt, Br. J. Phil. Sci. (forthcoming), doi: 10.1086/718495