preprints.org > physical sciences > thermodynamics > doi: 10.20944/preprints202206.0353.v2

Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 24 June 2022 / Approved: 27 June 2022 / Online: 27 June 2022 (08:05:02 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 24 November 2022 / Approved: 25 November 2022 / Online: 25 November 2022 (04:29:00 CET)

The thermocontextual interpretation (TCI) establishes a system’s exergy, entropic energy, and thermal entropy as thermocontextual properties of state, defined with respect to its positive temperature surroundings. This work extends previous applications of the TCI to irreversible and statistical transitions. The TCI defines statistical entropy as a transactional process of derandomization and transition to a negative-entropy state. Statistical measurements of a confined quantum particle’s position are detailed in terms of reversible processes of instantiation and actualization. The TCI then formalizes the MaxEnt as a fundamental physical principle. We apply MaxEnt and statistical entropy measurements to the double-slit experiment. Particles passing through parallel slits record a wave interference pattern, but a “which-slit” detector eliminates wave interference. Richard Feynman called the double-slit experiment the only mystery, at the heart of quantum mechanics. The TCI offers a simple explanation. The which-slit detector breaks the system’s symmetry, enabling particles to pass through one slit or the other, and MaxEnt selects the asymmetrical transition, which has no wave interference and a higher statistical entropy.

entropy; physical foundations; MaxEnt; wavefunction collapse; thermodynamics; statistical mechanics

Physical Sciences, Thermodynamics

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