The concept ‘indistinguishable’

Q1 Arts and Humanities Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics Pub Date : 2020-08-01 DOI:10.1016/j.shpsb.2020.02.003

Simon Saunders

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引用次数: 9

Abstract

The concept of indistinguishable particles in quantum theory is fundamental to questions of ontology. All ordinary matter is made of electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons and they are all indistinguishable particles. Yet the concept itself has proved elusive, in part because of the interpretational difficulties that afflict quantum theory quite generally, and in part because the concept was so central to the discovery of the quantum itself, by Planck in 1900; it came encumbered with revolution.

I offer a deflationary reading of the concept ‘indistinguishable’ that is identical to Gibbs' concept ‘generic phase’, save that it is defined for state spaces with only finitely-many states of bounded volume and energy (finitely-many orthogonal states, in quantum mechanics). That, and that alone, makes for the difference between the quantum and Gibbsean concepts of indistinguishability.

This claim is heretical on several counts, but here we consider only the content of the claim itself, and its bearing on the early history of quantum theory rather than in relation to contemporary debates about particle indistinguishability and permutation symmetry. It powerfully illuminates that history.

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“难以区分”的概念

量子理论中不可区分粒子的概念是本体论问题的基础。所有普通物质都是由电子、质子、中子和光子组成的，它们都是无法区分的粒子。然而，这个概念本身已经被证明是难以捉摸的，部分原因是解释上的困难普遍困扰着量子论，部分原因是这个概念对普朗克1900年发现量子本身至关重要;它受到了革命的阻碍。我提供了一个关于“不可区分”概念的精简解读，它与吉布斯的“一般相”概念相同，只不过它是为只有有限多个有限体积和能量状态的状态空间定义的(在量子力学中是有限多个正交状态)。这一点，也仅仅是这一点，就造成了量子和吉卜赛概念之间不可区分的区别。这种说法在几个方面都是异端，但在这里我们只考虑这种说法本身的内容，以及它对量子理论早期历史的影响，而不是与当代关于粒子不可区分性和排列对称性的争论的关系。它有力地阐释了那段历史。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 物理-科学史与科学哲学

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审稿时长

13.3 weeks

期刊介绍： Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics is devoted to all aspects of the history and philosophy of modern physics broadly understood, including physical aspects of astronomy, chemistry and other non-biological sciences. The primary focus is on physics from the mid/late-nineteenth century to the present, the period of emergence of the kind of theoretical physics that has come to dominate the exact sciences in the twentieth century. The journal is internationally oriented with contributions from a wide range of perspectives. In addition to purely historical or philosophical papers, the editors particularly encourage papers that combine these two disciplines. The editors are also keen to publish papers of interest to physicists, as well as specialists in history and philosophy of physics.

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