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The Thought Experiment of Maxwell’s Demon and the Origin of Irreversibility

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Abstract

The problem of the irreversibility’s origin in thermodynamic processes occupies a distinguished place among many and lasting attempts by researchers to derive irreversibility from molecular-mechanical principles. However, this problem is still open and no universally accepted solution may be given during any course. In this paper, I shall try to show that the examining of Maxwell’s demon thought experiment may provide insight into the difficulties that emerge, looking for this origin because: (i) it is connected with the notion of irreversibility, and (ii) one of its functions is that of the “reversibility objection.” In order to illustrate this point, I study Boltzmann’s approach to the problem of a molecular-mechanical interpretation of irreversibility and I show that an auxiliary assumption (the selected direction of time) is responsible for producing irreversibility. But this result is accordant with the predictions of Maxwell’s demon thought experiment: the assumptions of this kind are not dictated by molecular-mechanical principles but are separate input in the model-systems used.

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Notes

  1. The term “heat-death” was introduced by Hermann von Helmholtz, who elaborated the consequences of Thomson’s Principle of Dissipation and, two years later, described the “heat-death” of the universe, the consequence of the transformation of all energy into internal energy (Tyndall and Francis 1966, p. 114).

  2. According to the molecular hypothesis, mass consists of individual particles (is not continuous). According to the mechanical hypothesis, the behavior of the individual particles is defined only by the dynamics and kinetics of Newton’s deterministic mechanics.

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  1. Engineering Department, Merchant Marine Academy of Aspropyrgos, 19300, Paralia Aspropyrgou, Greece

    Aspasia S. Moue

  2. 94 Iraklidon Street, 18539, Piraeus, Greece

    Aspasia S. Moue

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Moue, A.S. The Thought Experiment of Maxwell’s Demon and the Origin of Irreversibility. J Gen Philos Sci 39, 69–84 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-008-9061-1

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