In this talk, Paula Reichert (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) discusses the ergodic hypothesis in the context of Boltzmann’s late work in statistical mechanics, in which Boltzmann lays the foundations for what is today known as the typicality account. She argues that, based on the concepts of stationarity (of the measure) and typicality (of the equilibrium state), the ergodic hypothesis, as an idealization, is a consequence rather than an assumption of Boltzmann’s account. More precisely, it can be shown that every system with a stationary measure and an equilibrium state (be it a typical state with respect to the phase space or the time average) behaves essentially as if it were ergodic.

The seminar was hosted by James King (Science Practice) and Emilie Rosenlund Soysal (London Mathematical Laboratory).