6. Danker L. N. Vink, Irreversibility at the Basis of Physics

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Volume 15: Pages 405-417, 2002

Irreversibility at the Basis of Physics

Danker L. N. Vink

Playa Hundu 19, Groot Santa Martha, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles

Boltzmann developed a probabilistic interpretation of thermodynamics, but could not deduce its irreversible character from the reversible laws of dynamics. However, his model of gas molecules interacting with elastic collisions must be replaced with a new, recently proposed model of quantum particles taking the movements of other quantum particles in spacetime into account via irreversible interactions. It is with the help of this mechanism that the second law of thermodynamics can finally be explained. Like photons, electrons, and atoms, molecules can also show a coherent behavior, provided these molecules are not imprisoned in equilibrium situations, and entanglement with the environment is avoided. In “dissipative structures” quantum coherence is magnified to macroscopic levels. A short epistolary description of the “science of complexity” is given, and both transient and persistent interactions are studied. The new mechanism seems to give a good account of the existence of van der Waals forces. A vast, continuous process of “complexification” is proposed, and it is shown that the arrow of time of increasing complexity, like the thermodynamic and electromagnetic arrows of time, results from the cosmological arrow of time. The new model of interconnected particles entails a repulsive force that causes the universe to accelerate.

Keywords: entropy, information, irreversibility, quantum coherence, dissipative structures, chaos, van der Waals forces, process of complexification, arrows of time, cosmic expansion

Received: June 20, 2002; Published online: December 15, 2008