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The Role and Significance of the Concept of Information in Physical Phenomena

Karimi, Majid | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: Ph.D. Dissertation
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 42737 (03)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemistry
  6. Advisor(s): Shafiee, Afshin
  7. Abstract:
  8. Undoubtedly, the concept of information has an outstanding role in our description of physical systems and biological processes. In the framework of pragmatic approach, information is a useful notion through which any physical event gets its significance. In this approach, information can be understood and recognized while it is capable of producing new information. Thus, the meaning of information depends on our recognition and understanding as conscious beings. Accordingly, the following question may arise: where is the role of conscious being in the emergence of physical properties in Nature? To answer this fundamental question, we first investigate how information enters the physics, in general. By reviewing Maxwell’s demon and Szilard’s engine, we analyze whether the interference of conscious beings in thermodynamical systems can result to the violation of laws of thermodynamics. We discuss how these thought experiments provided the path for the entrance of the notion of information in the description of physical systems. Then, we analyze the relation of entropy and information according to the mixing process of two identical ideal gases, and we show how this results to the decrease of thermodynamical entropy. However, we argue this decrease does not violate the second of law of thermodynamic. After that, we investigate the relation of information and symmetry within the framework of Young double-slit experiment. Finally, we survey two recent viewpoints toward the concept of information: Brukner-Zeilinger quantum mechanical approach, and Roederer’s approach. We show that they are two different directions, with the same origin, toward Wiezsacker’s view on the conception of information. We analyze the aforementioned views, and we argue again how conscious being may have a role in the emergence of physical properties in nature
  9. Keywords:
  10. Information ; Maxwell Demon ; Double-Slit Experiment ; Entropy ; Quantum Mechanics ; Brukner-Zeilinger Interpretation

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