The Space of Physical Frameworks (Part 4)

In Part 1, I explained my hopes that classical statistical mechanics reduces to thermodynamics in the limit where Boltzmann’s constant approaches zero. In Part 2, I explained exactly what I mean by ‘thermodynamics’. I also showed how, in this framework, a quantity called ‘negative free entropy’ arises as the Legendre transform of entropy.

In Part 3, I showed how a Legendre transform can arise as a limit of something like a Laplace transform.

Today I’ll put all the puzzle pieces together. I’l...