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On the Gibbs-Liouville theorem in classical mechanics

Andreas Henriksson

Published May 7, 2019• 2 citations

Abstract

In this article, it is argued that the Gibbs-Liouville theorem is a mathematical representation of the statement that closed classical systems evolve deterministically. From the perspective of an observer of the system, whose knowledge about the degrees of freedom of the system is complete, the statement of deterministic evolution is equivalent to the notion that the physical distinctions between the possible states of the system, or, in other words, the information possessed by the observer about the system, is never lost. Thus, it is proposed that the Gibbs-Liouville theorem is a statement about the dynamical evolution of a closed classical system valid in such situations where information about the system is conserved in time. Furthermore, in this article it is shown that the Hamilton equations and the Hamilton principle on phase space follow directly from the differential representation of the Gibbs-Liouville theorem, i.e. that the divergence of the Hamiltonian phase flow velocity vanish. Thus, considering that the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics are related via the Legendre transformation, it is obtained that these two standard formulations are both logical consequences of the statement of deterministic evolution, or, equivalently, information conservation.

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In this article, it is argued that the Gibbs-Liouville theorem is a mathematical representation of the statement that closed classical systems evolve deterministically. From the perspective of an observer of the system, whose knowledge about the degrees of freedom of the system is complete, the statement of deterministic evolution is equivalent to the notion that the physical distinctions between the possible states of the system, or, in other words, the information possessed by the observer about the system, is never lost. Thus, it is proposed that the Gibbs-Liouville theorem is a statement about the dynamical evolution of a closed classical system valid in such situations where information about the system is conserved in time. Furthermore, in this article it is shown that the Hamilton equations and the Hamilton principle on phase space follow directly from the differential representation of the Gibbs-Liouville theorem, i.e. that the divergence of the Hamiltonian phase flow velocity vanish. Thus, considering that the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics are related via the Legendre transformation, it is obtained that these two standard formulations are both logical consequences of the statement of deterministic evolution, or, equivalently, information conservation.

This Element explores the formal and conceptual foundations of phase space formulations of classical and quantum mechanics. It provides an overview of the core mathematical and physical content of Hamiltonian mechanics, stochastic phase space mechanics, contact Hamiltonian mechanics, and open and closed quantum mechanics on phase space. The formal material is unified via three interpretative themes relating to structured possibility spaces, Liouville's theorem and its failure, and the classical and quantum notions of open and closed systems. This Element book is intended for researchers and graduate students in the philosophy and foundations of physics with an interest in the conceptual foundations of physical theory.

The starting point of the classical description of motion is the Newton equations that yield a phase space trajectory (rN (t), pN (t)) for a given initial condition (rN (0), pN (0)). Alternatively one may describe classical motion in the framework of the Liouville equation (Section (1.2.2)) that describes the time evolution of the phase space probability density f (rN , pN ; t). For a closed system fully described in terms of a well specified initial condition, the two descriptions are completely equivalent. Probabilistic treatment becomes essential in reduced descriptions that focus on parts of an overall system, as was demonstrated in Sections 5.1–5.3 for equilibrium systems, and in Chapters 7 and 8 that focus on the time evolution of classical systems that interact with their thermal environments. This chapter deals with the analogous quantum mechanical problem. Within the limitations imposed by its nature as expressed, for example, by Heisenbergtype uncertainty principles, the Schrödinger equation is deterministic. Obviously it describes a deterministic evolution of the quantum mechanical wavefunction. The analog of the phase space probability density f (rN , pN ; t) is now the quantum mechanical density operator (often referred to as the “density matrix”), whose time evolution is determined by the quantum Liouville equation. Again, when the system is fully described in terms of a well specified initial wavefunction, the two descriptions are equivalent. The density operator formalism can, however, be carried over to situations where the initial state of the system is not well characterized and/or a reduced description of part of the overall system is desired. Such situations are considered later in this chapter.

The Hamiltonian flow of a classical, time-independent, conservative system is incompressible, it is Liouvillian. The analog of Hamilton's equations of motion for a quantum-mechanical system is the quantum-Liouville equation. It is shown that its associated quantum flow in phase space, Wigner flow, is not incompressible. It gives rise to a quantum analog of classical Hamiltonian vector fields: the Wigner phase space velocity field~

\bm w

, the divergence of which can be unbounded. The loci of such unbounded divergence form lines in phase space which coincide with the lines of zero of the Wigner function. Along these lines exist characteristic pinch points which coincide with stagnation points of the Wigner flow.

We show that the mathematical form of the information measure of Fisher's I for a Gibbs' canonical probability distribution (the most important one in statistical mechanics) incorporates important features of the intrinsic structure of classical mechanics and has a universal form in terms of "forces" and "accelerations", i.e., one that is valid for all Hamiltonian of the form T+V. If the system of differential equations associated to Hamilton's canonical equations of motion is linear, one can easily ascertain that the Fisher information per degree of freedom is proportional to the inverse temperature and to the number of these degrees. This equipartition of I is also seen to hold in a simple example involving a non-linear system of differential equations.

Abstract This chapter focuses on Liouville’s theorem and classical statistical mechanics, deriving the classical propagator. The terms ‘phase space volume element’ and ‘Liouville operator’ are defined and an n-particle phase space probability density function is constructed to derive the Liouville equation. This is deconstructed into the BBGKY hierarchy, and radial distribution functions are used to develop n-body correlation functions. Koopman–von Neumann theory is investigated as a classical wavefunction approach. The chapter develops an operatorial mechanics based on classical Hilbert space, and discusses the de Broglie–Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics. Partition functions, ensemble averages and the virial theorem of Clausius are defined and Poincaré’s recurrence theorem, the Gibbs H-theorem and the Gibbs paradox are discussed. The chapter also discusses commuting observables, phase–amplitude decoupling, microcanonical ensembles, canonical ensembles, grand canonical ensembles, the Boltzmann factor, Mayer–Montroll cluster expansion and the equipartition theorem and investigates symplectic integrators, focusing on molecular dynamics.