Entropic Dynamics: Mechanics without Mechanism

Abstract

Entropic Dynamics is a framework in which dynamical laws such as those that arise in physics are derived as an application of entropic methods of inference. No underlying action principle is postulated. Instead, the dynamics is driven by entropy subject to constraints reflecting the information that is relevant to the problem at hand. In this work I review the derivation of quantum theory but the fact that Entropic Dynamics is based on inference methods that are of universal applicability suggests that it may be possible to adapt these methods to fields other than physics.

Invited chapter to appear in "Recent Advances in Info-Metrics" edited by M. Chen and A. Golan. Version 2 includes an improved treatment of the prior and added remarks on the differences between Entropic Dynamics and hidden-variable theories. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1509.03222

References in corpus (8)

• Is the quantum state real? An extended review of $\psi$-ontology theorems
• The Vacuum Fluctuation Theorem: Exact Schroedinger Equation via Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics
• Determinism beneath Quantum Mechanics
• Entropic Dynamics: an Inference Approach to Quantum Theory, Time and Measurement
• Entropic Quantization of Scalar Fields
• Trading drift and fluctuations in entropic dynamics: quantum dynamics as an emergent universality class
• Quantum Measurement and Weak Values in Entropic Dynamics
• Entropic Dynamics: from Entropy and Information Geometry to Hamiltonians and Quantum Mechanics