Bragg Lecture: Entropy, fake entropy and information

Professor Daan Frenkel Dept of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

So much has been said about entropy that it is probably best to remain silent on the subject. Somewhat unwisely, I will nevertheless talk about this dangerous subject because in numerical simulations one is confronted very directly with what entropy is - and, more importantly, with what it is not. I will talk about entropy from the perspective of numerical simulations. Specifically, I will discuss (well known) examples where entropy increases with increasing order, I will discuss how recent numerical tools allow us to compute close and distant relatives of the Statistical Mechanical entropy, and finally I will briefly touch on Gibbs’ paradox. "

To be followed by receptoin in Roberts Building Foyer, 4:30pm-5:30pm