A general theory of energy partition with applications to quantum theory

Abstract

The principle of the equipartition of energy was one of the most definite and important results of the older statistical mechanics, and the contradiction between this principle and actual experimental findings, in particular in the case of the distribution of energy in the hohlraum, has led many physicists to believe that the underlying structure of statistical mechanics must itself be false. More specifically, since statistical mechanics is most conveniently based on the equations of motion in the Hamiltonian form, many critics of the older statistical mechanics have come to the conclusion that Hamilton's equations are themselves incorrect, and indeed some extremists have gone so far as to believe that any set of equations would be incorrect which, like those of Hamilton, take time as a continuous variable, since they think that time has in reality an atomic nature and that all changes in configuration take place by jumps.