Statistical-Mechanics

Iannis Xenakis applied the Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution, Markov chains, and game theory to orchestral composition. In Pithoprakta (1955–56), 46 string parts are molecules of a gas, each following the kinetic theory distribution. In Duel and Stratégie (1959–62), two conductors play a zero-sum game with payoff matrices on stage. This post works through the physics and mathematics, and asks what it means when a composer treats an orchestra as a thermodynamic system.

On October 8, 2024, Hopfield and Hinton were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The physics community reacted with irritation: is machine learning really physics? The irritation is wrong. The energy function of a Hopfield network is literally the Ising Hamiltonian. The lineage runs from Giorgio Parisi’s disordered iron alloys in 1979 to the model that predicted the structures of 200 million proteins.