L. Boltzmann alla nascita della meccanica statistica

Abstract

The celebrated papers giving rise to statistical mechanics that L. Boltzmann wrote between 1868 and 1877, are based on two fundamental presuppositions: first, statistical mechanics is a probabilistic theory; second, each probability distribution must be characterised in finitary terms, especially probability densities. Moreover an accurate analysis of these papers shows that Boltzmann used distributions which were unknown to contemporary statisticians, for example Beta and Gamma distributions, and that he was well aware of convergences in distribution binding them.