Annila, Arto, and Stanley Salthe. “Physical foundations of evolutionary theory.” (2010): 301-321.
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The theory of evolution by natural selection is herein subsumed by the 2ndlaw of thermodynamics. The mathematical form of evolutionary theory isbased on a re-examination of the probability concept that underlies statis-tical physics. Probability regarded as physical must include, in additionto isoenergic combinatorial configurations, also energy in conditional cir-cumstances. Consequently, entropy as an additive logarithmic probabilitymeasure is found to be a function of the free energy, and the process to-ward the maximum entropy state is found equivalent to evolution towardthe free energy minimum in accordance with the basic maxim of chemi-cal thermodynamics. The principle of increasing entropy when given asan equation of motion reveals that expansion, proliferation, differentiation,diversification, and catalysis are all ways for a system to evolve towardthe stationary state in its respective surroundings. Intriguingly, the equa-tion of evolution cannot be solved when there remain degrees of freedomto consume the free energy, and hence evolutionary trajectories of a non-Hamiltonian system remain intractable. Finally, when to-and-from flowsof energy are balanced between a system and its surroundings, the systemis at the Lyapunov-stable stationary state. The principle of maximal energydispersal, equivalent to the maximal rate of entropy production, gives riseto the ubiquitous characteristics, conventions, and regularities found in na-ture, where thermodynamics makes no demarcation line between animateand inanimate.