Maximum Entropy Principle for the Microcanonical Ensemble

Abstract

We derive the microcanonical ensemble from the Maximum Entropy Principle (MEP) using the phase space volume entropy of P. Hertz. Maximizing this entropy with respect to the probability distribution with the constraints of normalization and average energy, we obtain the condition of constant energy. This approach is complementary to the traditional derivation of the microcanonical ensemble from the MEP using Shannon entropy and assuming a priori that the energy is constant which results in equal probabilities.