Derivation of Hamiltonian mechanics from determinism and reversibility

Abstract

We put forth the idea that Hamilton's equations coincide with deterministic and reversible evolution. We explore the idea from five different perspectives (mathematics, measurements, thermodynamics, information theory and state mapping) and we show how they in the end coincide. We concentrate on a single degree of freedom at first, then generalize. We also discuss possible philosophical reasons why the laws of physics can only describe such processes, even if others must exist.