Physical foundation of the maximum-caliber path-entropy extremum

Establish a physical foundation for the maximum-caliber path-entropy extremum used to represent nonequilibrium steady states.

Background

The paper situates Caliber Force Theory as a coordinate representation of Markov nonequilibrium steady states in terms of node populations, edge traffic, and independent cycle fluxes. However, it distinguishes the usefulness of this representation from the deeper physical justification of the maximum-caliber principle itself.

The unresolved issue concerns the microscopic or physical basis for treating a path-entropy extremum as a valid principle for nonequilibrium dynamics. The paper notes that subsequent work is seeking a microscopic grounding, but does not resolve this foundational question.