Life-Space Foam: a Medium for Motivational and Cognitive Dynamics

General stochastic dynamics, developed in a framework of Feynman path integrals, have been applied to Lewinian field--theoretic psychodynamics, resulting in the development of a new concept of life--space foam (LSF) as a natural medium for motivational and cognitive psychodynamics. According to LSF formalisms, the classic Lewinian life space can be macroscopically represented as a smooth manifold with steady force-fields and behavioral paths, while at the microscopic level it is more realistically represented as a collection of wildly fluctuating force-fields, (loco)motion paths and local geometries (and topologies with holes). A set of least-action principles is used to model the smoothness of global, macro-level LSF paths, fields and geometry. To model the corresponding local, micro-level LSF structures, an adaptive path integral is used, defining a multi-phase and multi-path (multi-field and multi-geometry) transition process from intention to goal-driven action. Application examples of this new approach include (but are not limited to) information processing, motivational fatigue, learning, memory and decision-making.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, elsar

Tsallis entropy composition and the Heisenberg group

We present an embedding of the Tsallis entropy into the 3-dimensional Heisenberg group, in order to understand the meaning of generalized independence as encoded in the Tsallis entropy composition property. We infer that the Tsallis entropy composition induces fractal properties on the underlying Euclidean space. Using a theorem of Milnor/Wolf/Tits/Gromov, we justify why the underlying configuration/phase space of systems described by the Tsallis entropy has polynomial growth for both discrete and Riemannian cases. We provide a geometric framework that elucidates Abe's formula for the Tsallis entropy, in terms the Pansu derivative of a map between sub-Riemannian spaces.Comment: 26 pages, No figures, LaTeX2e. To be published in Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Physic

Comparison and Rigidity Theorems in Semi-Riemannian Geometry

The comparison theory for the Riccati equation satisfied by the shape operator of parallel hypersurfaces is generalized to semi-Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary index, using one-sided bounds on the Riemann tensor which in the Riemannian case correspond to one-sided bounds on the sectional curvatures. Starting from 2-dimensional rigidity results and using an inductive technique, a new class of gap-type rigidity theorems is proved for semi-Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary index, generalizing those first given by Gromov and Greene-Wu. As applications we prove rigidity results for semi-Riemannian manifolds with simply connected ends of constant curvature.Comment: 46 pages, amsart, to appear in Comm. Anal. Geo

Embedding Riemannian Manifolds by the Heat Kernel of the Connection Laplacian

Given a class of closed Riemannian manifolds with prescribed geometric conditions, we introduce an embedding of the manifolds into $\ell^2$ based on the heat kernel of the Connection Laplacian associated with the Levi-Civita connection on the tangent bundle. As a result, we can construct a distance in this class which leads to a pre-compactness theorem on the class under consideration