144 research outputs found
Gravity and the Quantum
The goal of this article is to present a broad perspective on quantum gravity
for \emph{non-experts}. After a historical introduction, key physical problems
of quantum gravity are illustrated. While there are a number of interesting and
insightful approaches to address these issues, over the past two decades
sustained progress has primarily occurred in two programs: string theory and
loop quantum gravity. The first program is described in Horowitz's contribution
while my article will focus on the second. The emphasis is on underlying ideas,
conceptual issues and overall status of the program rather than mathematical
details and associated technical subtleties.Comment: A general review of quantum gravity addresed non-experts. To appear
in the special issue `Space-time Hundred Years Later' of NJP; J.Pullin and R.
Price (editors). Typos and an attribution corrected; a clarification added in
section 2.
Quantum Programming with Inductive Datatypes: Causality and Affine Type Theory
Inductive datatypes in programming languages allow users to define useful
data structures such as natural numbers, lists, trees, and others. In this
paper we show how inductive datatypes may be added to the quantum programming
language QPL. We construct a sound categorical model for the language and by
doing so we provide the first detailed semantic treatment of user-defined
inductive datatypes in quantum programming. We also show our denotational
interpretation is invariant with respect to big-step reduction, thereby
establishing another novel result for quantum programming. Compared to
classical programming, this property is considerably more difficult to prove
and we demonstrate its usefulness by showing how it immediately implies
computational adequacy at all types. To further cement our results, our
semantics is entirely based on a physically natural model of von Neumann
algebras, which are mathematical structures used by physicists to study quantum
mechanics
Lyapunov-Schmidt Reduction for Unfolding Heteroclinic Networks of Equilibria and Periodic Orbits with Tangencies
This article concerns arbitrary finite heteroclinic networks in any phase
space dimension whose vertices can be a random mixture of equilibria and
periodic orbits. In addition, tangencies in the intersection of un/stable
manifolds are allowed. The main result is a reduction to algebraic equations of
the problem to find all solutions that are close to the heteroclinic network
for all time, and their parameter values. A leading order expansion is given in
terms of the time spent near vertices and, if applicable, the location on the
non-trivial tangent directions. The only difference between a periodic orbit
and an equilibrium is that the time parameter is discrete for a periodic orbit.
The essential assumptions are hyperbolicity of the vertices and transversality
of parameters. Using the result, conjugacy to shift dynamics for a generic
homoclinic orbit to a periodic orbit is proven. Finally,
equilibrium-to-periodic orbit heteroclinic cycles of various types are
considered
Interleaving Data and Effects
The study of programming with and reasoning about inductive datatypes such as lists and trees has benefited from the simple categorical principle of initial algebras. In initial algebra semantics, each inductive datatype is represented by an initial f-algebra for an appropriate functor f. The initial algebra principle then supports the straightforward derivation of definitional principles and proof principles for these datatypes. This technique has been expanded to a whole methodology of structured functional programming, often called origami programming.In this article we show how to extend initial algebra semantics from pure inductive datatypes to inductive datatypes interleaved with computational effects. Inductive datatypes interleaved with effects arise naturally in many computational settings. For example, incrementally reading characters from a file generates a list of characters interleaved with input/output actions, and lazily constructed infinite values can be represented by pure data interleaved with the possibility of non-terminating computation. Straightforward application of initial algebra techniques to effectful datatypes leads either to unsound conclusions if we ignore the possibility of effects, or to unnecessarily complicated reasoning because the pure and effectful concerns must be considered simultaneously. We show how pure and effectful concerns can be separated using the abstraction of initial f-and-m-algebras, where the functor f describes the pure part of a datatype and the monad m describes the interleaved effects. Because initial f-and-m-algebras are the analogue for the effectful setting of initial f-algebras, they support the extension of the standard definitional and proof principles to the effectful setting. Initial f-and-m-algebras are originally due to Filinski and Støvring, who studied them in the category Cpo. They were subsequently generalised to arbitrary categories by Atkey, Ghani, Jacobs, and Johann in a FoSSaCS 2012 paper. In this article we aim to introduce the general concept of initial f-and-m-algebras to a general functional programming audience
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