48,515 research outputs found
Computability and analysis: the legacy of Alan Turing
We discuss the legacy of Alan Turing and his impact on computability and
analysis.Comment: 49 page
Laver and set theory
In this commemorative article, the work of Richard Laver is surveyed in its full range and extent.Accepted manuscrip
On what I do not understand (and have something to say): Part I
This is a non-standard paper, containing some problems in set theory I have
in various degrees been interested in. Sometimes with a discussion on what I
have to say; sometimes, of what makes them interesting to me, sometimes the
problems are presented with a discussion of how I have tried to solve them, and
sometimes with failed tries, anecdote and opinion. So the discussion is quite
personal, in other words, egocentric and somewhat accidental. As we discuss
many problems, history and side references are erratic, usually kept at a
minimum (``see ... '' means: see the references there and possibly the paper
itself).
The base were lectures in Rutgers Fall'97 and reflect my knowledge then. The
other half, concentrating on model theory, will subsequently appear
Generalized probabilities in statistical theories
In this review article we present different formal frameworks for the
description of generalized probabilities in statistical theories. We discuss
the particular cases of probabilities appearing in classical and quantum
mechanics, possible generalizations of the approaches of A. N. Kolmogorov and
R. T. Cox to non-commutative models, and the approach to generalized
probabilities based on convex sets
A topos for algebraic quantum theory
The aim of this paper is to relate algebraic quantum mechanics to topos
theory, so as to construct new foundations for quantum logic and quantum
spaces. Motivated by Bohr's idea that the empirical content of quantum physics
is accessible only through classical physics, we show how a C*-algebra of
observables A induces a topos T(A) in which the amalgamation of all of its
commutative subalgebras comprises a single commutative C*-algebra. According to
the constructive Gelfand duality theorem of Banaschewski and Mulvey, the latter
has an internal spectrum S(A) in T(A), which in our approach plays the role of
a quantum phase space of the system. Thus we associate a locale (which is the
topos-theoretical notion of a space and which intrinsically carries the
intuitionistic logical structure of a Heyting algebra) to a C*-algebra (which
is the noncommutative notion of a space). In this setting, states on A become
probability measures (more precisely, valuations) on S(A), and self-adjoint
elements of A define continuous functions (more precisely, locale maps) from
S(A) to Scott's interval domain. Noting that open subsets of S(A) correspond to
propositions about the system, the pairing map that assigns a (generalized)
truth value to a state and a proposition assumes an extremely simple
categorical form. Formulated in this way, the quantum theory defined by A is
essentially turned into a classical theory, internal to the topos T(A).Comment: 52 pages, final version, to appear in Communications in Mathematical
Physic
Canonical extensions and ultraproducts of polarities
J{\'o}nsson and Tarski's notion of the perfect extension of a Boolean algebra
with operators has evolved into an extensive theory of canonical extensions of
lattice-based algebras. After reviewing this evolution we make two
contributions. First it is shown that the failure of a variety of algebras to
be closed under canonical extensions is witnessed by a particular one of its
free algebras. The size of the set of generators of this algebra can be made a
function of a collection of varieties and is a kind of Hanf number for
canonical closure. Secondly we study the complete lattice of stable subsets of
a polarity structure, and show that if a class of polarities is closed under
ultraproducts, then its stable set lattices generate a variety that is closed
under canonical extensions. This generalises an earlier result of the author
about generation of canonically closed varieties of Boolean algebras with
operators, which was in turn an abstraction of the result that a first-order
definable class of Kripke frames determines a modal logic that is valid in its
so-called canonical frames
- …