702,878 research outputs found
Entanglement and boundary critical phenomena
We investigate boundary critical phenomena from a quantum information
perspective. Bipartite entanglement in the ground state of one-dimensional
quantum systems is quantified using the Renyi entropy S_alpha, which includes
the von Neumann entropy (alpha=1) and the single-copy entanglement
(alpha=infinity) as special cases. We identify the contribution from the
boundary entropy to the Renyi entropy, and show that there is an entanglement
loss along boundary renormalization group (RG) flows. This property, which is
intimately related to the Affleck-Ludwig g-theorem, can be regarded as a
consequence of majorization relations between the spectra of the reduced
density matrix along the boundary RG flows. We also point out that the bulk
contribution to the single-copy entanglement is half of that to the von Neumann
entropy, whereas the boundary contribution is the same.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Universal bounds on the performance of information-thermodynamic engine
We investigate fundamental limits on the performance of information
processing systems from the perspective of information thermodynamics. We first
extend the thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) to a subsystem.
Specifically, for a bipartite composite system consisting of a target system
and an auxiliary system, we show that the relative fluctuation of an arbitrary
current for the target system is lower bounded not only by the entropy
production associated with the target system but also by the information flow
between the two systems. As a direct consequence of this bipartite TUR, we
prove universal trade-off relations between the output power and efficiency of
an information-thermodynamic engine in the fast relaxation limit of the
auxiliary system. In this limit, we further show that the Gallavotti-Cohen
symmetry is satisfied even in the presence of information flow. This symmetry
leads to universal relations between the fluctuations of information flow and
entropy production in the linear response regime. We illustrate these results
with simple examples: coupled quantum dots and coupled linear overdamped
Langevin equations. Interestingly, in the latter case, the equality of the
bipartite TUR is achieved even far from equilibrium, which is a very different
property from the standard TUR. Our results are applicable to a wide range of
systems, including biological systems, and thus provide insight into the design
principles of biological systems.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure
Discourse and sociotechnical transformation: the emergence of refinery information systems
This thesis considers the emergence and diffusion of British Petroleum's (BP) Refinery Information Systems (RIS). Insights from the associology of translation are coupled with the Foucauldian concepts of discourse and power /knowledge in order to analyse accounts of the system provided by organisational participants. The analysis suggests that a new form of managerialism, or "new commercial agenda" is being selectively deployed both within BP and within the wider commercial world. This transformed managerialism seeks to maintain control and heighten commercialism through a re- working of hierarchical relations within the organisation. Artefacts and practices of organisational life are revealed as prime vehicles for instantiating this new agenda and BP's Refinery Information Systems are thus seen to be both a condition and a consequence of the changes underway
Semi-quantitative comparative analysis
Comparative analysis (CA) of dynamical systems is an important problem in qualitative reasoning. CA techniques predict differences in the behavior of two systems as a consequence of differences in the initial conditions or structural differences. A disadvantage of these techniques is the imprecision of the possible answers due to their qualitative nature. This report presents SQCA, an implemented technique for the semi-quantitative comparative analysis of dynamical systems. SQCA is both able to deal with incompletely specified models and make precise predictions by exploiting numerical information in the formof interval bounds on variable values and envelope functions around monotonic relations. The technique has a solid mathematical foundation which facilitates proofs of correctness and convergence properties
Glimmers of a pre-geometric perspective
Space-time measurements and gravitational experiments are made by using
objects, matter fields or particles and their mutual relationships. As a
consequence, any operationally meaningful assertion about space-time is in fact
an assertion about the degrees of freedom of the matter (\emph{i.e} non
gravitational) fields; those, say for definiteness, of the Standard Model of
particle physics. As for any quantum theory, the dynamics of the matter fields
can be described in terms of a unitary evolution of a state vector in a Hilbert
space. By writing the Hilbert space as a generic tensor product of "subsystems"
we analyse the evolution of a state vector on an information theoretical basis
and attempt to recover the usual space-time relations from the information
exchanges between these subsystems. We consider generic interacting second
quantized models with a finite number of fermionic degrees of freedom and
characterize on physical grounds the tensor product structure associated with
the class of "localized systems" and therefore with "position". We find that in
the case of free theories no space-time relation is operationally definable. On
the contrary, by applying the same procedure to the simple interacting model of
a one-dimensional Heisenberg spin chain we recover the tensor product structure
usually associated with "position". Finally, we discuss the possible role of
gravity in this framework.Comment: 30 page
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