A General Analytic Formula for the Spectral Index of the Density Perturbations produced during Inflation

The standard calculation of the spectrum of density perturbations produced during inflation assumes that there is only one real dynamical degree of freedom during inflation. However, there is no reason to believe that this is actually the case. In this paper we derive general analytic formulae for the spectrum and spectral index of the density perturbations produced during inflation.Comment: 10 pages, more explanation and references added, version to be published in Progress of Theoretical Physic

Classical-path integral adaptive resolution in molecular simulation: towards a smooth quantum-classical coupling

Simulations that couple different classical molecular models in an adaptive way by changing the number of degrees of freedom on the fly, are available within reasonably consistent theoretical frameworks. The same does not occur when it comes to classical-quantum adaptivity. The main reason for this is the difficulty in describing a continuous transition between the two different kind of physical principles: probabilistic for the quantum and deterministic for the classical. Here we report the basic principles of an algorithm that allows for a continuous and smooth transition by employing the path integral description of atoms.Comment: 8 pages 4 figure

Filling the Vacant Space: A Close Reading of Kant’s Dialectic of Pure Practical Reason

The main aim of this thesis is to explore Kant’s central notion of rational belief. Kant’s account of rational belief could be viewed as the ground on which rational moral agents assent to propositions that enable them to avoid any practical incoherence as they engage in their moral duty. The paper will offer a close reading of the dialectic of pure practical reason, particularly the doctrine of the postulates of practical reason. In this doctrine, Kant argues that although there is no theoretical proof for or against freedom, God, and the immortality of the soul, rational moral agents ought to believe in their reality, as there are practical grounds to believe in them. The need to introduce these practical postulates is the necessity of a hypothesis that can and must be formed by the subject only from a practical point of view. This paper will show that not only could the postulates be viewed as a point of connection between what Kant conceives of as the phenomenal world of spatio-temporal appearances and the noumenal realm of things in themselves, but also as architectonic elements which – in their connection to the concept of freedom – are part of what “constitutes the keystone of the whole structure of a system of pure reason” (KpV, 5:3 f.) and thus also crucial for the conceivability of the unity of the theoretical and practical use of reason in accomplishing the “highest vocation of reason” (5:108), i.e., the actualization of the highest good

Clausius relation for active particles: what can we learn from fluctuations?

Many kinds of active particles, such as bacteria or active colloids, move in a thermostatted fluid by means of self-propulsion. Energy injected by such a non-equilibrium force is eventually dissipated as heat in the thermostat. Since thermal fluctuations are much faster and weaker than self-propulsion forces, they are often neglected, blurring the identification of dissipated heat in theoretical models. For the same reason, some freedom - or arbitrariness - appears when defining entropy production. Recently three different recipes to define heat and entropy production have been proposed for the same model where the role of self-propulsion is played by a Gaussian coloured noise. Here we compare and discuss the relation between such proposals and their physical meaning. One of these proposals takes into account the heat exchanged with a non-equilibrium active bath: such an "active heat" satisfies the original Clausius relation and can be experimentally verified.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to Entropy journal for the special issue "Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics of Small Systems" (see http://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/special_issues/small_systems

〔論文〕個人主義・集団主義が高圧的説得への抵抗の理由に及ぼす効果：抵抗の動機としてのリアクタンスと調和維持

　The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference between individualists and collectivists in their reasons for resistance to high-pressure communication. Reactance is assumed to be related to individualism. So, individualists would perceive high-pressure persuasion as a threat to freedom, and would resist it for this reason. In contrast, collectivists would perceive that coercive persuasion would disturb the harmony of group. It was hypothesized that horizontal individualism is positively associated with resistance due to freedom-infringement and that horizontal collectivism is positively associated with resistance due to harmony-disturbance, in response to coercive persuasion. Undergraduates （N=121） participated in a study to test these hypotheses. They were asked to read 5 short coercive communications and to rate these communications from two standpoints, that is, freedom-infringement and harmony-disturbance. A path analysis showed that horizontal individualism was positively associated with freedom-infringement, and that horizontal collectivism was positively associated with harmony-disturbance, as expected. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Foreword

The question of whether freedom is incompatible with determinism frames much of the contemporary conversation on agency and moral responsibility. Those who look to science for answers reason that it is just a matter of time before science settles the question of free will once and for all (and settles it against deeply entrenched beliefs about libertarian freedom). Even incompatibilists, who think freedom is incompatible with determinism, are weary that concepts such as intention, deliberation, decision, and the weighing of reasons, may not suffice to allay general anxieties about the possible explanatory reducibility of the mental states these concepts represent. Charting a new theoretical path between the extremes of hard incompatibilism, determinism, and indeterminism, this study articulates a highly original version of compatibilism that, while rooted in the Buddhist tradition, draws on the wealth of empirical evidence from the neuroscience of meditation

Expansion of human agency through complex educational scenarios

Amartya Sen contends that the overall perspective of his capability approach may be understood as a “freedom centred” approach being shaped by the opportunity aspect and the process aspects of freedom or the effectiveness reason in which “the achievement of development is thoroughly dependent on the free agency of people” “as major engine of development” (Sen, 1999:4) given that “the claim is not only that human lives can go very much better and be much richer in terms of well-being and freedom but also that human agency can be deliberately bring about radical change through improving societal organization and commitment” (Sen, 2005a:vii), demanding principally, “for respect on the part of institutions and individuals” (Crocker, 2006) because and like Sen has fruitfully argued through his approach, we live and operate in a world of institutions and our real capabilities more than we could enjoy at a theoretical level depend on “which institutions exist and how they function” (Sen, 1999).Peer Reviewe

Növekedés, intézményrendszer és piaci folyamatok = Economic growth, institutional mix and market process

Kutatásunk alapvető kérdése az volt, hogy az intézményrendszer hogyan és miért gyakorol hatást a gazdasági növekedésre. Erre az osztrák iskola megközelítésében kerestük a választ. A kutatás elméleti részében egy olyan keretet dolgoztunk ki, amely feltárta a gazdasági szabadság, az intézmények és a vállalkozás közötti összefüggéseket. Ennek sarokpontja egy koherens gazdasági szabadság-koncepció megalkotása volt, mely Hayek (1960) szabadság-koncepcióján alapult. Elméleti koncepciónk egyik fontos következménye volt, hogy lehetővé tette a kormányzati cselekvéseknek a gazdasági szabadság szempontjából történő felosztását szabadság-kompatibilis és nem kompatibilis tevékenységekre. Az osztrák iskola vállalkozáselméletére (Kirzner 1973) építkezve elméletünkben a gazdasági szabadság koncepciója elkülönült a hatékonyság koncepciójától, s a gazdasági szabadság intézményei a gazdasági növekedés különálló tényezőjét jelentik. Ennek oka az, hogy a gazdasági szabadság intézményei támogatják a vállalkozói felfedezéseket. A vállalkozás tehát az a csatorna, amelyen keresztül a gazdasági szabadság képes kifejteni jótékony hatását. Elméleti struktúránk empirikus kutatásunk számára is megadta a keretet. Ennek során egyrészt kidolgoztunk egy mérőszámot, amely a szabadság-kompatibilis és nem kompatibilis intézmények szétválasztásán alapul, majd ezzel és más gazdasági szabadság indexszel ország-keresztmetszeti regressziókat végeztünk. A vizsgálat alátámasztotta elméletünket. | The major concern of our research was to investigate why and how institutions affect economic growth. To give an answer to this question our theoretical framework was Austrian economics. In the theoretical part of the research we developed a framework to explore the relationship between economic freedom, institutions and entrepreneurship. Its cornerstone was a development of a coherent concept of economic freedom which was based on Hayek's (1960) concept of freedom. An important consequence of our concept was that it allowed us to categorize governmental actions from the viewpoint of economic freedom into freedom-compatible and freedom-non-compatible actions. Our concept of economic freedom, connected with the Austrian theory of entrepreneurship (Kirzner 1973) is a category in its own right which is different from that of economic efficiency and it is a separate factor in economic development. The reason behind that is that entrepreneurial discoveries are supported by the institutions of economic freedom. Thus, the channel through which economic freedom deploys its beneficial effects is entrepreneurship. In our empirical analyses we relied on our theoretical framework. Here, on the one hand, we developed a measure based on the separation of freedom-compatible and non-compatible institutions, and on the other hand, we did cross-country regressions with our measure and another economic freedom index. The results provided a support for our arguments

Classification of Quench Dynamical Behaviours in Spinor Condensates

Thermalization of isolated quantum systems is a long-standing fundamental problem where different mechanisms are proposed over time. We contribute to this discussion by classifying the diverse quench dynamical behaviours of spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates, which includes well-defined quantum collapse and revivals, thermalization, and certain special cases. These special cases are either nonthermal equilibration with no revival but a collapse even though the system has finite degrees of freedom or no equilibration with no collapse and revival. Given that some integrable systems are already shown to demonstrate the weak form of eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH), we determine the regions where ETH holds and fails in this integrable isolated quantum system. The reason behind both thermalizing and nonthermalizing behaviours in the same model under different initial conditions is linked to the discussion of `rare' nonthermal states existing in the spectrum. We also propose a method to predict the collapse and revival time scales and how they scale with the number of particles in the condensate. We use a sudden quench to drive the system to non-equilibrium and hence the theoretical predictions given in this paper can be probed in experiments.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figure