412 research outputs found
The Priority of Relation for Creation: A primer in the logic of three
An exploration of the metaphysics of relation as a unifying motif in modern physics. What happens when Ideal observers begin to observe their own observing
Quantum Measure Theory and its Interpretation
We propose a realistic, spacetime interpretation of quantum theory in which
reality constitutes a *single* history obeying a "law of motion" that makes
definite, but incomplete, predictions about its behavior. We associate a
"quantum measure" |S| to the set S of histories, and point out that |S|
fulfills a sum rule generalizing that of classical probability theory. We
interpret |S| as a "propensity", making this precise by stating a criterion for
|S|=0 to imply "preclusion" (meaning that the true history will not lie in S).
The criterion involves triads of correlated events, and in application to
electron-electron scattering, for example, it yields definite predictions about
the electron trajectories themselves, independently of any measuring devices
which might or might not be present. (So we can give an objective account of
measurements.) Two unfinished aspects of the interpretation involve
*conditonal* preclusion (which apparently requires a notion of coarse-graining
for its formulation) and the need to "locate spacetime regions in advance"
without the aid of a fixed background metric (which can be achieved in the
context of conditional preclusion via a construction which makes sense both in
continuum gravity and in the discrete setting of causal set theory).Comment: Changes to original version: correction to the description of the
quantum measure in the non relativistic case; some rewording in other places;
a few typos corrected. 23 pages, plaintex with 7 eps figure
Finitary Topos for Locally Finite, Causal and Quantal Vacuum Einstein Gravity
Previous work on applications of Abstract Differential Geometry (ADG) to
discrete Lorentzian quantum gravity is brought to its categorical climax by
organizing the curved finitary spacetime sheaves of quantum causal sets
involved therein, on which a finitary (:locally finite), singularity-free,
background manifold independent and geometrically prequantized version of the
gravitational vacuum Einstein field equations were seen to hold, into a topos
structure. This topos is seen to be a finitary instance of both an elementary
and a Grothendieck topos, generalizing in a differential geometric setting, as
befits ADG, Sorkin's finitary substitutes of continuous spacetime topologies.
The paper closes with a thorough discussion of four future routes we could take
in order to further develop our topos-theoretic perspective on ADG-gravity
along certain categorical trends in current quantum gravity research.Comment: 49 pages, latest updated version (errata corrected, references
polished) Submitted to the International Journal of Theoretical Physic
Spacetime, General Covariance, Dirac-Bergmann Observables and Non-Inertial Frames
Talk at the 25th Johns Hopkins Workshop "2001: A Relativistic Spacetime
Odyssey", Firenze September 2001.Comment: 23 page
Higher Gauge Theory and Gravity in (2+1) Dimensions
Non-abelian higher gauge theory has recently emerged as a generalization of
standard gauge theory to higher dimensional (2-dimensional in the present
context) connection forms, and as such, it has been successfully applied to the
non-abelian generalizations of the Yang-Mills theory and 2-form
electrodynamics. (2+1)-dimensional gravity, on the other hand, has been a
fertile testing ground for many concepts related to classical and quantum
gravity, and it is therefore only natural to investigate whether we can find an
application of higher gauge theory in this latter context. In the present paper
we investigate the possibility of applying the formalism of higher gauge theory
to gravity in (2+1) dimensions, and we show that a nontrivial model of
(2+1)-dimensional gravity coupled to scalar and tensorial matter fields - the
model - can be formulated both as a standard gauge theory and
as a higher gauge theory. Since the model has a very rich structure - it admits
as solutions black-hole BTZ-like geometries, particle-like geometries as well
as Robertson-Friedman-Walker cosmological-like expanding geometries - this
opens a wide perspective for higher gauge theory to be tested and understood in
a relevant gravitational context. Additionally, it offers the possibility of
studying gravity in (2+1) dimensions coupled to matter in an entirely new
framework.Comment: 22 page
Prediction of scientific collaborations through multiplex interaction networks
Link prediction algorithms can help to understand the structure and dynamics
of scientific collaborations and the evolution of Science. However, available
algorithms based on similarity between nodes of collaboration networks are
bounded by the limited amount of links present in these networks. In this work,
we reduce the latter intrinsic limitation by generalizing the Adamic-Adar
method to multiplex networks composed by an arbitrary number of layers, that
encode diverse forms of scientific interactions. We show that the new metric
outperforms other single-layered, similarity-based scores and that scientific
credit, represented by citations, and common interests, measured by the usage
of common keywords, can be predictive of new collaborations. Our work paves the
way for a deeper understanding of the dynamics driving scientific
collaborations, and provides a new algorithm for link prediction in multiplex
networks that can be applied to a plethora of systems
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