684 research outputs found
What Is a Macrostate? Subjective Observations and Objective Dynamics
We consider the question of whether thermodynamic macrostates are objective
consequences of dynamics, or subjective reflections of our ignorance of a
physical system. We argue that they are both; more specifically, that the set
of macrostates forms the unique maximal partition of phase space which 1) is
consistent with our observations (a subjective fact about our ability to
observe the system) and 2) obeys a Markov process (an objective fact about the
system's dynamics). We review the ideas of computational mechanics, an
information-theoretic method for finding optimal causal models of stochastic
processes, and argue that macrostates coincide with the ``causal states'' of
computational mechanics. Defining a set of macrostates thus consists of an
inductive process where we start with a given set of observables, and then
refine our partition of phase space until we reach a set of states which
predict their own future, i.e. which are Markovian. Macrostates arrived at in
this way are provably optimal statistical predictors of the future values of
our observables.Comment: 15 pages, no figure
Stochastic thermodynamics under coarse-graining
A general formulation of stochastic thermodynamics is presented for open
systems exchanging energy and particles with multiple reservoirs. By
introducing a partition in terms of "macrostates" (e.g. sets of "microstates"),
the consequence on the thermodynamic description of the system is studied in
detail. When microstates within macrostates rapidly thermalize, the entire
structure of the microscopic theory is recovered at the macrostate level. This
is not the case when these microstates remain out of equilibrium leading to
additional contributions to the entropy balance. Some of our results are
illustrated for a model of two coupled quantum dots.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
Group Minds and the Case of Wikipedia
Group-level cognitive states are widely observed in human social systems, but
their discussion is often ruled out a priori in quantitative approaches. In
this paper, we show how reference to the irreducible mental states and
psychological dynamics of a group is necessary to make sense of large scale
social phenomena. We introduce the problem of mental boundaries by reference to
a classic problem in the evolution of cooperation. We then provide an explicit
quantitative example drawn from ongoing work on cooperation and conflict among
Wikipedia editors, showing how some, but not all, effects of individual
experience persist in the aggregate. We show the limitations of methodological
individualism, and the substantial benefits that come from being able to refer
to collective intentions, and attributions of cognitive states of the form
"what the group believes" and "what the group values".Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures; matches published versio
Anomalous lack of decoherence of the Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions based on phase-covariant Quantum Cloning
We show that all Macroscopic Quantum Superpositions (MQS) based on
phase-covariant quantum cloning are characterized by an anomalous high
resilence to the de-coherence processes. The analysis supports the results of
recent MQS experiments and leads to conceive a useful conjecture regarding the
realization of complex decoherence - free structures for quantum information,
such as the quantum computer.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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