On Counterfactuals and Contextuality

Counterfactual reasoning and contextuality is defined and critically evaluated with regard to its nonempirical content. To this end, a uniqueness property of states, explosion views and link observables are introduced. If only a single context associated with a particular maximum set of observables can be operationalized, then a context translation principle resolves measurements of different contexts.Comment: 10 pages, presented at Foundations of Probability and Physics-3, Vaexjoe University, Sweden, June 7-12, 200

Hamiltonian 2-forms in Kahler geometry, III Extremal metrics and stability

This paper concerns the explicit construction of extremal Kaehler metrics on total spaces of projective bundles, which have been studied in many places. We present a unified approach, motivated by the theory of hamiltonian 2-forms (as introduced and studied in previous papers in the series) but this paper is largely independent of that theory. We obtain a characterization, on a large family of projective bundles, of those `admissible' Kaehler classes (i.e., the ones compatible with the bundle structure in a way we make precise) which contain an extremal Kaehler metric. In many cases, such as on geometrically ruled surfaces, every Kaehler class is admissible. In particular, our results complete the classification of extremal Kaehler metrics on geometrically ruled surfaces, answering several long-standing questions. We also find that our characterization agrees with a notion of K-stability for admissible Kaehler classes. Our examples and nonexistence results therefore provide a fertile testing ground for the rapidly developing theory of stability for projective varieties, and we discuss some of the ramifications. In particular we obtain examples of projective varieties which are destabilized by a non-algebraic degeneration.Comment: 40 pages, sequel to math.DG/0401320 and math.DG/0202280, but largely self-contained; partially replaces and extends math.DG/050151

A new critical curve for a class of quasilinear elliptic systems

We study a class of systems of quasilinear differential inequalities associated to weakly coercive differential operators and power reaction terms. The main model cases are given by the $p$-Laplacian operator as well as the mean curvature operator in non parametric form. We prove that if the exponents lie under a certain curve, then the system has only the trivial solution. These results hold without any restriction provided the possible solutions are more regular. The underlying framework is the classical Euclidean case as well as the Carnot groups setting.Comment: 28 page

Universal graphs with forbidden subgraphs and algebraic closure

We apply model theoretic methods to the problem of existence of countable universal graphs with finitely many forbidden connected subgraphs. We show that to a large extent the question reduces to one of local finiteness of an associated''algebraic closure'' operator. The main applications are new examples of universal graphs with forbidden subgraphs and simplified treatments of some previously known cases

The decomposition and classification of radiant affine 3-manifolds

An affine manifold is a manifold with torsion-free flat affine connection. A geometric topologist's definition of an affine manifold is a manifold with an atlas of charts to the affine space with affine transition functions; a radiant affine manifold is an affine manifold with holonomy consisting of affine transformations fixing a common fixed point. We decompose an orientable closed radiant affine 3-manifold into radiant 2-convex affine manifolds and radiant concave affine 3-manifolds along mutually disjoint totally geodesic tori or Klein bottles using the convex and concave decomposition of real projective $n$-manifolds developed earlier. Then we decompose a 2-convex radiant affine manifold into convex radiant affine manifolds and concave-cone affine manifolds. To do this, we will obtain certain nice geometric objects in the Kuiper completion of holonomy cover. The equivariance and local finiteness property of the collection of such objects will show that their union covers a compact submanifold of codimension zero, the complement of which is convex. Finally, using the results of Barbot, we will show that a closed radiant affine 3-manifold admits a total cross section, confirming a conjecture of Carri\`ere, and hence every radiant affine 3-manifold is homeomorphic to a Seifert fibered space with trivial Euler number, or a virtual bundle over a circle with fiber homeomorphic to a torus.Comment: Some notational mistakes fixed, and the appendix rewritte