616 research outputs found
Cellular Automata as a Model of Physical Systems
Cellular Automata (CA), as they are presented in the literature, are abstract
mathematical models of computation. In this pa- per we present an alternate
approach: using the CA as a model or theory of physical systems and devices.
While this approach abstracts away all details of the underlying physical
system, it remains faithful to the fact that there is an underlying physical
reality which it describes. This imposes certain restrictions on the types of
computations a CA can physically carry out, and the resources it needs to do
so. In this paper we explore these and other consequences of our
reformalization.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of AUTOMATA 200
Computational universes
Suspicions that the world might be some sort of a machine or algorithm
existing ``in the mind'' of some symbolic number cruncher have lingered from
antiquity. Although popular at times, the most radical forms of this idea never
reached mainstream. Modern developments in physics and computer science have
lent support to the thesis, but empirical evidence is needed before it can
begin to replace our contemporary world view.Comment: Several corrections of typos and smaller revisions, final versio
Physics as Quantum Information Processing: Quantum Fields as Quantum Automata
Can we reduce Quantum Field Theory (QFT) to a quantum computation? Can
physics be simulated by a quantum computer? Do we believe that a quantum field
is ultimately made of a numerable set of quantum systems that are unitarily
interacting? A positive answer to these questions corresponds to substituting
QFT with a theory of quantum cellular automata (QCA), and the present work is
examining this hypothesis. These investigations are part of a large research
program on a "quantum-digitalization" of physics, with Quantum Theory as a
special theory of information, and Physics as emergent from the same
quantum-information processing. A QCA-based QFT has tremendous potential
advantages compared to QFT, being quantum "ab-initio" and free from the
problems plaguing QFT due to the continuum hypothesis. Here I will show how
dynamics emerges from the quantum processing, how the QCA can reproduce the
Dirac-field phenomenology at large scales, and the kind of departures from QFT
that that should be expected at a Planck-scale discreteness. I will introduce
the notions of linear field quantum automaton and local-matrix quantum
automaton, in terms of which I will provide the solution to the Feynman's
problem about the possibility of simulating a Fermi field with a quantum
computer.Comment: This version: further improvements in notation. Added reference. Work
presented at the conference "Foundations of Probability and Physics-6" (FPP6)
held on 12-15 June 2011 at the Linnaeus University, Vaaxjo, Sweden. Many new
results, e.g. Feynman problem of qubit-ization of Fermi fields solved
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