Adventures in Invariant Theory

We provide an introduction to enumerating and constructing invariants of group representations via character methods. The problem is contextualised via two case studies arising from our recent work: entanglement measures, for characterising the structure of state spaces for composite quantum systems; and Markov invariants, a robust alternative to parameter-estimation intensive methods of statistical inference in molecular phylogenetics.Comment: 12 pp, includes supplementary discussion of example

Reconstructing Quantum Geometry from Quantum Information: Area Renormalisation, Coarse-Graining and Entanglement on Spin Networks

After a brief review of spin networks and their interpretation as wave functions for the (space) geometry, we discuss the renormalisation of the area operator in loop quantum gravity. In such a background independent framework, we propose to probe the structure of a surface through the analysis of the coarse-graining and renormalisation flow(s) of its area. We further introduce a procedure to coarse-grain spin network states and we quantitatively study the decrease in the number of degrees of freedom during this process. Finally, we use these coarse-graining tools to define the correlation and entanglement between parts of a spin network and discuss their potential interpretation as a natural measure of distance in such a state of quantum geometry.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, RevTex

Extended Rate, more GFUN

We present a software package that guesses formulae for sequences of, for example, rational numbers or rational functions, given the first few terms. We implement an algorithm due to Bernhard Beckermann and George Labahn, together with some enhancements to render our package efficient. Thus we extend and complement Christian Krattenthaler's program Rate, the parts concerned with guessing of Bruno Salvy and Paul Zimmermann's GFUN, the univariate case of Manuel Kauers' Guess.m and Manuel Kauers' and Christoph Koutschan's qGeneratingFunctions.m.Comment: 26 page

Euler integration over definable functions

We extend the theory of Euler integration from the class of constructible functions to that of "tame" real-valued functions (definable with respect to an o-minimal structure). The corresponding integral operator has some unusual defects (it is not a linear operator); however, it has a compelling Morse-theoretic interpretation. In addition, we show that it is an appropriate setting in which to do numerical analysis of Euler integrals, with applications to incomplete and uncertain data in sensor networks.Comment: 6 page