2,395 research outputs found
Structure from noise: Mental errors yield abstract representations of events
Humans are adept at uncovering abstract associations in the world around
them, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Intuitively,
learning the higher-order structure of statistical relationships should involve
complex mental processes. Here we propose an alternative perspective: that
higher-order associations instead arise from natural errors in learning and
memory. Combining ideas from information theory and reinforcement learning, we
derive a maximum entropy (or minimum complexity) model of people's internal
representations of the transitions between stimuli. Importantly, our model (i)
affords a concise analytic form, (ii) qualitatively explains the effects of
transition network structure on human expectations, and (iii) quantitatively
predicts human reaction times in probabilistic sequential motor tasks.
Together, these results suggest that mental errors influence our abstract
representations of the world in significant and predictable ways, with direct
implications for the study and design of optimally learnable information
sources.Comment: 62 pages, 7 figures, 10 table
Letters from Raymond Weeks, W. G. Manly, C. H. Grandgent, and R. E. Bassett
Letters of recommendation for Olin Moore
Massless Metric Preheating
Can super-Hubble metric perturbations be amplified exponentially during
preheating ? Yes. An analytical existence proof is provided by exploiting the
conformal properties of massless inflationary models. The traditional conserved
quantity \zeta is non-conserved in many regions of parameter space. We include
backreaction through the homogeneous parts of the inflaton and preheating
fields and discuss the role of initial conditions on the post-preheating
power-spectrum. Maximum field variances are strongly underestimated if metric
perturbations are ignored. We illustrate this in the case of strong
self-interaction of the decay products. Without metric perturbations,
preheating in this case is very inefficient. However, metric perturbations
increase the maximum field variances and give alternative channels for the
resonance to proceed. This implies that metric perturbations can have a large
impact on calculations of relic abundances of particles produced during
preheating.Comment: 8 pages, 4 colour figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D.
Contains substantial new analysis of the ranges of parameter space for which
large changes to the inflation-produced power spectrum are expecte
Preheating of the nonminimally coupled inflaton field
We investigate preheating of an inflaton field coupled nonminimally to
a spacetime curvature. In the case of a self-coupling inflaton potential
, the dynamics of preheating changes by the effect of
the negative . We find that the nonminimal coupling works in two ways.
First, since the initial value of inflaton field for reheating becomes
smaller with the increase of , the evolution of the inflaton quanta is
delayed for fixed . Second, the oscillation of the inflaton field is
modified and the nonadiabatic change around occurs significantly. That
makes the resonant band of the fluctuation field wider. Especially for strong
coupling regimes , the growth of the inflaton flutuation is
dominated by the resonance due to the nonminimal coupling, which leads to the
significant enhancement of low momentum modes. Although the final variance of
the inflaton fluctuation does notchange significantly compared with the
minimally coupled case, we have found that the energy transfer from the
homogeneous inflaton to created particles efficiently occurs for .Comment: 13pages, 11figure
Are Kaluza-Klein modes enhanced by parametric resonance?
We study parametric amplification of Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes in a higher
-dimensional generalized Kaluza-Klein theory, which was originally
considered by Mukohyama in the narrow resonance case. It was suggested that KK
modes can be enhanced by an oscillation of a scale of compactification by the
-dimensional sphere and by the direct product . We extend this past work to the more general case where
initial values of the scale of compactification and the quantum number of the
angular momentum of KK modes are not small. We perform analytic approaches
based on the Mathieu equation as well as numerical calculations, and find that
the expansion of the universe rapidly makes the KK field deviate from
instability bands. As a result, KK modes are not enhanced sufficiently in an
expanding universe in these two classes of models.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
A Study of Obscuration in Catadioptric Lenses
In this paper we will examine the effect of obscuration upon the various features we desired to image with a 157nm microstepper utilising a catadioptric lens. We will show the effect the obscuration has upon imaging when using not only conventional illumination and binary masks, but also when using a range of enhancement techniques such as off-axis illumination and phase-shifting masks. We will show how use of a large obscuration, whilst enhancing the signals for the densest features, actually degrades the signal for more isolated features. The level of obscuration must also take into account cross duty-ratio effects, i.e. the distribution of diffraction energy, for phase shifted features of various sizes. In this situation where a small sigma would be used a large level of obscuration can significantly increase biases. The choice of obscuration can have a major effect upon the imaging capabilities of a tool. In future, when the use of catadioptric lenses may be more widespread (for example this may happen at 157nm) it may be desirable to have the option to vary this obscuration dependant upon the pattern being imaged
Reheating and turbulence
We show that the ''turbulent'' particle spectra found in numerical
simulations of the behavior of matter fields during reheating admit a simple
interpretation in terms of hydrodynamic models of the reheating period. We
predict a particle number spectrum with for Comment: 10 pages, one figure included in tex
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