Pauli problem in thermodynamics

A thermodynamic analogue of the Pauli problem (reconstruction of a wavefunction from the position and momentum distributions) is formulated. The coordinates of a quantum system are replaced by the inverse absolute temperature and other intensive quantities, and the Planck constant is replaced by the Boltzmann constant multiplied by two. A new natural mathematical generalization of the quasithermodynamic fluctuation theory is suggested and sufficient conditions for the existence of asymptotic solutions of the thermodynamic Pauli problem are obtained.Comment: 35 pages; this is an extended version of my work on the Pauli problem published as two separate papers in Doklady Mathematics ((vol. 87 issue 3) and (vol. 88 issue 1)

Fluctuations of intensive quantities in statistical thermodynamics

In phenomenological thermodynamics, the canonical coordinates of a physical system split in pairs with each pair consisting of an extensive quantity and an intensive one. In the present paper, the quasi-thermodynamic fluctuation theory of a model system of a large number of oscillators is extended to statistical thermodynamics based on the idea to perceive the fluctuations of intensive variables as the fluctuations of specific extensive ones in a "thermodynamically dual" system. The extension is motivated by the symmetry of the problem in the context of an analogy with quantum mechanics which is stated in terms of a generalized Pauli problem for the thermodynamic fluctuations. The doubled Boltzmann constant divided by the number of particles plays a similar role to the Planck constant.Comment: 24 pages; download the journal version (open access) from http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/11/488

Distortion of the Poisson Bracket by the Noncommutative Planck Constants

In this paper we introduce a kind of "noncommutative neighbourhood" of a semiclassical parameter corresponding to the Planck constant. This construction is defined as a certain filtered and graded algebra with an infinite number of generators indexed by planar binary leaf-labelled trees. The associated graded algebra (the classical shadow) is interpreted as a "distortion" of the algebra of classical observables of a physical system. It is proven that there exists a q-analogue of the Weyl quantization, where q is a matrix of formal variables, which induces a nontrivial noncommutative analogue of a Poisson bracket on the classical shadow

New Examples of Kochen-Specker Type Configurations on Three Qubits

A new example of a saturated Kochen-Specker (KS) type configuration of 64 rays in 8-dimensional space (the Hilbert space of a triple of qubits) is constructed. It is proven that this configuration has a tropical dimension 6 and that it contains a critical subconfiguration of 36 rays. A natural multicolored generalisation of the Kochen-Specker theory is given based on a concept of an entropy of a saturated configuration of rays.Comment: 24 page

q-Legendre Transformation: Partition Functions and Quantization of the Boltzmann Constant

In this paper we construct a q-analogue of the Legendre transformation, where q is a matrix of formal variables defining the phase space braidings between the coordinates and momenta (the extensive and intensive thermodynamic observables). Our approach is based on an analogy between the semiclassical wave functions in quantum mechanics and the quasithermodynamic partition functions in statistical physics. The basic idea is to go from the q-Hamilton-Jacobi equation in mechanics to the q-Legendre transformation in thermodynamics. It is shown, that this requires a non-commutative analogue of the Planck-Boltzmann constants (hbar and k_B) to be introduced back into the classical formulae. Being applied to statistical physics, this naturally leads to an idea to go further and to replace the Boltzmann constant with an infinite collection of generators of the so-called epoch\'e (bracketing) algebra. The latter is an infinite dimensional noncommutative algebra recently introduced in our previous work, which can be perceived as an infinite sequence of "deformations of deformations" of the Weyl algebra. The generators mentioned are naturally indexed by planar binary leaf-labelled trees in such a way, that the trees with a single leaf correspond to the observables of the limiting thermodynamic system

Exceptional and Non-crystallographic Root Systems and the Kochen-Specker Theorem

The Kochen-Specker theorem states that a 3-dimensional complex Euclidean space admits a finite configuration of projective lines such that the corresponding quantum observables (the orthogonal projectors) cannot be assigned with 0 and 1 values in a classically consistent way. This paper shows that the irreducible root systems of exceptional and of non-crystallographic types are useful in constructing such configurations in other dimensions. The cases $E_6$ and $E_7$ lead to new examples, while $F_4$, $E_8$, and $H_4$, yield a new interpretation of the known ones. The described configurations have an additional property: they are saturated, i.e. the tuples of mutually orthogonal lines, being partially ordered by inclusion, yield a poset with all maximal elements having the same cardinality (the dimension of space)

Parity proofs of the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem based on the 600-cell

The set of 60 real rays in four dimensions derived from the vertices of a 600-cell is shown to possess numerous subsets of rays and bases that provide basis-critical parity proofs of the Bell-Kochen-Specker (BKS) theorem (a basis-critical proof is one that fails if even a single basis is deleted from it). The proofs vary considerably in size, with the smallest having 26 rays and 13 bases and the largest 60 rays and 41 bases. There are at least 90 basic types of proofs, with each coming in a number of geometrically distinct varieties. The replicas of all the proofs under the symmetries of the 600-cell yield a total of almost a hundred million parity proofs of the BKS theorem. The proofs are all very transparent and take no more than simple counting to verify. A few of the proofs are exhibited, both in tabular form as well as in the form of MMP hypergraphs that assist in their visualization. A survey of the proofs is given, simple procedures for generating some of them are described and their applications are discussed. It is shown that all four-dimensional parity proofs of the BKS theorem can be turned into experimental disproofs of noncontextuality.Comment: 19 pages, 11 tables, 3 figures. Email address of first author has been corrected. Ref.[5] has been corrected, as has an error in Fig.3. Formatting error in Sec.4 has been corrected and the placement of tables and figures has been improved. A new paragraph has been added to Sec.4 and another new paragraph to the end of the Appendi

Critical noncolorings of the 600-cell proving the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem

Aravind and Lee-Elkin (1997) gave a proof of the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem by showing that it is impossible to color the 60 directions from the center of a 600-cell to its vertices in a certain way. This paper refines that result by showing that the 60 directions contain many subsets of 36 and 30 directions that cannot be similarly colored, and so provide more economical demonstrations of the theorem. Further, these subsets are shown to be critical in the sense that deleting even a single direction from any of them causes the proof to fail. The critical sets of size 36 and 30 are shown to belong to orbits of 200 and 240 members, respectively, under the symmetries of the polytope. A comparison is made between these critical sets and other such sets in four dimensions, and the significance of these results is discussed.Comment: 2 new references added, caption to Table 9 correcte