752 research outputs found
Natural resource inventories and management applications in the Great Basin
ERTS-1 resolution capabilities and repetitive coverage have allowed the acquisition of several statewide inventories of natural resource features not previously completed or that could not be completed in any other way. Familiarity with landform, tone, pattern and other converging factors, along with multidate imagery, has been required. Nevada's vegetation has been mapped from ERTS-1. Dynamic characteristics of the landscape have been studied. Sequential ERTS-1 imagery has proved its usefulness for mapping vegetation, following vegetation phenology changes, monitoring changes in lakes and reservoirs (including water quality), determining changes in surface mining use, making fire fuel estimates and determining potential hazard, mapping the distribution of rain and snow events, making range readiness determinations, monitoring marshland management practices and other uses. Feasibility has been determined, but details of incorporating the data in management systems awaits further research and development. The need is to accurately define the steps necessary to extract required or usable information from ERTS imagery and fit it into on-going management programs
Reconstructing Bohr's Reply to EPR in Algebraic Quantum Theory
Halvorson and Clifton have given a mathematical reconstruction of Bohr's
reply to Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR), and argued that this reply is
dictated by the two requirements of classicality and objectivity for the
description of experimental data, by proving consistency between their
objectivity requirement and a contextualized version of the EPR reality
criterion which had been introduced by Howard in his earlier analysis of Bohr's
reply. In the present paper, we generalize the above consistency theorem, with
a rather elementary proof, to a general formulation of EPR states applicable to
both non-relativistic quantum mechanics and algebraic quantum field theory; and
we clarify the elements of reality in EPR states in terms of Bohr's
requirements of classicality and objectivity, in a general formulation of
algebraic quantum theory.Comment: 13 pages, Late
Localized endomorphisms in Kitaev's toric code on the plane
We consider various aspects of Kitaev's toric code model on a plane in the
C^*-algebraic approach to quantum spin systems on a lattice. In particular, we
show that elementary excitations of the ground state can be described by
localized endomorphisms of the observable algebra. The structure of these
endomorphisms is analyzed in the spirit of the Doplicher-Haag-Roberts program
(specifically, through its generalization to infinite regions as considered by
Buchholz and Fredenhagen). Most notably, the statistics of excitations can be
calculated in this way. The excitations can equivalently be described by the
representation theory of D(Z_2), i.e., Drinfel'd's quantum double of the group
algebra of Z_2.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures. v2: proof of Prop. 2.2 fixed, other minor
correction
On the nature of continuous physical quantities in classical and quantum mechanics
Within the traditional Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics, it is
not possible to describe a particle as possessing, simultaneously, a sharp
position value and a sharp momentum value. Is it possible, though, to describe
a particle as possessing just a sharp position value (or just a sharp momentum
value)? Some, such as Teller (Journal of Philosophy, 1979), have thought that
the answer to this question is No -- that the status of individual continuous
quantities is very different in quantum mechanics than in classical mechanics.
On the contrary, I shall show that the same subtle issues arise with respect to
continuous quantities in classical and quantum mechanics; and that it is, after
all, possible to describe a particle as possessing a sharp position value
without altering the standard formalism of quantum mechanics.Comment: 26 pages, LaTe
The Scalar Field Kernel in Cosmological Spaces
We construct the quantum mechanical evolution operator in the Functional
Schrodinger picture - the kernel - for a scalar field in spatially homogeneous
FLRW spacetimes when the field is a) free and b) coupled to a spacetime
dependent source term. The essential element in the construction is the causal
propagator, linked to the commutator of two Heisenberg picture scalar fields.
We show that the kernels can be expressed solely in terms of the causal
propagator and derivatives of the causal propagator. Furthermore, we show that
our kernel reveals the standard light cone structure in FLRW spacetimes. We
finally apply the result to Minkowski spacetime, to de Sitter spacetime and
calculate the forward time evolution of the vacuum in a general FLRW spacetime.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur
Connes' embedding problem and Tsirelson's problem
We show that Tsirelson's problem concerning the set of quantum correlations
and Connes' embedding problem on finite approximations in von Neumann algebras
(known to be equivalent to Kirchberg's QWEP conjecture) are essentially
equivalent. Specifically, Tsirelson's problem asks whether the set of bipartite
quantum correlations generated between tensor product separated systems is the
same as the set of correlations between commuting C*-algebras. Connes'
embedding problem asks whether any separable II factor is a subfactor of
the ultrapower of the hyperfinite II factor. We show that an affirmative
answer to Connes' question implies a positive answer to Tsirelson's.
Conversely, a positve answer to a matrix valued version of Tsirelson's problem
implies a positive one to Connes' problem
A model balancing cooperation and competition explains our right-handed world and the dominance of left-handed athletes
An overwhelming majority of humans are right-handed. Numerous explanations
for individual handedness have been proposed, but this population-level
handedness remains puzzling. Here we use a minimal mathematical model to
explain this population-level hand preference as an evolved balance between
cooperative and competitive pressures in human evolutionary history. We use
selection of elite athletes as a test-bed for our evolutionary model and
account for the surprising distribution of handedness in many professional
sports. Our model predicts strong lateralization in social species with limited
combative interaction, and elucidates the rarity of compelling evidence for
"pawedness" in the animal world.Comment: 5 pages of text and 3 figures in manuscript, 8 pages of text and two
figures in supplementary materia
Local Operations and Completely Positive Maps in Algebraic Quantum Field Theory
Einstein introduced the locality principle which states that all physical
effect in some finite space-time region does not influence its space-like
separated finite region. Recently, in algebraic quantum field theory, R\'{e}dei
captured the idea of the locality principle by the notion of operational
separability. The operation in operational separability is performed in some
finite space-time region, and leaves unchanged the state in its space-like
separated finite space-time region. This operation is defined with a completely
positive map. In the present paper, we justify using a completely positive map
as a local operation in algebraic quantum field theory, and show that this
local operation can be approximately written with Kraus operators under the
funnel property
In defense of the epistemic view of quantum states: a toy theory
We present a toy theory that is based on a simple principle: the number of
questions about the physical state of a system that are answered must always be
equal to the number that are unanswered in a state of maximal knowledge. A wide
variety of quantum phenomena are found to have analogues within this toy
theory. Such phenomena include: the noncommutativity of measurements,
interference, the multiplicity of convex decompositions of a mixed state, the
impossibility of discriminating nonorthogonal states, the impossibility of a
universal state inverter, the distinction between bi-partite and tri-partite
entanglement, the monogamy of pure entanglement, no cloning, no broadcasting,
remote steering, teleportation, dense coding, mutually unbiased bases, and many
others. The diversity and quality of these analogies is taken as evidence for
the view that quantum states are states of incomplete knowledge rather than
states of reality. A consideration of the phenomena that the toy theory fails
to reproduce, notably, violations of Bell inequalities and the existence of a
Kochen-Specker theorem, provides clues for how to proceed with this research
program.Comment: 32 pages, REVTEX, based on a talk given at the Rob Clifton Memorial
Conference, College Park, May 2003; v2: minor modifications throughout,
updated reference
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