Quantum aspects of black holes

This is a brief introduction to quantum aspects of black holes, addressed at an astrophysics-oriented audience. The topics are: The laws of black-hole mechanics, Hawking radiation, interpretation of entropy, and primordial black holes.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the conference "The galactic black hole", Bad Honnef, Germany, August 200

Combinatorics of Chord Progressions

Color poster with text and diagrams.This study explored an overlap between combinatorics and music. The goal was to show chord progressions that are common to a specific collection of music, composer, or era.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Literal Perceptual Inference

In this paper, I argue that theories of perception that appeal to Helmholtz’s idea of unconscious inference (“Helmholtzian” theories) should be taken literally, i.e. that the inferences appealed to in such theories are inferences in the full sense of the term, as employed elsewhere in philosophy and in ordinary discourse. In the course of the argument, I consider constraints on inference based on the idea that inference is a deliberate acton, and on the idea that inferences depend on the syntactic structure of representations. I argue that inference is a personal-level but sometimes unconscious process that cannot in general be distinguished from association on the basis of the structures of the representations over which it’s defined. I also critique arguments against representationalist interpretations of Helmholtzian theories, and argue against the view that perceptual inference is encapsulated in a module

Quantum Cosmology and the Arrow of Time

Although most fundamental laws are invariant under time reversal, experience exhibits the presence of irreversible phenomena -- the arrows of time. Their origin lies in cosmology, and I argue that only quantum cosmology can provide the appropriate formal framework. After briefly reviewing the formalism, I discuss how a simple and natural boundary condition can lead to the observed arrows of time. This yields at the same time interesting consequences for black holes.Comment: 10 pages, contribution to the Proceedings of the conference DICE2004, Piombino, Italy, September 200