Probable solar flare doses encountered on an interplanetary mission as calculated by the MCFLARE code

The computer program, MCFLARE, uses Monte Carlo methods to simulate solar flare occurrences during an interplanetary space voyage. The total biological dose inside a shielded crew compartment due to the flares encountered during the voyage is determined. The computer program evaluates the doses obtained on a large number of trips having identical trajectories. From these results, a dose D sub p having a probability p of not being exceeded during the voyage can be determined as a function of p for any shield material configuration. To illustrate the use of the code, a trip to Mars and return is calculated, and estimated doses behind several thicknesses of aluminum shield and water shield are presented

The norm-1-property of a quantum observable

A normalized positive operator measure $X\mapsto E(X)$ has the norm-1-property if \no{E(X)}=1 whenever $E(X)\ne O$. This property reflects the fact that the measurement outcome probabilities for the values of such observables can be made arbitrary close to one with suitable state preparations. Some general implications of the norm-1-property are investigated. As case studies, localization observables, phase observables, and phase space observables are considered.Comment: 14 page

EPR Paradox,Locality and Completeness of Quantum Theory

The quantum theory (QT) and new stochastic approaches have no deterministic prediction for a single measurement or for a single time -series of events observed for a trapped ion, electron or any other individual physical system. The predictions of QT being of probabilistic character apply to the statistical distribution of the results obtained in various experiments. The probability distribution is not an attribute of a dice but it is a characteristic of a whole random experiment : '' rolling a dice''. and statistical long range correlations between two random variables X and Y are not a proof of any causal relation between these variable. Moreover any probabilistic model used to describe a random experiment is consistent only with a specific protocol telling how the random experiment has to be performed.In this sense the quantum theory is a statistical and contextual theory of phenomena. In this paper we discuss these important topics in some detail. Besides we discuss in historical perspective various prerequisites used in the proofs of Bell and CHSH inequalities concluding that the violation of these inequalities in spin polarization correlation experiments is neither a proof of the completeness of QT nor of its nonlocality. The question whether QT is predictably complete is still open and it should be answered by a careful and unconventional analysis of the experimental data. It is sufficient to analyze more in detail the existing experimental data by using various non-parametric purity tests and other specific statistical tools invented to study the fine structure of the time-series. The correct understanding of statistical and contextual character of QT has far reaching consequences for the quantum information and quantum computing.Comment: 16 pages, 59 references,the contribution to the conference QTRF-4 held in Vaxjo, Sweden, 11-16 june 2007. To be published in the Proceeding

Content bias in the cultural evolution of house finch song

We used three years of house finch, Haemorhous mexicanus, song recordings spanning four decades in the introduced eastern range to assess how individual level cultural transmission mechanisms drive population level changes in birdsong. First, we developed an agent-based model (available as a new R package called ‘TransmissionBias’) that simulates the cultural transmission of house finch song given different parameters related to transmission biases, or biases in social learning that modify the probability of adoption of particular cultural variants. Next, we used approximate Bayesian computation and machine learning to estimate what parameter values likely generated the temporal changes in diversity in our observed data. We found evidence that strong content bias, likely targeted towards syllable complexity, plays a central role in the cultural evolution of house finch song in the New York metropolitan area. Frequency and demonstrator biases appear to be neutral or absent. Additionally, we estimated that house finch song is transmitted with extremely high fidelity. Future studies can use our simulation framework to better understand how cultural transmission and population declines influence song diversity in wild populations.Methods - Recording - Song Analysis and Clustering - Simulation and Generative Inference - Logistic Regression Results Discussio

Strongly Incompatible Quantum Devices

The fact that there are quantum observables without a simultaneous measurement is one of the fundamental characteristics of quantum mechanics. In this work we expand the concept of joint measurability to all kinds of possible measurement devices, and we call this relation compatibility. Two devices are incompatible if they cannot be implemented as parts of a single measurement setup. We introduce also a more stringent notion of incompatibility, strong incompatibility. Both incompatibility and strong incompatibility are rigorously characterized and their difference is demonstrated by examples.Comment: 27 pages (AMSart), 6 figure

From Copenhagen to neo-Copenhagen interpretation

Positive and negative features of the Copenhagen interpretation are discussed. As positive features can be mentioned its pragmatism and its awareness of the crucial role of measurement. However, the main part of the contribution is devoted to the negative features, to wit, its pragmatism (once again), its confounding of preparation and measurement, its classical account of measurement, its completeness claims, the ambiguity of its notion of correspondence, its confused notion of complementarity. It is demonstrated how confusions and paradoxes stemming from the negative features of the Copenhagen interpretation can be dealt with in an amended interpretation, to be referred to as `neo-Copenhagen interpretation', in which the role of the measuring instrument is taken seriously by recognizing the quantum mechanical character of its interaction with the microscopic object. The ensuing necessity of extending the notion of a quantum mechanical observable from the Hermitian operator of the standard formalism to the positive operator-valued measure of a generalized formalism is demonstrated to yield a sound mathematical basis for a transition from the Copenhagen contextualistic-realist interpretation to the neo-Copenhagen empiricist one. Applications to the uncertainty relations and to the Bell inequalities are briefly discussed.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of the Conference: Quantum Theory - 4, Reconsideration of Foundations, V\"axj\"o, June 11-16, 200

Classical mechanics as nonlinear quantum mechanics

All measurable predictions of classical mechanics can be reproduced from a quantum-like interpretation of a nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The key observation leading to classical physics is the fact that a wave function that satisfies a linear equation is real and positive, rather than complex. This has profound implications on the role of the Bohmian classical-like interpretation of linear quantum mechanics, as well as on the possibilities to find a consistent interpretation of arbitrary nonlinear generalizations of quantum mechanics.Comment: 7 pages, invited talk given at conference Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations 4, Vaxjo, Sweden, June 11-16, 200

A Curious Geometrical Fact About Entanglement

I sketch how the set of pure quantum states forms a phase space, and then point out a curiousity concerning maximally entangled pure states: they form a minimal Lagrangian submanifold of the set of all pure states. I suggest that this curiousity should have an interesting physical interpretation.Comment: Talk at the Vaxjo conference on Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations -