4,292 research outputs found
Book Review: The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs
Book review of The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs. By Christine Mangala Frost. Cambridge, UK: James Clarke & Co, 2017, xv + 368 pages
Book Review: \u3ci\u3eHis Hiding Place is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence.\u3c/i\u3e
Book review of, His Hiding Place is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence. by Francis X. Clooney
The Limits of Theodicy: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective on Evil and Interreligious Theology
This essay is written from the vantage point of a comparative theologian who is personally steeped in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition and who primarily specializes in Christian-Muslim comparative theology. It might seems curious, then, that the present essay employs the comparative theological method in order to focus on questions of theodicy in the Christian and Hindu traditions. Perhaps even more curious, however, is that I aim not at articulating a comparative Christian-Hindu theodicy, but rather at suggesting that the most productive path forward is a comparative theological rejection of theodicy as a productive enterprise. Drawing from resources within my own Orthodox Christian tradition, as well as from the thought of Paul Ricoeur, my essay will revolve around two primary arguments: first, theodicy functions primarily to reconcile human beings to evil’s existence, thus legitimizing it and reducing the need to counteract evil; and second, religious traditions more effectively encounter the question of evil by teaching a path by which practitioners can mourn, reject, combat, and transform evil. Accordingly, I will first briefly examine two salient instances of comparative Christian-Hindu theodicy in order to demonstrate how my approach differs. Next, I will engage with key critics of theodicy, some of whom are skeptical of religion (or even hostile to it), and some of whom are religious adherents who maintain theodicy is an inherently deleterious mode of thought. I will conclude by drawing from both Fyodor Dostoevsky and Paul Ricoeur in order to suggest a more productive trajectory for comparative theology and the challenges posed by the existence of evil and suffering
Ground state entanglement in quantum spin chains
A microscopic calculation of ground state entanglement for the XY and
Heisenberg models shows the emergence of universal scaling behavior at quantum
phase transitions. Entanglement is thus controlled by conformal symmetry. Away
from the critical point, entanglement gets saturated by a mass scale. Results
borrowed from conformal field theory imply irreversibility of entanglement loss
along renormalization group trajectories. Entanglement does not saturate in
higher dimensions which appears to limit the success of the density matrix
renormalization group technique. A possible connection between majorization and
renormalization group irreversibility emerges from our numerical analysis.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures, added references, minor changes. Final versio
Loops and Strings in a Superconducting Lattice Gauge Simulator
We propose an architecture for an analog quantum simulator of
electromagnetism in 2+1 dimensions, based on an array of superconducting
fluxonium devices. The encoding is in the integer (spin-1 representation of the
quantum link model formulation of compact U(1) lattice gauge theory. We show
how to engineer Gauss' law via an ancilla mediated gadget construction, and how
to tune between the strongly coupled and intermediately coupled regimes. The
witnesses to the existence of the predicted confining phase of the model are
provided by nonlocal order parameters from Wilson loops and disorder parameters
from 't Hooft strings. We show how to construct such operators in this model
and how to measure them nondestructively via dispersive coupling of the
fluxonium islands to a microwave cavity mode. Numerical evidence is found for
the existence of the confined phase in the ground state of the simulation
Hamiltonian on a ladder geometry.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Published versio
Symmetry and optical selection rules in graphene quantum dots
Graphene quantum dots (GQD's) have optical properties which are very
different from those of an extended graphene sheet. In this Article we explore
how the size, shape and edge--structure of a GQD affect its optical
conductivity. Using representation theory, we derive optical selection rules
for regular-shaped dots, starting from the symmetry properties of the current
operator. We find that, where the x- and y-components of the current operator
transform with the same irreducible representation (irrep) of the point group -
for example in triangular or hexagonal GQD's - the optical conductivity is
independent of the polarisation of the light. On the other hand, where these
components transform with different irreps - for example in rectangular GQD's -
the optical conductivity depends on the polarisation of light. We find that
GQD's with non-commuting point-group operations - for example dots of
rectangular shape - can be distinguished from GQD's with commuting point-group
operations - for example dots of triangular or hexagonal shape - by using
polarized light. We carry out explicit calculations of the optical conductivity
of GQD's described by a simple tight--binding model and, for dots of
intermediate size, \textcolor{blue}{()}
find an absorption peak in the low--frequency range of the spectrum which
allows us to distinguish between dots with zigzag and armchair edges. We also
clarify the one-dimensional nature of states at the van Hove singularity in
graphene, providing a possible explanation for very high exciton-binding
energies. Finally we discuss the role of atomic vacancies and shape asymmetry.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure
Inventario preliminar de la familia Aneuraceae en Venezuela
Con base en registros de literatura investigada se presenta un listado preliminar de 23 especies de la familia Aneuracea (Hepatophyta) para Venezuela, de las cuales 1 corresponde al gĂ©nero Aneura y 22 al gĂ©nero Riccardia. Los Andes y la regiĂłn al sur del rĂo Orinoco, son las áreas con mayor informaciĂłn disponible.A preliminary inventory of 23 species of Aneuraceae (Hepatophyta) is given for Venezuela. One of this records belongs to the genus Aneura and 22 to Riccardia. Los Andes and the region to the south of the Orinoco River, are the areas with more available information
Fine-grained entanglement loss along renormalization group flows
We explore entanglement loss along renormalization group trajectories as a
basic quantum information property underlying their irreversibility. This
analysis is carried out for the quantum Ising chain as a transverse magnetic
field is changed. We consider the ground-state entanglement between a large
block of spins and the rest of the chain. Entanglement loss is seen to follow
from a rigid reordering, satisfying the majorization relation, of the
eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix for the spin block. More generally,
our results indicate that it may be possible to prove the irreversibility along
RG trajectories from the properties of the vacuum only, without need to study
the whole hamiltonian.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; minor change
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