Jarzynski Equality for Driven Quantum Field Theories

The fluctuation theorems, and in particular, the Jarzynski equality, are the most important pillars of modern non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. We extend the quantum Jarzynski equality together with the Two-Time Measurement Formalism to their ultimate range of validity -- to quantum field theories. To this end, we focus on a time-dependent version of scalar phi-four. We find closed form expressions for the resulting work distribution function, and we find that they are proper physical observables of the quantum field theory. Also, we show explicitly that the Jarzynski equality and Crooks fluctuation theorems hold at one-loop order independent of the renormalization scale. As a numerical case study, we compute the work distributions for an infinitely smooth protocol in the ultra-relativistic regime. In this case, it is found that work done through processes with pair creation is the dominant contribution.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

"Do We Follow Others when We Should? A Simple Test of Rational Expectations": Comment

Weizsäcker (2010) estimates the payoff of actions to test rational expectations and to measure the success of social learning in information cascade experiments. He concludes that participants perform poorly when learning from others and that rational expectations are violated. We show that his estimated payoffs rely on estimates of the publicly known prior and signal qualities which may lead the formulated test of rational expectations to generate false positives. We rely on the true values of the prior and signal qualities to estimate the payoff of actions. We confirm that the rational expectations hypothesis is rejected, but we measure a much larger success of social learning.Information Cascades, Laboratory Experiments, Quantal Response Equilibrium

Spreadsheet Logology on the PC

Logologists who are computer programmers can exploit the computer\u27s power to assist them in wordplay activities. Logologists who are not computer experts can share in that power by using commercially available, inexpensive, user-friendly spreadsheet programs designed for personal computers (PCs). Such programs, initially developed for manipulation numbers (e.g., financial modelling), have evolved the capability to manipulate non-numeric data--strings of characters other than integers exclusively--according to string-specific formulas

Electronic Word Search Programs

Spelling anxiety is no affliction for writers who use electronic typewriters or personal computer (PC) word processing programs that provide so-called spell checking (see The Electronic Spell by Faith Eckler in the May 1988 Word Ways). Writers can choose to be notified (via beep) immediately after typing a word incorrectly, or they can invoke global spell checking after completing a manuscript. Most built-in spell checkers both identify a misspelled word and try to guess the word intended, offering a candidate list of correctly spelled alternatives from a database ranging in size from 40,000 to over 100,000 words

On Reflexivity in Words

In a wonderful series of now anthologized articles originally appearing in Scientific American, Douglas Hofstadter discussed the many varieties of self-referential sentences (e.g., This sentence no verb ). Word--a sentence\u27s elements--can also be self-referential. Hofstadter did not discuss words as self-referential entities, however, though he implied their existence in noting the ubiquity of the phenomenon of self-reference: It happens every time anyone say \u27I\u27 or \u27me\u27 or \u27word\u27 or \u27speak\u27 or \u27mouth\u27

The Linguistic Genetic Message

In his Essay on Man, Alexander Pope exhorted, Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; / The proper study of Mankind is Man. / ...The glory, jest, and riddle of the world. To know ourselves is to know the information in the seed from which we sprouted -- we are at least in part the chemical expression of the message encoded by our genes. I suggest that there is encoded in our genes also a linguistic message, a message which semantic content, and that Man is now in a position to decipher it

On Converting Numbers Into Words

I might tary a long time in the declarying the nature of diuerse Schemes, whiche are woordes or stentencies alterd contrarie to the vulgar custome of our speache

Spreadsheet Logology: Letter-Shifts

This article describes a personal computer spreadsheet model (template) that aids in searching for alphabetical letter-shift word-pairs (e.g., cheer-jolly, shift-value 7). It complements my November 1988 Word Ways article demonstrating how non-computer-experts can tap the computer\u27s power for logological studies by using commercially-available, inexpensive spreadsheet applications programs like Lotus 1-2-3. A motivated novice with little experience using personal computers can learn to use a spreadsheet application program in a few hours

Differential interferometry of QSO broad line regions I: improving the reverberation mapping model fits and black hole mass estimates

Reverberation mapping estimates the size and kinematics of broad line regions (BLR) in Quasars and type I AGNs. It yields size-luminosity relation, to make QSOs standard cosmological candles, and mass-luminosity relation to study the evolution of black holes and galaxies. The accuracy of these relations is limited by the unknown geometry of the BLR clouds distribution and velocities. We analyze the independent BLR structure constraints given by super-resolving differential interferometry. We developed a three-dimensional BLR model to compute all differential interferometry and reverberation mapping signals. We extrapolate realistic noises from our successful observations of the QSO 3C273 with AMBER on the VLTI. These signals and noises quantify the differential interferometry capacity to discriminate and measure BLR parameters including angular size, thickness, spatial distribution of clouds, local-to-global and radial-to-rotation velocity ratios, and finally central black hole mass and BLR distance. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo model-fit, of data simulated for various VLTI instruments, gives mass accuracies between 0.06 and 0.13 dex, to be compared to 0.44 dex for reverberation mapping mass-luminosity fits. We evaluate the number of QSOs accessible to measures with current (AMBER), upcoming (GRAVITY) and possible (OASIS with new generation fringe trackers) VLTI instruments. With available technology, the VLTI could resolve more than 60 BLRs, with a luminosity range larger than four decades, sufficient for a good calibration of RM mass-luminosity laws, from an analysis of the variation of BLR parameters with luminosity.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, accepted by MNRAS on December 5, 201