Interpreting Quantum Particles as Conceptual Entities

We elaborate an interpretation of quantum physics founded on the hypothesis that quantum particles are conceptual entities playing the role of communication vehicles between material entities composed of ordinary matter which function as memory structures for these quantum particles. We show in which way this new interpretation gives rise to a natural explanation for the quantum effects of interference and entanglement by analyzing how interference and entanglement emerge for the case of human concepts. We put forward a scheme to derive a metric based on similarity as a predecessor for the structure of 'space, time, momentum, energy' and 'quantum particles interacting with ordinary matter' underlying standard quantum physics, within the new interpretation, and making use of aspects of traditional quantum axiomatics. More specifically, we analyze how the effect of non-locality arises as a consequence of the confrontation of such an emerging metric type of structure and the remaining presence of the basic conceptual structure on the fundamental level, with the potential of being revealed in specific situations.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

Using simple elastic bands to explain quantum mechanics: a conceptual review of two of Aert's machine-models

From the beginning of his research, the Belgian physicist Diederik Aerts has shown great creativity in inventing a number of concrete machine-models that have played an important role in the development of general mathematical and conceptual formalisms for the description of the physical reality. These models can also be used to demystify much of the strangeness in the behavior of quantum entities, by allowing to have a peek at what's going on - in structural terms - behind the "quantum scenes," during a measurement. In this author's view, the importance of these machine-models, and of the approaches they have originated, have been so far seriously underappreciated by the physics community, despite their success in clarifying many challenges of quantum physics. To fill this gap, and encourage a greater number of researchers to take cognizance of the important work of so-called Geneva-Brussels school, we describe and analyze in this paper two of Aerts' historical machine-models, whose operations are based on simple breakable elastic bands. The first one, called the spin quantum-machine, is able to replicate the quantum probabilities associated with the spin measurement of a spin-1/2 entity. The second one, called the \emph{connected vessels of water model} (of which we shall present here an alternative version based on elastics) is able to violate Bell's inequality, as coincidence measurements on entangled states can do.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

What is Quantum? Unifying Its Micro-Physical and Structural Appearance

We can recognize two modes in which 'quantum appears' in macro domains: (i) a 'micro-physical appearance', where quantum laws are assumed to be universal and they are transferred from the micro to the macro level if suitable 'quantum coherence' conditions (e.g., very low temperatures) are realized, (ii) a 'structural appearance', where no hypothesis is made on the validity of quantum laws at a micro level, while genuine quantum aspects are detected at a structural-modeling level. In this paper, we inquire into the connections between the two appearances. We put forward the explanatory hypothesis that, 'the appearance of quantum in both cases' is due to 'the existence of a specific form of organisation, which has the capacity to cope with random perturbations that would destroy this organisation when not coped with'. We analyse how 'organisation of matter', 'organisation of life', and 'organisation of culture', play this role each in their specific domain of application, point out the importance of evolution in this respect, and put forward how our analysis sheds new light on 'what quantum is'.Comment: 10 page

Estimating stellar oscillation-related parameters and their uncertainties with the moment method

The moment method is a well known mode identification technique in asteroseismology (where `mode' is to be understood in an astronomical rather than in a statistical sense), which uses a time series of the first 3 moments of a spectral line to estimate the discrete oscillation mode parameters l and m. The method, contrary to many other mode identification techniques, also provides estimates of other important continuous parameters such as the inclination angle alpha, and the rotational velocity v_e. We developed a statistical formalism for the moment method based on so-called generalized estimating equations (GEE). This formalism allows the estimation of the uncertainty of the continuous parameters taking into account that the different moments of a line profile are correlated and that the uncertainty of the observed moments also depends on the model parameters. Furthermore, we set up a procedure to take into account the mode uncertainty, i.e., the fact that often several modes (l,m) can adequately describe the data. We also introduce a new lack of fit function which works at least as well as a previous discriminant function, and which in addition allows us to identify the sign of the azimuthal order m. We applied our method to the star HD181558, using several numerical methods, from which we learned that numerically solving the estimating equations is an intensive task. We report on the numerical results, from which we gain insight in the statistical uncertainties of the physical parameters involved in the moment method.Comment: The electronic online version from the publisher can be found at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9876.2005.00487.

Quantum Particles as Conceptual Entities: A Possible Explanatory Framework for Quantum Theory

We put forward a possible new interpretation and explanatory framework for quantum theory. The basic hypothesis underlying this new framework is that quantum particles are conceptual entities. More concretely, we propose that quantum particles interact with ordinary matter, nuclei, atoms, molecules, macroscopic material entities, measuring apparatuses, ..., in a similar way to how human concepts interact with memory structures, human minds or artificial memories. We analyze the most characteristic aspects of quantum theory, i.e. entanglement and non-locality, interference and superposition, identity and individuality in the light of this new interpretation, and we put forward a specific explanation and understanding of these aspects. The basic hypothesis of our framework gives rise in a natural way to a Heisenberg uncertainty principle which introduces an understanding of the general situation of 'the one and the many' in quantum physics. A specific view on macro and micro different from the common one follows from the basic hypothesis and leads to an analysis of Schrodinger's Cat paradox and the measurement problem different from the existing ones. We reflect about the influence of this new quantum interpretation and explanatory framework on the global nature and evolutionary aspects of the world and human worldviews, and point out potential explanations for specific situations, such as the generation problem in particle physics, the confinement of quarks and the existence of dark matter.Comment: 45 pages, 10 figure

A new method for the spectroscopic identification of stellar non-radial pulsation modes. I. The method and numerical tests

We present the Fourier parameter fit method, a new method for spectroscopically identifying stellar radial and non-radial pulsation modes based on the high-resolution time-series spectroscopy of absorption-line profiles. In contrast to previous methods this one permits a quantification of the statistical significance of the computed solutions. The application of genetic algorithms in seeking solutions makes it possible to search through a large parameter space. The mode identification is carried out by minimizing chi-square, using the observed amplitude and phase across the line profile and their modeled counterparts. Computations of the theoretical line profiles are based on a stellar displacement field, which is described as superposition of spherical harmonics and that includes the first order effects of the Coriolis force. We made numerical tests of the method on a grid of different mono- and multi-mode models for 0 <= l <= 4 in order to explore its capabilities and limitations. Our results show that whereas the azimuthal order m can be unambiguously identified for low-order modes, the error of l is in the range of pm 1. The value of m can be determined with higher precision than with other spectroscopic mode identification methods. Improved values for the inclination can be obtained from the analysis of non-axisymmetric pulsation modes. The new method is ideally suited to intermediatley rotating Delta Scuti and Beta Cephei stars.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure

The PLATO End-to-End CCD Simulator -- Modelling space-based ultra-high precision CCD photometry for the assessment study of the PLATO Mission

The PLATO satellite mission project is a next generation ESA Cosmic Vision satellite project dedicated to the detection of exo-planets and to asteroseismology of their host-stars using ultra-high precision photometry. The main goal of the PLATO mission is to provide a full statistical analysis of exo-planetary systems around stars that are bright and close enough for detailed follow-up studies. Many aspects concerning the design trade-off of a space-based instrument and its performance can best be tackled through realistic simulations of the expected observations. The complex interplay of various noise sources in the course of the observations made such simulations an indispensable part of the assessment study of the PLATO Payload Consortium. We created an end-to-end CCD simulation software-tool, dubbed PLATOSim, which simulates photometric time-series of CCD images by including realistic models of the CCD and its electronics, the telescope optics, the stellar field, the pointing uncertainty of the satellite (or Attitude Control System [ACS] jitter), and all important natural noise sources. The main questions that were addressed with this simulator were the noise properties of different photometric algorithms, the selection of the optical design, the allowable jitter amplitude, and the expected noise budget of light-curves as a function of the stellar magnitude for different parameter conditions. The results of our simulations showed that the proposed multi-telescope concept of PLATO can fulfil the defined scientific goal of measuring more than 20000 cool dwarfs brighter than mV =11 with a precision better than 27 ppm/h which is essential for the study of earth-like exo-planetary systems using the transit method.Comment: 5 pages, submitted for the Proceedings of the 4th HELAS International Conference: Seismological Challenges for Stellar Structur

The delta-quantum machine, the k-model, and the non-ordinary spatiality of quantum entities

The purpose of this article is threefold. Firstly, it aims to present, in an educational and non-technical fashion, the main ideas at the basis of Aerts' creation-discovery view and hidden measurement approach: a fundamental explanatory framework whose importance, in this author's view, has been seriously underappreciated by the physics community, despite its success in clarifying many conceptual challenges of quantum physics. Secondly, it aims to introduce a new quantum-machine - that we call the delta-quantum-machine - which is able to reproduce the transmission and reflection probabilities of a one-dimensional quantum scattering process by a Dirac delta-function potential. The machine is used not only to demonstrate the pertinence of the above mentioned explanatory framework, in the general description of physical systems, but also to illustrate (in the spirit of Aerts' epsilon-model) the origin of classical and quantum structures, by revealing the existence of processes which are neither classical nor quantum, but irreducibly intermediate. We do this by explicitly introducing what we call the k-model and by proving that its processes cannot be modelized by a classical or quantum scattering system. The third purpose of this work is to exploit the powerful metaphor provided by our quantum-machine, to investigate the intimate relation between the concept of potentiality and the notion of non-spatiality, that we characterize in precise terms, introducing for this the new concept of process-actuality.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. To appear in: Foundations of Scienc