Language and emotive factors : the outline of problems involved

The cognitive framework seems to comply with the need of interdisciplinary outlook on the issue of emotions, as it itself draws upon findings of psychological, anthropological and philosophical research. Along with undertaking further studies on the conceptualization of emotions in different languages, from the detailed analysis of the repertoire of linguistic means used for talking about emotions to investigation into tendencies to use metaphors or metonymies to talk about emotions, some broader conclusions could be drawn. The greatest challenge seems to be establishing whether there are any cultural (social, economical, conventional, political, religious) conditions that may influence the relevant changes in conceptualizing emotions in different languages and whether it is possible to point to any laws or regularities that would govern these changes

Free zero-range processes on networks

A free zero-range process (FRZP) is a simple stochastic process describing the dynamics of a gas of particles hopping between neighboring nodes of a network. We discuss three different cases of increasing complexity: (a) FZRP on a rigid geometry where the network is fixed during the process, (b) FZRP on a random graph chosen from a given ensemble of networks, (c) FZRP on a dynamical network whose topology continuously changes during the process in a way which depends on the current distribution of particles. The case (a) provides a very simple realization of the phenomenon of condensation which manifests as the appearance of a condensate of particles on the node with maximal degree. The case (b) is very interesting since the averaging over typical ensembles of graphs acts as a kind of homogenization of the system which makes all nodes identical from the point of view of the FZRP. In the case (c), the distribution of particles and the dynamics of network are coupled to each other. The strength of this coupling depends on the ratio of two time scales: for changes of the topology and of the FZRP. We will discuss a specific example of that type of interaction and show that it leads to an interesting phase diagram.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Proceedings of SPIE Symposium "Fluctuations and Noise 2007", Florence, 20-24 May 200

Balls-in-boxes condensation on networks

We discuss two different regimes of condensate formation in zero-range processes on networks: on a q-regular network, where the condensate is formed as a result of a spontaneous symmetry breaking, and on an irregular network, where the symmetry of the partition function is explicitly broken. In the latter case we consider a minimal irregularity of the q-regular network introduced by a single Q-node with degree Q>q. The statics and dynamics of the condensation depends on the parameter log(Q/q), which controls the exponential fall-off of the distribution of particles on regular nodes and the typical time scale for melting of the condensate on the Q-node which increases exponentially with the system size $N$. This behavior is different than that on a q-regular network where log(Q/q)=0 and where the condensation results from the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the partition function, which is invariant under a permutation of particle occupation numbers on the q-nodes of the network. In this case the typical time scale for condensate melting is known to increase typically as a power of the system size.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the "Chaos" focus issue on "Optimization in Networks" (scheduled to appear as Volume 17, No. 2, 2007

Evidence of Unconventional Universality Class in a Two-Dimensional Dimerized Quantum Heisenberg Model

The two-dimensional $J$-$J^\prime$ dimerized quantum Heisenberg model is studied on the square lattice by means of (stochastic series expansion) quantum Monte Carlo simulations as a function of the coupling ratio \hbox{$\alpha=J^\prime/J$}. The critical point of the order-disorder quantum phase transition in the $J$-$J^\prime$ model is determined as \hbox{$\alpha_\mathrm{c}=2.5196(2)$} by finite-size scaling for up to approximately $10 000$ quantum spins. By comparing six dimerized models we show, contrary to the current belief, that the critical exponents of the $J$-$J^\prime$ model are not in agreement with the three-dimensional classical Heisenberg universality class. This lends support to the notion of nontrivial critical excitations at the quantum critical point.Comment: 4+ pages, 5 figures, version as publishe

Epistemologia w Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā i w filozofii Nagardżuny

Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way (madhyamaka) doctrine met with the objection that it is a mere verbal attack (vitaṇḍā) against other philosophical positions. As one of the Madhyamaka critics pointed out: because Nāgārjuna does not hold own position, he is not able to justify his criticism of the essence (svabhāva). The article is an answer to the question whether, in the context of Indian philosophy, it is possible to know things devoid of essences. Theory of knowledge of this kind, i.e. the concept of omniscience (sarvajña) was presented in Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā sutra. Associations between Nāgārjuna’s texts and the sutra suggest that omniscience could be a substrate for epistemological position of the Middle Way