Synchronization of extended systems from internal coherence

A condition for the synchronizability of a pair of PDE systems, coupled through a finite set of variables, is commonly the existence of internal synchronization or internal coherence in each system separately. The condition was previously illustrated in a forced-dissipative system, and is here extended to Hamiltonian systems, using an example from particle physics. Full synchronization is precluded by Liouville's theorem. A form of synchronization weaker than "measure synchronization" is manifest as the positional coincidence of coherent oscillations ("breathers" or "oscillons") in a pair of coupled scalar field models in an expanding universe with a nonlinear potential, and does not occur with a variant of the model that does not exhibit oscillons.Comment: version accepted for publication in PRE (paragraph beginning at the bottom of pg. 5 has been rewritten to suggest unifying principle for synchronizability, applying to both forced-dissipative and Hamiltonian systems; other minor changes

Synchronicity From Synchronized Chaos

The synchronization of loosely coupled chaotic oscillators, a phenomenon investigated intensively for the last two decades, may realize the philosophical notion of synchronicity. Effectively unpredictable chaotic systems, coupled through only a few variables, commonly exhibit a predictable relationship that can be highly intermittent. We argue that the phenomenon closely resembles the notion of meaningful synchronicity put forward by Jung and Pauli if one identifies "meaningfulness" with internal synchronization, since the latter seems necessary for synchronizability with an external system. Jungian synchronization of mind and matter is realized if mind is analogized to a computer model, synchronizing with a sporadically observed system as in meteorological data assimilation. Internal synchronization provides a recipe for combining different models of the same objective process, a configuration that may also describe the functioning of conscious brains. In contrast to Pauli's view, recent developments suggest a materialist picture of semi-autonomous mind, existing alongside the observed world, with both exhibiting a synchronistic order. Basic physical synchronicity is manifest in the non-local quantum connections implied by Bell's theorem. The quantum world resides on a generalized synchronization "manifold", a view that provides a bridge between nonlocal realist interpretations and local realist interpretations that constrain observer choice .Comment: 1) clarification regarding the connection with philosophical synchronicity in Section 2 and in the concluding section 2) reference to Maldacena-Susskind "ER=EPR" relation in discussion of role of wormholes in entanglement and nonlocality 3) length reduction and stylistic changes throughou

Meteoritics and cosmology among the Aboriginal cultures of Central Australia

The night sky played an important role in the social structure, oral traditions, and cosmology of the Arrernte and Luritja Aboriginal cultures of Central Australia. A component of this cosmology relates to meteors, meteorites, and impact craters. This paper discusses the role of meteoritic phenomena in Arrernte and Luritja cosmology, showing not only that these groups incorporated this phenomenon in their cultural traditions, but that their oral traditions regarding the relationship between meteors, meteorites and impact structures suggests the Arrernte and Luritja understood that they are directly related.Comment: Journal of Cosmology, Volume 13, pp. 3743-3753 (2011

A Century of Brickmaking at Berlin Junction: A History of the Alwine Brick Company

The Alwine family name had been associated with brickmaking in York and Adams Counties at least since the early 1850s, when Peter Samuel Alwine started his first brickyard on a farm in Paradise Township of York County.1 He learned the trade of brickmaking during his youth and by the age of seventeen had become a skilled artisan. He learned how to make bricks by working in the spring and summer months at a brickmaking operation in Peach Bottom Township, located in the southeastern corner of York County. He did not set up his own brickyard until later, and following his marriage to Catharine Dahlhammer in 1860, he moved his brickmaking facilities to the farm where they settled in Paradise Township, near the Borough of Berwick (now Abbottstown) in Adams County. During that time, Mr. Alwine also engaged for varying periods as a schoolteacher, country merchant, and farmer. Later, he established a brickyard at Spring Grove in York County, and eventually another at Berlin Junction, near New Oxford in Adams County. Over the years, he attained a reputation as a man of considerable learning and sound business judgment. After his death, in 1895, his sons William and Lewis Alwine continued the business under the name Alwine Brothers Brickyard, and later William’s son Charles Emory Alwine would become president of the firm. Following Charles Alwine’s retirement, and three generations of Alwine leadership, ownership of the company was transferred in 1978 to the Glen-Gery Corporation of Reading. This article chronicles the history of the Alwine Brick Company from its beginnings to its final years, including more than a century at Berlin Junction, Adams County, Pennsylvania. [excerpt