Geochemistry of the Municipal Water System and of the Sandusky River at Bucyrus, Ohio

The Sandusky River and municipal water at Bucyrus, Ohio were sampled on 15 December 1999. The results of the analysis show that the water has been altered by both anthropogenic and natural geochemical processes. The evolution of municipal water shows increases in concentrations of Mg, Ba, Ca, K, and Na which are caused by anthropogenic processes. Elements Na, Mg, Ca, and Sr demonstrate mixing of the river water with municipal effluent. Elements Al, Fe, Ba, and K demonstrate enrichment in the river water downstream of the effluent discharge point. The enrichment of Al and Fe may be caused by groundwater whose chemical composition is directly related to the presence of a geologic contact between shale and limestone. Barium has an unknown source, but may also originate from the groundwater component. Potassium has an anomalously low concentration in the effluent compared to the river upstream of the discharge point of the effluent. Farther downstream, the K concentration of the river rises because of the apparent introduction of water from a third source of K, which may result from drainage from local farmland.No embarg

Physical aspects of oracles for randomness, and Hadamard's conjecture

We analyze the physical aspects and origins of currently proposed oracles for (absolute) randomness.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1405.140

Time travel paradoxes, path integrals, and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics

We consider two approaches to evading paradoxes in quantum mechanics with closed timelike curves (CTCs). In a model similar to Politzer's, assuming pure states and using path integrals, we show that the problems of paradoxes and of unitarity violation are related; preserving unitarity avoids paradoxes by modifying the time evolution so that improbable events bewcome certain. Deutsch has argued, using the density matrix, that paradoxes do not occur in the "many worlds interpretation". We find that in this approach account must be taken of the resolution time of the device that detects objects emerging from a wormhole or other time machine. When this is done one finds that this approach is viable only if macroscopic objects traversing a wormhole interact with it so strongly that they are broken into microscopic fragments.Comment: no figure

Quantum Correlations in Two-Boson Wavefunctions

We present the Schmidt decomposition for arbitrary wavefunctions of two indistinguishable bosons, extending the recent studies of entanglement or quantum correlations for two fermion systems [J. Schliemann et al., Phys. Rev. B {\bf 63}, 085311 (2001) and quant-ph/0012094]. We point out that the von Neumann entropy of the reduced single particle density matrix remains to be a good entanglement measure for two identical particles.Comment: in press at Phys. Rev.

Reality in quantum mechanics, Extended Everett Concept, and consciousness

Conceptual problems in quantum mechanics result from the specific quantum concept of reality and require, for their solution, including the observer's consciousness into quantum theory of measurements. Most naturally this is achieved in the framework of Everett's "many-worlds interpretation" of quantum mechanics. According to this interpretation, various classical alternatives are perceived by consciousness separately from each other. In the Extended Everett Concept (EEC) proposed by the present author, the separation of the alternatives is identified with the phenomenon of consciousness. This explains classical character of the alternatives and unusual manifestations of consciousness arising "at the edge of consciousness" (i.e. in sleep or trance) when its access to "other alternative classical realities" (other Everett's worlds) becomes feasible. Because of reversibility of quantum evolution in EEC, all time moments in the quantum world are equivalent while the impression of flow of time appears only in consciousness. If it is assumed that consciousness may influence onto probabilities of alternatives (which is consistent in case of infinitely many Everett's worlds), EEC explains free will, "probabilistic miracles" (observing low-probability events) and decreasing entropy in the sphere of life.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures in EP

Apparent wave function collapse caused by scattering

Some experimental implications of the recent progress on wave function collapse are calculated. Exact results are derived for the center-of-mass wave function collapse caused by random scatterings and applied to a range of specific examples. The results show that recently proposed experiments to measure the GRW effect are likely to fail, since the effect of naturally occurring scatterings is of the same form as the GRW effect but generally much stronger. The same goes for attempts to measure the collapse caused by quantum gravity as suggested by Hawking and others. The results also indicate that macroscopic systems tend to be found in states with (Delta-x)(Delta-p) = hbar/sqrt(2), but microscopic systems in highly tiltedly squeezed states with (Delta-x)(Delta-p) >> hbar.Comment: Final published version. 20 pages, Plain TeX, no figures. Online at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~max/collapse.html (faster from the US), from http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~max/collapse.html (faster from Europe) or from [email protected]

Glimmers of a pre-geometric perspective

Space-time measurements and gravitational experiments are made by using objects, matter fields or particles and their mutual relationships. As a consequence, any operationally meaningful assertion about space-time is in fact an assertion about the degrees of freedom of the matter (\emph{i.e} non gravitational) fields; those, say for definiteness, of the Standard Model of particle physics. As for any quantum theory, the dynamics of the matter fields can be described in terms of a unitary evolution of a state vector in a Hilbert space. By writing the Hilbert space as a generic tensor product of "subsystems" we analyse the evolution of a state vector on an information theoretical basis and attempt to recover the usual space-time relations from the information exchanges between these subsystems. We consider generic interacting second quantized models with a finite number of fermionic degrees of freedom and characterize on physical grounds the tensor product structure associated with the class of "localized systems" and therefore with "position". We find that in the case of free theories no space-time relation is operationally definable. On the contrary, by applying the same procedure to the simple interacting model of a one-dimensional Heisenberg spin chain we recover the tensor product structure usually associated with "position". Finally, we discuss the possible role of gravity in this framework.Comment: 30 page

Does the universe in fact contain almost no information?

At first sight, an accurate description of the state of the universe appears to require a mind-bogglingly large and perhaps even infinite amount of information, even if we restrict our attention to a small subsystem such as a rabbit. In this paper, it is suggested that most of this information is merely apparent, as seen from our subjective viewpoints, and that the algorithmic information content of the universe as a whole is close to zero. It is argued that if the Schr\"odinger equation is universally valid, then decoherence together with the standard chaotic behavior of certain non-linear systems will make the universe appear extremely complex to any self-aware subsets that happen to inhabit it now, even if it was in a quite simple state shortly after the big bang. For instance, gravitational instability would amplify the microscopic primordial density fluctuations that are required by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle into quite macroscopic inhomogeneities, forcing the current wavefunction of the universe to contain such Byzantine superpositions as our planet being in many macroscopically different places at once. Since decoherence bars us from experiencing more than one macroscopic reality, we would see seemingly complex constellations of stars etc, even if the initial wavefunction of the universe was perfectly homogeneous and isotropic.Comment: 17 pages, LATeX, no figures. Online with refs at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~max/nihilo.html (faster from the US), from http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~max/nihilo.html (faster from Europe) or from [email protected]

Founding quantum theory on the basis of consciousness

In the present work, quantum theory is founded on the framework of consciousness, in contrast to earlier suggestions that consciousness might be understood starting from quantum theory. The notion of streams of consciousness, usually restricted to conscious beings, is extended to the notion of a Universal/Global stream of conscious flow of ordered events. The streams of conscious events which we experience constitute sub-streams of the Universal stream. Our postulated ontological character of consciousness also consists of an operator which acts on a state of potential consciousness to create or modify the likelihoods for later events to occur and become part of the Universal conscious flow. A generalized process of measurement-perception is introduced, where the operation of consciousness brings into existence, from a state of potentiality, the event in consciousness. This is mathematically represented by (a) an operator acting on the state of potential-consciousness before an actual event arises in consciousness and (b) the reflecting of the result of this operation back onto the state of potential-consciousness for comparison in order for the event to arise in consciousness. Beginning from our postulated ontology that consciousness is primary and from the most elementary conscious contents, such as perception of periodic change and motion, quantum theory follows naturally as the description of the conscious experience.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures. To be published in Foundations of Physics, Vol 36 (6) (June 2006), published online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10701-006-9049-

Paradoxes of the Aharonov-Bohm and the Aharonov-Casher effects

For a believer in locality of Nature, the Aharonov-Bohm effect and the Aharonov-Casher effect are paradoxes. I discuss these and other Aharonov's paradoxes and propose a local explanation of these effects. If the solenoid in the Aharonov-Bohm effect is treated quantum mechanically, the effect can be explained via local interaction between the field of the electron and the solenoid. I argue that the core of the Aharonov-Bohm and the Aharonov-Casher effects is that of quantum entanglement: the quantum wave function describes all systems together.Comment: To be published in Yakir Aharonov 80th birthday Festschrif