Towards inhomogeneous loop quantum cosmology: triangulating Bianchi IX with perturbations

This brief article sums up results obtained in arXiv:0911.2653, which develops a constrained SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the "dipole" approximation. This is a further step toward the issue of a (inhomogeneous) loop quantum cosmology and its merging into loop quantum gravity.Comment: 4 pages. To appear in the proceedings of 12th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity (MG 12), Paris, France, 12-18 Jul 200

A brief overview of quantum field theory with deformed symmetries and their relation with quantum gravity

In this letter we outline some reasons for considering a quantum field theory symmetric under quantum groups and we sketch some results obtained with collaborators in the k-Poincare framework. We deal with this latter as a toy model towards an effective and low-energy theory of quantum gravity, the new physically relevant effects of which are Planck-scale suppressed.Comment: 4 pages. To appear in the proceedings of 12th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity (MG 12), Paris, France, 12-18 Jul 200

A Behavioral Characterization of Plausible Priors

One of the last great novels of José Saramago, Death with Interruptions, begins with an epigraph taken from Ludwig Wittgenstein: “If, for example, you were to think more deeply about death, then it would be truly strange if, in so doing, you did not encounter new images, new linguistic fields”. The aim of my paper is to ponder on what kind of a new language game the Portuguese writer is offering us in his book and how to interpret his investigations from the angle of another contemporary literary and philosophical thanatological discourses.One of the last great novels of José Saramago, Death with Interruptions, begins with an epigraph taken from Ludwig Wittgenstein: “If, for example, you were to think more deeply about death, then it would be truly strange if, in so doing, you did not encounter new images, new linguistic fields”. The aim of my paper is to ponder on what kind of a new language game the Portuguese writer is offering us in his book and how to interpret his investigations from the angle of another contemporary literary and philosophical thanatological discourses

Precision Electroweak Parameters and the Higgs Mass

The status of various precisely measured electroweak parameters is reviewed. Natural relations among them are shown to constrain the Higgs mass, m_H, via quantum loop effects to relatively low values. A comparison with direct Higgs searches is made.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of MuMu99-5th International Conference on Physics Potential and Development of Muon Colliders, San Francisco, CA, Dec. (1999). 12 pages, Late

Hayek’s theory of social evolution in the light of Darwin’s Descent of Man

This article proposes to reassess Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution in the light of Darwin’s Descent of Man. It is shown that Hayek and Darwin refers to the same theory of human nature which is borrowed from the founding fathers of political economy, Hume and Smith. Their respective conceptions of order, as well as the mechanisms and the product of evolution are then the consequence of this theory of human nature.Cultural evolution, Biological evolution, Darwin, Hayek