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Full-Text Articles in Physics
How To Reconcile Randomness With Physicists' Belief That Every Theory Is Approximate: Informal Knowledge Is Needed, Ricardo Alvarez, Nick Sims, Christian Servin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich
How To Reconcile Randomness With Physicists' Belief That Every Theory Is Approximate: Informal Knowledge Is Needed, Ricardo Alvarez, Nick Sims, Christian Servin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
In this paper, we show that physicists' intuition about randomness is not fully consistent with their belief that every theory is only approximate. We also prove that there is no formal way to reconcile these two intuitions, this reconciliation has to be informal. Thus, there are fundamental reasons why informal knowledge is needed for describing the real world.
If Space-Time Is Discrete, We May Be Able To Solve Np-Hard Problems In Polynomial Time, Ricardo Alvarez, Nick Sims, Christian Servin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich
If Space-Time Is Discrete, We May Be Able To Solve Np-Hard Problems In Polynomial Time, Ricardo Alvarez, Nick Sims, Christian Servin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
Traditional physics assumes that space and time are continuous. However, this reasonable model leads to some serious problems. One the approaches that physicists follow to solve these problems is to assume that the space-time is actually discrete. In this paper, we analyze possible computational consequences of this discreteness. It turns out that in a discrete space-time, we may be able to solve NP-hard problems in polynomial time.
Avoiding Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (Epr) Paradox: Towards A More Physically Adequate Description Of A Quantum State, Joseph Bernal, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Avoiding Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (Epr) Paradox: Towards A More Physically Adequate Description Of A Quantum State, Joseph Bernal, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
The famous EPR paradox shows that if we describe quantum particles in the usual way -- by their wave functions -- then we get the following seeming contradiction. If we entangle the states of the two particles, then move them far away from each other, and measure the state of the first particle, then the state of the second particle immediately changes -- which contradicts to special relativity, according to which such immediate-action-at-a-distance is not possible. It is known that, from the physical viewpoint, this is not a real paradox: if we measure any property of the second particle, the …
Neutron Lifetime Puzzle And Nuclear Stability: A Possible Relation, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Neutron Lifetime Puzzle And Nuclear Stability: A Possible Relation, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
It is known that a free neutron decays into a proton, an electron, and an anti-neutrino. Interesting, recent attempts to measure the neutron's lifetime has led to two slightly different estimates: namely, the number of decaying neutrons is somewhat larger than the number of newly created protons. This difference is known as the neutron lifetime puzzle. A natural explanation for this difference is that in some cases, a neutron decays not into a proton, but into some other particle. If this explanation is true, this implies that nuclei with a sufficiently large number of neutrons will be unstable. Based on …
Logarithms Are Not Infinity: A Rational Physics-Related Explanation Of The Mysterious Statement By Lev Landau, Francisco Zapata, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Logarithms Are Not Infinity: A Rational Physics-Related Explanation Of The Mysterious Statement By Lev Landau, Francisco Zapata, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
Nobel-prize winning physicist Lev Landau liked to emphasize that logarithms are not infinity -- meaning that from the physical viewpoint, logarithms of infinite values are not really infinite. Of course, from a literally mathematical viewpoint, this statement does not make sense: one can easily prove that logarithm of infinity is infinite. However, when a Nobel-prizing physicist makes a statement, you do not want to dismiss it, you want to interpret it. In this paper, we propose a possible physical explanation of this statement. Namely, in physics, nothing is really infinite: according to modern physics, even the Universe is finite in …
Physics's Need For Interval Uncertainty And How It Explains Why Physical Space Is (At Least) 3-Dimensional, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Physics's Need For Interval Uncertainty And How It Explains Why Physical Space Is (At Least) 3-Dimensional, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich
Departmental Technical Reports (CS)
One of the fundamental problems of modern physics is the problem of divergence: e.g., when we try to compute the overall energy of the electric field generated by a charged elementary particle, we get a physically meaningless infinite value. In this paper, we show that one way to avoid these infinities is to take into account that measurements are always imprecise -- and thus, we never get the exact values of the physical quantities, only intervals of possible values. We also show that 3-dimensional space is the simplest one in which such interval uncertainty is inevitable. This may explain why …