Common Mathematical Formalism Research Articles

Conservation laws and energy transformations in a class of common physics problems

We analyze a category of problems that is of interest in many physical situations, including those encountered in introductory physics classes: systems with two well-delineated parts that exchange energy, eventually reaching a shared equilibrium with a loss of mechanical or electrical energy. Such systems can be constrained by a constant of the system (e.g., mass, charge, momentum, or angular momentum) that uniquely determines the mechanical or electrical energy of the equilibrium state, regardless of the dissipation mechanism. A representative example would be a perfectly inelastic collision between two objects in one dimension, for which momentum conservation requires that some of the initial kinetic energy is dissipated by conversion to thermal or other forms as the two objects reach a common final velocity. We discuss how this feature manifests in a suite of four well-known and disparate problems that all share a common mathematical formalism. These examples, in which the energy dissipated during the process can be difficult to solve directly from dissipation rates, can be approached by students in a first-year physics class by considering conservation laws and can therefore be useful for teaching about energy transformations and conserved quantities. We then illustrate how to extend this method by applying it to a final example.

DiffuStats: an R package to compute diffusion-based scores on biological networks.

Label propagation and diffusion over biological networks are a common mathematical formalism in computational biology for giving context to molecular entities and prioritizing novel candidates in the area of study. There are several choices in conceiving the diffusion process-involving the graph kernel, the score definitions and the presence of a posterior statistical normalization-which have an impact on the results. This manuscript describes diffuStats, an R package that provides a collection of graph kernels and diffusion scores, as well as a parallel permutation analysis for the normalized scores, that eases the computation of the scores and their benchmarking for an optimal choice. The R package diffuStats is publicly available in Bioconductor, https://bioconductor.org, under the GPL-3 license. sergi.picart@upc.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Coupled oscillators, entangled oscillators, and Lorentz-covariant harmonic oscillators

Other than scattering problems where perturbation theory is applicable, there are basically two ways to solve problems in physics. One is to reduce the problem to harmonic oscillators, and the other is to formulate the problem in terms of two-by-two matrices. If two oscillators are coupled, the problem combines both two-by-two matrices and harmonic oscillators. This method then becomes a powerful research tool to cover many different branches of physics. Indeed, the concept and methodology in one branch of physics can be translated into another through the common mathematical formalism. Coupled oscillators provide clear illustrative examples for some of the current issues in physics, including entanglement and Feynman's rest of the universe. In addition, it is noted that the present form of quantum mechanics is largely a physics of harmonic oscillators. Special relativity is the physics of the Lorentz group which can be represented by the group of two-by-two matrices commonly called $SL(2,c)$. Thus the coupled harmonic oscillators can play the role of combining quantum mechanics with special relativity. It is therefore possible to relate the current issues of physics to the Lorentz-covariant formulation of quantum mechanics.

An elementary information macrodynamic model of a market economic system

Information represents a common and universal substance, actively participating in a diversity of physical or virtual interactions, including various forms of economic interaction. The information regularities of economical dynamics and the mathematical evaluation of the economical system’s processes are studied by building the information systemic models, based on Informational Macrodynamics. Study focuses on an elementary production–organization, the production’s interaction and management, and different market dynamics, with modeling an organization by the hierarchical structure of information, cooperative, dynamic space-distributed network. The system’s cooperative dynamics coordinate and mutually connect the micro- and macroeconomical processes, which include both the dynamics within each basic economic element and the cooperative integration between the system’s elements. The models use a common mathematical formalism and the information as a universal equivalent of money and a common models’ language. The found formalized information mechanisms govern market’s cooperative dynamics and the information restrictions on these processes. The considered systemic mechanisms of self-control, adaptation, and evolution, represent a general attribute of an economical system.

A Random Variable Approach to Nuclear Targeting and Survivability

We demonstrate a common mathematical formalism for analyzing problems in nuclear survivability and targeting. This formalism, beginning with a random variable approach, can be used to interpret past efforts in nuclear-effects analysis, including targeting analysis. It can also be used to analyze new problems brought about by the post Cold War Era, such as the potential effects of yield degradation in a permanently untested nuclear stockpile. In particular, we illustrate the formalism through four natural case studies or illustrative problems, linking these to actual past data, modeling, and simulation, and suggesting future uses. In the first problem, we illustrate the case of a deterministically modeled weapon used against a deterministically responding target. Classic Cookie Cutter damage functions result. In the second problem, we illustrate, with actual target test data, the case of a deterministically modeled weapon used against a statistically responding target. This case matches many of the results of current nuclear targeting modeling and simulation tools, including the result of distance damage functions as complementary cumulative lognormal functions in the range variable. In the third problem, we illustrate the case of a statistically behaving weapon used against a deterministically responding target. In particular, we show the dependence of targetmore » damage on weapon yield for an untested nuclear stockpile experiencing yield degradation. Finally, and using actual unclassified weapon test data, we illustrate in the fourth problem the case of a statistically behaving weapon used against a statistically responding target.« less

The Light at the End of the Tunneling: Observation and Underdetermination

If observation is ‘theory-laden’, how can there be ‘observationally equivalent theories’? How can the observations ‘laden’ by one theory be ‘the same as’ those ‘laden’ by another? The answer might lie in the expressibility of observationally equivalent theories in a common mathematical formalism.

The Dirac equation and Hestenes’ geometric algebra

Hestenes’ geometric algebra and Dirac spinors are reviewed and united into a common mathematical formalism, a unification that establishes the Dirac equation as being manifestly covariant under the Lorentz group, and one that needs no matrix representation of the Dirac algebra. New and simple methods of amplitude or ‘‘trace’’ calculations are then described. A number of problems are then considered within the context of the new approach, such as relativistic spin projections, new and covariant C and T-transformations and spinors for massless and Majorana fields.

Quantum Physics: A Functional Integral Point of View

This book is addressed to one problem and to three audiences. The problem is the mathematical structure of modem physics: statistical physics, quantum mechanics, and quantum fields. The unity of mathemati cal structure for problems of diverse origin in physics should be no surprise. For classical physics it is provided, for example, by a common mathematical formalism based on the wave equation and Laplace's equation. The unity transcends mathematical structure and encompasses basic phenomena as well. Thus particle physicists, nuclear physicists, and con densed matter physicists have considered similar scientific problems from complementary points of view. The mathematical structure presented here can be described in various terms: partial differential equations in an infinite number of independent variables, linear operators on infinite dimensional spaces, or probability theory and analysis over function spaces. This mathematical structure of quantization is a generalization of the theory of partial differential equa tions, very much as the latter generalizes the theory of ordinary differential equations. Our central theme is the quantization of a nonlinear partial differential equation and the physics of systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. Mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and specialists in mathematical physics are the three audiences to which the book is addressed. Each of the three parts is written with a different scientific perspective.