Individual Physical System Research Articles

Methods for Adaptive Resource Availability Management of Geoinformation Systems under Destructive Impacts

The complexity of ensuring the availability of geoinformation systems resources is due to the volatile structure of the system, the uncertainty of user tasks and destructive influences. This paper proposes methods that allow to halve the probability of information security risk associated with the disruption of resource availability. The effect is achieved by: 1) preserving the required probability of achieving the activity goal of the identification system, regardless of the strength of disruptive influences; 2) by aggregating the performance of individual physical system elements into virtual pools; and 3) by converting internal user task reserves into performance reserves. The performance of the methods was evaluated using a simulation model developed in MATLAB environment.

Two Faced Janus of Quantum Nonlocality.

This paper is a new step towards understanding why “quantum nonlocality” is a misleading concept. Metaphorically speaking, “quantum nonlocality” is Janus faced. One face is an apparent nonlocality of the Lüders projection and another face is Bell nonlocality (a wrong conclusion that the violation of Bell type inequalities implies the existence of mysterious instantaneous influences between distant physical systems). According to the Lüders projection postulate, a quantum measurement performed on one of the two distant entangled physical systems modifies their compound quantum state instantaneously. Therefore, if the quantum state is considered to be an attribute of the individual physical system and if one assumes that experimental outcomes are produced in a perfectly random way, one quickly arrives at the contradiction. It is a primary source of speculations about a spooky action at a distance. Bell nonlocality as defined above was explained and rejected by several authors; thus, we concentrate in this paper on the apparent nonlocality of the Lüders projection. As already pointed out by Einstein, the quantum paradoxes disappear if one adopts the purely statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). In the statistical interpretation of QM, if probabilities are considered to be objective properties of random experiments we show that the Lüders projection corresponds to the passage from joint probabilities describing all set of data to some marginal conditional probabilities describing some particular subsets of data. If one adopts a subjective interpretation of probabilities, such as QBism, then the Lüders projection corresponds to standard Bayesian updating of the probabilities. The latter represents degrees of beliefs of local agents about outcomes of individual measurements which are placed or which will be placed at distant locations. In both approaches, probability-transformation does not happen in the physical space, but only in the information space. Thus, all speculations about spooky interactions or spooky predictions at a distance are simply misleading. Coming back to Bell nonlocality, we recall that in a recent paper we demonstrated, using exclusively the quantum formalism, that CHSH inequalities may be violated for some quantum states only because of the incompatibility of quantum observables and Bohr’s complementarity. Finally, we explain that our criticism of quantum nonlocality is in the spirit of Hertz-Boltzmann methodology of scientific theories.

Method for modelling space conditioning aggregated daily load curves: Application to a university building

Abstract Physically based load modelling methodologies have been widely developed and used because of their ability to predict the energy load dynamic response. Most building energy programs predict energy consumption and energy system performance through a whole building energy simulation as well as a global analysis of building thermal processes and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system performance. A different approach is presented in this paper by introducing a new method for modelling the daily load profile of a group of air-conditioning systems. This method is based on the simulation of a single HVAC system, a set of end-use electrical measurements, and a detailed walk-through and energy audit. The basic methodology allows deducing the aggregated load of a group of space conditioning devices by the addition of the daily simulation of each individual physical system. As an application, the space conditioning daily demand curve of a university building is studied and results are presented.

Entanglement and Bell Inequalities

The entangled quantum states play a key role in quantum information. The association of the quantum state vector with each individual physical system in an attributive way is a source of many paradoxes and inconsistencies. The paradoxes are avoided if the purely statistical interpretation of the quantum-state vector is adopted. According to the statistical interpretation, the quantum theory does not provide any deterministic prediction for any individual experimental result obtained for a free physical system, for a trapped ion, or for a quantum dot. In this article, it is shown that, if the statistical interpretation is used, then contrary to the general belief, the quantum theory does not predict for the ideal spin singlet state perfect anti-correlation of the coincidence counts for the distant detectors. Subsequently the various proofs of the Bell's theorem are reanalyzed and, in particular, the importance and implications of using the unique probability space in these proofs are elucidated. The use of the unique probability space is shown to be equivalent to the use of joint probability distributions for noncommuting observables. The experimental violation of the Bell's inequalities proves that the naive realistic particle, like the spatio-temporal description of various quantum mechanical experiments, is impossible. Of course, it does not give any argument for the action at a distance and it does not provide the proof of the completeness of quantum mechanics. The fact that the quantum-state vector is not an attribute of a single quantum system and that the quantum observables are contextual has to be taken properly into account in any implementation of the quantum computing device.

Bohmian Mechanics Revisited

We consider the problem of whether there are deterministic theories describing the evolution of an individual physical system in terms of the definite trajectories of its constituent particles and which stay in the same relation to Quantum Mechanics as Bohmian Mechanics but which differ from the latter for what concerns the trajectories followed by the particles. Obviously, one has to impose on the hypothetical alternative theory precise physical requirements. We analyse various such constraints and we show step by step how to meet them. This way of attacking the problem allows to recall and focus on some relevant features of Bohm's theory. One of the central requirements we impose on the models we are going to analyse has to do with their transformation properties under the transformations of the extended Galilei group. In a context like the one we are interested in one can put forward various requests that we refer to as physical and genuine covariance and invariance. Other fundamental requests are that the theory allows the description of isolated physical systems as well as that it leads to a solution (in the same sense as Bohmian Mechanics) of the measurement problem. We show that there are infinitely many inequivalent (from the point of view of the trajectories) bohmian-like theories reproducing the predictions of Quantum Mechanics.

Properties and events in a relativistic context: Revisiting the dynamical reduction program

We reconsider the problem of attributing objective properties to an individual physical system within a quantum framework with the aim of investigating which features should characterize a relativistic model leading to the objectification of the properties at an appropriate level. A detailed analysis of the nonrelativistic case is presented and particular attention is paid to the appropriate definition of an event and to possible criteria for property attribution to individual physical systems. The same problems are then analyzed from a relativistic point of view. After having recalled some important recent contributions the whole matter is reconsidered and the basic features that any theory leading to objectification has to exhibit in order not to conflict with relativistic requirements are identified. A toy model meeting all necessary requirements is presented and all its relevant features are discussed. This analysis serves the purpose of allowing a better understanding of the basic features of the recently introduced relativistic dynamical reduction models and offers the opportunity to clarify some misunderstanding about them.

The Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

The Statistical Interpretation of quantum theory is formulated for the purpose of providing a sound interpretation using a minimum of assumptions. Several arguments are advanced in favor of considering the quantum state description to apply only to an ensemble of similarily prepared systems, rather than supposing, as is often done, that it exhaustively represents an individual physical system. Most of the problems associated with the quantum theory of measurement are artifacts of the attempt to maintain the latter interpretation. The introduction of hidden variables to determine the outcome of individual events is fully compatible with the statistical predictions of quantum theory. However, a theorem due to Bell seems to require that any such hidden-variable theory which reproduces all of quantum mechanics exactly (i.e., not merely in some limiting case) must possess a rather pathological character with respect to correlated, but spacially separated, systems.

Physics and reality

Physics constitutes a logical system of thought which is in a state of evolution, and whose basis cannot be obtained through distillation by any inductive method from the experiences lived through, but which can only be attained by free invention. The justification (truth content) of the system rests in the proof of usefulness of the resulting theorems on the basis of sense experiences, where the relations of the latter to the former can only be comprehended intuitively. Evolution is going on in the direction of increasing simplicity of the logical basis. In order further to approach this goal, we must make up our mind to accept the fact that the logical basis departs more and more from the facts of experience, and that the path of our thought from the fundamental basis to these resulting theorems, which correlate with sense experiences, becomes continually harder and longer. Our aim has been to sketch, as briefly as possible, the development of the fundamental concepts in their dependence upon the facts of experience and upon the strife towards the goal of internal perfection of the system. Today's state of affairs had to be illuminated by these considerations, as they appear to me. (It is unavoidable that historic schematic representation is of a personal color.) I try to demonstrate how the concepts of bodily objects, space, subjective and objective time, are connected with one another and with the nature of the experience. In classical mechanics the concepts of space and time become independent. The concept of the bodily object is replaced in the foundations by the concept of the material point, by which means mechanics becomes fundamentally atomistic. Light and electricity produce insurmountable difficulties when one attempts to make mechanics the basis of all physics. We are thus led to the field theory of electricity, and, later on to the attempt to base physics entirely upon the concept of the field (after an attempted compromise with classical mechanics). This attempt leads to the theory of relativity (evolution of the notion of space and time into that of the continuum with metric structure). I try to demonstrate, furthermore, why in my opinion the quantum theory does not seem likely to be able to produce a usable foundation for physics: one becomes involved in contradictions if one tries to consider the theoretical quantum description as a complete description of the individual physical system or happening. On the other hand, up to the present time, the field theory is unable to give an explanation of the molecular structure of matter and of quantum phenomena. It is shown, however, that the conviction to the effect that the field theory is unable to give, by its methods, a solution of these problems rests upon prejudice.