Operational Interpretation Research Articles

The Impact of Elevation Sidelobe Contamination on Radar Data Quality for Operational Interpretation

AbstractTo fulfill the evolving observational needs of the National Weather Service (NWS), future weather radar systems will have to meet demanding requirements. Designing such systems will likely involve trade-offs between system cost and operational performance. A potential cost driver for future weather radars that could cause significant data-quality impacts on forecasters is the required angular resolution and sidelobe performance, which are mainly dictated by the antenna radiation pattern. Typical antenna radiation patterns can be characterized by the width of the main lobe and their sidelobe levels, which are traditionally measured across the azimuthal and elevation dimensions. In this work, we study the impact of increasing sidelobe levels on NWS forecasters’ data interpretation during warning operations. The resulting impact model can be used by decision-makers to better understand the cost–benefit trade-offs inherent in any radar system design.

Quantum Channel Simulation and the Channel’s Smooth Max-Information

We study the general framework of quantum channel simulation, that is, the ability of a quantum channel to simulate another one using different classes of codes. First, we show that the minimum error of simulation and the one-shot quantum simulation cost under no-signalling assisted codes are given by semidefinite programs. Second, we introduce the channel's smooth max-information, which can be seen as a one-shot generalization of the mutual information of a quantum channel. We provide an exact operational interpretation of the channel's smooth max-information as the one-shot quantum simulation cost under no-signalling assisted codes, which significantly simplifies the study of channel simulation and provides insights and bounds for the case under entanglement-assisted codes. Third, we derive the asymptotic equipartition property of the channel's smooth max-information; i.e., it converges to the quantum mutual information of the channel in the independent and identically distributed asymptotic limit. This implies the quantum reverse Shannon theorem in the presence of no-signalling correlations. Finally, we explore the simulation cost of various quantum channels.

Operational characterization of incompatibility of quantum channels with quantum state discrimination

A collection of quantum channels is called incompatible if they cannot be obtained as marginals from a single channel. No-cloning theorem is the most prominent instance of incompatibility of quantum channels. We show that every collection of incompatible channels can be more useful than compatible ones as preprocessings in a state discrimination task with multiple ensembles of states. This is done by showing that the robustness of channel incompatibility which is a measure for incompatibility of channels exactly quantifies the maximum advantage in the state discrimination. We also show that incompatibility of quantum measurement and channel has a similar operational interpretation. Finally, we demonstrate that our result with respect to channel incompatibility includes all other kinds of incompatibility as special cases.

Resource Preservability

Resource theory is a general, model-independent approach aiming to understand the qualitative notion of resource quantitatively. In a given resource theory, free operations are physical processes that do not create the resource and are considered zero-cost. This brings the following natural question: For a given free operation, what is its ability to preserve a resource? We axiomatically formulate this ability as the resource preservability, which is constructed as a channel resource theory induced by a state resource theory. We provide two general classes of resource preservability monotones: One is based on state resource monotones, and another is based on channel distance measures. Specifically, the latter gives the robustness monotone, which has been recently found to have an operational interpretation. As examples, we show that athermality preservability of a Gibbs-preserving channel can be related to the smallest bath size needed to thermalize all its outputs, and it also bounds the capacity of a classical communication scenario under certain thermodynamic constraints. We further apply our theory to the study of entanglement preserving local thermalization (EPLT) and provide a new family of EPLT which admits arbitrarily small nonzero entanglement preservability and free entanglement preservation at the same time. Our results give the first systematic and general formulation of the resource preservation character of free operations.

Negativity of Quasiprobability Distributions as a Measure of Nonclassicality.

We demonstrate that the negative volume of any s-parametrized quasiprobability, including the Glauber-Sudashan P function, can be consistently defined and forms a continuous hierarchy of nonclassicality measures that are linear optical monotones. These measures belong to an operational resource theory of nonclassicality based on linear optical operations. The negativity of the Glauber-Sudashan P function, in particular, can be shown to have an operational interpretation as the robustness of nonclassicality. We then introduce an approximate linear optical monotone, and we show that this nonclassicality quantifier is computable and is able to identify the nonclassicality of nearly all nonclassical states.

Fuzzy request handler for Mongo QL derived from SQL

Relational DBMS are often used to store fuzzy values, but problems arise with putting such data in a tabular form. Moreover, there appears a problem of storing both the crisp and fuzzy data related to one subject domain in one column of a relational table. This article considers the mechanism of storing crisp and fuzzy values and linguistic variables in the document-oriented Mongo DBMS. The data are stored in the collection as GeoJSON geometry; different geometries are used for different data options. The possibility of storing crisp scalar values, crisp value sets, crisp value intervals and fuzzy values in the collection documents is described. For data processing by means of SQL queries, the context-free grammar of the SQL subset is described, according to which lexer and parser are generated. In order to form the structure of an abstract syntactic tree, a corresponding object model has been implemented. A translator application has been developed, which allows converting SQL queries related to the crisp and fuzzy data into Mongo QL queries. The algorithm of fuzzy queries translation process is suggested; the geometrical interpretation of data comparison operations is described. The examples show the options of fuzzy comparison operations for different value options.

Type synthesis of 90°/180° dual-function upenders for large shell units of nuclear reactor

In this paper, unit vectors collinear with the axes of large shell units of nuclear reactors were used to represent the poses of the workpieces. Based on the motion operator interpretation of the rotation matrix, 60 kinds of rotation matrix permutations with 90° turns as the step length to achieve 180° flipping of the workpiece were obtained. After eliminating invalid permutations and merging homogenous permutations, class I, II, and III flipping motion models were obtained. By calculating the Lie algebra of each step of rigid body motion in the flipping motion model, the twist and the motion pair property for each step were obtained. By means of the permutation and combination theory, the sequence of the motion pairs for different configurations was determined, and the rules between sequential transformations and axis changes of the motion pairs under the initial configuration were stipulated. Three classes of 19 initial configurations of 90°/180° dual-function upenders were constructed. For three of them, taking into account the characteristics of the axial dimension variation of workpieces, prismatic pairs were added along the workpiece’s axis (vector), and 15 overall configurations of 90°/180° dual-function upenders were synthesized. This provides the basic theoretical support for the innovative design of upenders with independent intellectual property rights.

Quantifying quantum non-Markovianity via one-shot generalised mutual information

We propose an alternative non-Markovianity measure of open quantum systems, which is based on max-information. The max-information is a one-shot generalization of the mutual information derived from the max-relative entropy. This operational interpretation provides a new site for viewing the non-Markovian process. As applications, some typical noisy channels have been investigated: for phase damping and amplitude damping channels, non-Markovianity measure based on max-information is equivalent to the three previous non-Markovianity measures, i.e. the measures based on the distinguishability, entanglement of environment and the mutual information. For the random unitary channel, the proposed measurement in the witness of Markovianity is equivalent to the measures based on quantum trace distance and thus overlaps partly with the measurement based on the mutual information. It shows that max-information may be a better candidate for correlation-based measurement of non-Markovian than the mutual information.

Quantitative Landscape Assessment Using LiDAR and Rendered 360° Panoramic Images

The study presents a new method for quantitative landscape assessment. The method uses LiDAR data and combines the potential of GIS (ArcGIS) and 3D graphics software (Blender). The developed method allows one to create Classified Digital Surface Models (CDSM), which are then used to create 360° panoramic images from the point of view of the observer. In order to quantify the landscape, 360° panoramic images were transformed to the Interrupted Sinusoidal Projection using G.Projector software. A quantitative landscape assessment is carried out automatically with the following landscape classes: ground, low, medium, and high vegetation, buildings, water, and sky according to the LiDAR 1.2 standard. The results of the analysis are presented quantitatively—the percentage distribution of landscape classes in the 360° field of view. In order to fully describe the landscape around the observer, graphs of little planets have been proposed to interpret the obtained results. The usefulness of the developed methodology, together with examples of its application and the way of presenting the results, is described. The proposed Quantitative Landscape Assessment method (QLA360) allows quantitative landscape assessment to be performed in the 360° field of view without the need to carry out field surveys. The QLA360 uses LiDAR American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) classification standards, which allows one to avoid differences resulting from the use of different algorithms for classifying images in semantic segmentation. The most important advantages of the method are as follows: observer-independent, 360° field of view which simulates human perspective, automatic operation, scalability, and easy presentation and interpretation of results.

An Operational Approach to Information Leakage

Given two random variables X and Y, an operational approach is undertaken to quantify the “leakage” of information from X to Y. The resulting measure L (X→Y ) is called maximal leakage, and is defined as the multiplicative increase, upon observing Y , of the probability of correctly guessing a randomized function of X, maximized over all such randomized functions. A closed-form expression for L (X→Y) is given for discrete X and Y, and it is subsequently generalized to handle a large class of random variables. The resulting properties are shown to be consistent with an axiomatic view of a leakage measure, and the definition is shown to be robust to variations in the setup. Moreover, a variant of the Shannon cipher system is studied, in which performance of an encryption scheme is measured using maximal leakage. A single-letter characterization of the optimal limit of (normalized) maximal leakage is derived and asymptotically-optimal encryption schemes are demonstrated. Furthermore, the sample complexity of estimating maximal leakage from data is characterized up to subpolynomial factors. Finally, the guessing framework used to define maximal leakage is used to give operational interpretations of commonly used leakage measures, such as Shannon capacity, maximal correlation, and local differential privacy.

РИСК-ОРИЕНТИРОВАННЫЙ ПОДХОД К ОЦЕНКЕ НАДЕЖНОСТИ КАНАЛИЗАЦИОННОЙ СЕТИ ГОРОДА

Introduction. The authors pay attention to the fact that there exist such technical objects, the reliability evaluation of which — if performed with the use of measures of the “classical” reliability theory (in particular, reliability function and/ or mean operating time to failure) — is ambiguous and poorly interpreted physically. A city sewer network can serve as an example of such an object. The authors consider a situation when the result of the formal sewer network reliability analysis comes into conflict with the physical interpretation of object operation. This generates a need for searching for a more informative reliability indicator peculiar to a city sewer network. Methods. The research is based on the sewer network decomposition-equivalenting method (DEM) developed previously. This method, in turn, is based on the probability theory, reliability theory and mathematical statistics. A database containing the information about all network elements’ failures and restorations over a preceding period, is used as reference material. Results. Operational risk is taken as the reliability measure of a city sewer network. It is defined as the relative volume of sewage, not delivered to treatment facilities of the network due to failures of its elements, in a certain time. A procedure for the quantitative calculation of this measure is developed. Its comprehensiveness and informative richness are demonstrated. The article shapes possible ways of using the “operational risk” indicator when developing a city sewer network renovation strategy. Conclusion. Operational risk as the reliability measure can be used in practice to improve the performance of a city sewer network.

Resource theory of asymmetric distinguishability for quantum channels

This paper develops the resource theory of asymmetric distinguishability for quantum channels, generalizing the related resource theory for states [arXiv:1010.1030; arXiv:1905.11629]. The key constituents of the channel resource theory are quantum channel boxes, consisting of a pair of quantum channels, which can be manipulated for free by means of an arbitrary quantum superchannel (the most general physical transformation of a quantum channel). One main question of the resource theory is the approximate channel box transformation problem, in which the goal is to transform an initial channel box (or boxes) to a final channel box (or boxes), while allowing for an asymmetric error in the transformation. The channel resource theory is richer than its counterpart for states because there is a wider variety of ways in which this question can be framed, either in the one-shot or $n$-shot regimes, with the latter having parallel and sequential variants. As in our prior work [arXiv:1905.11629], we consider two special cases of the general channel box transformation problem, known as distinguishability distillation and dilution. For the one-shot case, we find that the optimal values of the various tasks are equal to the non-smooth or smooth channel min- or max-relative entropies, thus endowing all of these quantities with operational interpretations. In the asymptotic sequential setting, we prove that the exact distinguishability cost is equal to the channel max-relative entropy and the distillable distinguishability is equal to the amortized channel relative entropy of [arXiv:1808.01498]. This latter result can also be understood as a solution to Stein's lemma for quantum channels in the sequential setting. Finally, the theory simplifies significantly for environment-seizable and classical--quantum channel boxes.

Optical experiment to test negative probability in context of quantum-measurement selection

Negative probability values have been widely employed as an indicator of the nonclassicality of quantum systems. Known as a quasiprobability distribution, they are regarded as a useful tool that provides significant insight into the underlying fundamentals of quantum theory when compared to the classical statistics. However, in this approach, an operational interpretation of these negative values with respect to the definition of probability—the relative frequency of occurred event—is missing. An alternative approach is therefore considered where the quasiprobability operationally reveals the negativity of measured quantities. We here present an experimental realization of the operational quasiprobability, which consists of sequential measurements in time. To this end, we implement two sets of polarization measurements of single photons. We find that the measured negativity can be interpreted in the context of selecting measurements, and it reflects the nonclassical nature of photons. Our results suggest a new operational way to unravel the nonclassicality of photons in the context of measurement selection.

Distributed Private Randomness Distillation.

We develop the resource theory of private randomness extraction in the distributed and device-dependent scenario. We begin by introducing the notion of independent random bits, which are bipartite states containing ideal private randomness for each party, and motivate the natural set of free operations. As a conceptual tool, we introduce virtual quantum state merging, which is essentially the flip side of quantum state merging, without communication. We focus on the bipartite case and find the rate regions achievable in different settings. Surprisingly, it turns out that local noise can boost randomness extraction. As a consequence of our analysis, we resolve a long-standing problem by giving an operational interpretation for the reverse coherent information (up to a constant term logd) as the number of private random bits obtained by sending quantum states from one honest party (server) to another one (client) via the eavesdropped quantum channel.

A note on higher spin symmetry in the IIB matrix model with the operator interpretation

We study the IIB matrix model in an interpretation where the matrices are differential operators defined on curved spacetimes. In this interpretation, coefficients of higher derivative operators formally appear to be massless higher spin fields. In this paper, we examine whether the unitary symmetry of the matrices includes appropriate higher spin gauge symmetries. We focus on fields that are bosonic and relatively simple in the viewpoint of the representation of Lorentz group. We find that the additional auxiliary fields need to be introduced in order to see the higher spin gauge symmetries explicitly. At the same time, we point out that a part of these extra fields are gauged-away, and the rest of part can be written in terms of a totally symmetric tensor field. The transformation to remove its longitudinal components exists as well. As a result, we observe that the independent physical DoF are the transverse components of that symmetric field, and that the theory describes the corresponding higher spin field. We also find that the field is not the Fronsdal field, rather the generalization of curvature.

Nonlocal quantum correlations under amplitude damping decoherence

Different nonlocal quantum correlations of entanglement, steering and Bell nonlocality are defined with the help of local hidden state (LHS) and local hidden variable (LHV) models. Considering their unique roles in quantum information processing, it is of importance to understand the individual nonlocal quantum correlation as well as their relationship. Here, we investigate the effects of amplitude damping decoherence on different nonlocal quantum correlations. In particular, we have theoretically and experimentally shown that the entanglement sudden death phenomenon is distinct from those of steering and Bell nonlocality. In our scenario, we found that all the initial states present sudden death of steering and Bell nonlocality, while only some of the states show entanglement sudden death. These results suggest that the environmental effect can be different for different nonlocal quantum correlations, and thus, it provides distinct operational interpretations of different quantum correlations.

Distributed sampling, quantum communication witnesses, and measurement incompatibility

We study prepare-and-measure experiments where the sender (Alice) receives trusted quantum inputs but has an untrusted state-preparation device and the receiver (Bob) has a fully-untrusted measurement device. A distributed-sampling task naturally arises in such scenario, whose goal is for Alice and Bob to reproduce the statistics of his measurements on her quantum inputs using a fixed communication channel. Their performance at such task can certify quantum communication (QC), and this is formalised by measurement-device-independent QC witnesses. Furthermore, we prove that QC can provide an advantage (over classical communication) for distributed sampling if and only if Bob's measurements are incompatible. This gives an operational interpretation to the fundamental notion of measurement incompatibility, and motivates a generalised notion of it. Our findings have both fundamental and applied implications.

Concepts of work in autonomous quantum heat engines

One of the fundamental questions in quantum thermodynamics concerns the decomposition of energetic changes into heat and work. Contrary to classical engines, the entropy change of the piston cannot be neglected in the quantum domain. As a consequence, different concepts of work arise, depending on the desired task and the implied capabilities of the agent using the work generated by the engine. Each work quantifier---from ergotropy to non-equilibrium free energy---has well defined operational interpretations. We analyse these work quantifiers for a heat-pumped three-level maser and derive the respective engine efficiencies. In the classical limit of strong maser intensities the engine efficiency converges towards the Scovil--Schulz-DuBois maser efficiency, irrespective of the work quantifier.

Why trust you? Security cooperation within humanitarian NGO networks.

Although the literature is increasingly concerned with cooperation among humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), we still lack studies that explain cooperation under conditions of competition. Drawing on 22 semi-structured interviews, this article argues that trust is the driving force behind security-related cooperation within networks of humanitarian NGOs. Which type of trust comes into play and how trust is built depends on the structure of a network. In small, stable networks, trust is typically based on experience, whereas shared identity is at the heart of trust in large, unstable networks. In the latter case, cooperation among humanitarian NGOs is exclusive and comparable to a form of club governance, because NGOs are kept out based on their identity-that is, if they adopt a different operational interpretation of the humanitarian principles.

Microscopic derivation of coarse-grained, energy-conserving generalized Langevin dynamics.

Properly simulating nonequilibrium phenomena such as thermal transport and shock wave propagation in complex condensed matter systems require the conservation of system's internal energy. This precludes the application of the coarse-grained (CG) generalized Langevin equation (GLE) dynamics due to the presence of dissipative interactions. Attempts to address this issue have been pursued both phenomenologically and from entropy-based first principles for dissipative particle dynamics (DPD, a Markovian variant of the CG GLE dynamics) by introducing an energy conserving extension of DPD (DPD-E). We present here a rigorous microscopic derivation of two energy conserving variants of the CG GLE dynamics by extending the CG equations of motion to include the GLE for certain internal energy observables of the microscopic system. We consider two choices of such observables: the total internal energy and a set of internal energies of the CG particles. The derivation is performed using the Mori-Zwanzig projection operator method in the Heisenberg picture for time evolution of thermodynamic expectations and the recently introduced interpretation of the Zwanzig projection operator [S. Izvekov, J. Chem. Phys. 146(12), 124109 (2017)] which allows an exact calculation of the memory and projected terms. We begin with equilibrium conditions and show that the GLE dynamics for the internal energy observables is purely dissipative. Our extension of the GLE dynamics to quasiequilibrium conditions (necessary to observe heat transport) is based on the generalized canonical ensemble approach and transport equation using the nonequilibrium statistical operator (NSO) method. We derive closed microscopic expressions for conductive heat transfer coefficients in the limit of neglecting dissipation in heat transfer and in the lowest order of deviation from equilibrium. After employing the Markov approximation, we compare the equations of motion to the published DPD-E equations. Our equations contain additional energy transfer terms not reported in the previous works. Additionally, we show that, despite neglecting dissipative processes in heat transport, the heat transfer coefficients and random force are related in a way reminiscent of the fluctuation-dissipation relation. The formalism presented here is sufficiently general for the rigorous formulation of the GLE dynamics for arbitrary microscopic phase space observables as well as sampling different microscopic ensembles in CG simulations.