Recent Additions: New and Updated Entries in the Past 60 Days
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Nettuno, Beatrice, et al. The role of mobility in epidemics near criticality. arXiv:2402.06505. Four years into the pandemic, a team of biophysicists at Ludwig-Maximilians-University including Erwin Frey achieve a host sophisticated mathematical formulation which draws upon and widely applies both physical principles and complexity science. Renormalization group theory and self-organized phase transitions are found to independently underline and channel this dynamic public malady wherever it occurs.

The general epidemic process (GEP) describes its spread within a population of susceptible individuals. We investigate the impact of mobility on disease spreading threshold by two generalizations of GEP, where the mobility of susceptible and recovered individuals is examined independently. The critical dynamics are studied through a perturbative renormalization group approach and large-scale stochastic simulations. This analysis predicts that both models belong to the same universality class which describe the critical epidemic dynamics. At the associated renormalization group fixed point, the immobile species decouples from the dynamics of the infected species due to coupling with the diffusive species.. Numerical simulations in two dimensions affirm our renormalization group results by identifying the same set of critical exponents for both models. (Excerpt)

Our Planatural Edition: A 21st Century PhiloSophia, Earthropo Ecosmic PediaVersion

Ellis, John, et al. Ellis, John, et al. Do we Owe our Existence to Gravitational Waves?. arXiv:2402.03593. John Ellis, Kings College London, Brian Fields, Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe, University of Illinois, and Rebecca Surman, University of Notre Dame engage a novel imagination, akin to Simon Conway Morris, which is not constrained by the vested verdict that no other reality exists on its own. Rather by way of an integral vista, certain celestial elements and conditions can be seen to have a necessary relation to our considerate presence, This is not “anthropic” as much as an ability to perceive independent phenomena without which human beings could not be here. Our point is that just a mindfulness to allow the very possibility, which has been excluded for the past male century, can reveal an innately animate genesis.

Two heavy elements essential to human biology are thought to have been produced by the astrophysical r-process, which occurs in neutron-rich environments: iodine is a constituent of thyroid hormones that affect many physiological processes, and bromine is essential for tissue development. Collisions of neutron stars (kilonovae) have been identified as sources of r-process elements including tellurium, which is adjacent to iodine in the periodic table, and the lanthanides. Neutron-star collisions arise from energy loss due to gravitational-wave emission, leading us to suggest that they have played a key role in enabling human life by producing these certain elements. (Abstract)

In nuclear astrophysics, the rapid neutron-capture process, also known as the r-process, is a set of nuclear reactions that is responsible for the creation of approximately half of the atomic nuclei heavier than iron, the "heavy elements"

I am fascinated by the "inner space/outer space" connections that link the science at the smallest and largest scales. My research focusses on highest-energy sites in such as the big bang, exploding stars (supernovae), and particles in space (cosmic rays). Understanding these processes and their interplay allows us to trace the history of matter over a temporal expanse. (Brian Fields)

Hidalgo, Carlos, editor-in-chief.. EPS Grand Challenges: Physics for Society in the Horizon 2050.. Europe: IOP Science., 2024. The European Physics Society publishes a series of leading edge volumes as this, Google terms. This is an 800 page edition with over 100 senior authors such as Sara Seager, Jurgen Kurths, Frances Westall, Jacob Biamonte, Marc Barthelemy and Thiery Mora. Its relevance is evident by two main parts: Physics as global human enterprise for understanding Nature and Physics developments to tackling major issues affecting the lives of citizens. While a collection of disparate subjects, altogether as it looks ahead, one gets a sense of current advances and adventures by way of myriad planetary collaborations.

There are many images of science and of scientists. Some would imply that science will eventually reach the limits of knowledge while others create an expectation of endless horizons. In this book, we will look at all these aspects, going from particles, to atoms, cells, organisms, stars, galaxies and our own place in the universe. We explore what makes us, human beings, unique by an ability to imagine and shape the future through the scientific method. The book is an EPS action designed to address the social dimension of science and the grand challenges in physics so to benefit developed societies, raise standards of living at the global scale, and provide basic understanding of nature on the 2050 horizon.

Physics bridging the infinities. Chapter 2 presents an introduction and sections on: particle physics: physics beyond the Standard Model; the origin of visible matter; quantum gravity—an unfinished revolution; what is the Universe made of? Searching for dark energy/matter; a gravitational universe: black holes and gravitation waves; stars, the Sun, and planetary systems as physics laboratories; physics of the Earth's interior.

Physics for understanding life. Chapter 4 presents an introduction and sections on: searching for life in the Universe: our place in the Universe; artificial intelligence: powering the fourth industrial revolution; artificial life: sustainable self-replicating systems; toward a quantitative understanding of life; the emergence of life: the Sun–Earth connection.

Physics for secure and efficient societies. Chapter 7 presents an introduction and sections on: second quantum revolution: quantum computing and cybersecurity; sensors and their applications; the space sector: current and future prospects; large-scale complex sociotechnical systems and their interactions.

Hooft, Gerard t. et al.. The sounds of science a symphony for many instruments and voices.. Physica Scripta. 99/052501, 2024. As the abstract says, this 54 page edition is a second endeavor to gather diverse, select authorities including Nobel laureates to survey these conceptual frontiers. A first 2020 edition with this title appeared in this journal (95/6) edited by Gerianne Alexander. Typical entries are What characterises topological effects in physics? by Gerard ’t Hooft, Towards a machine that works like the brain: the neuromorphic computer by Ivan Schuller, et al, What can we say about the ‘Value of information’ in Biophysics? by Lázaro Castanedo, et al, What philosophers should really be thinking about by Roland Allen and Suzy Lidström and How much of physics have we found so far? By Anton Zeilinger. But again some 20 men and 3 women contribute essays with a specific focus sans any common theme. While disparate approaches within an intelligible cosmos are pursued, there is rarely a sense of closing on a real discovery. (see also at arXiv:2404.11724.)

Despite its amazing quantitative successes and contributions to revolutionary technologies, physics currently faces many unsolved mysteries ranging from the meaning of quantum mechanics to the nature of the dark energy and the future of the Universe. It is clearly prohibitive for the general reader, and even the best informed physicists, to follow the vast number of technical papers published in the thousands of specialized journals. For this reason, we have asked the leading experts across many of the most important areas of physics to summarise their global assessment of some of the most important issues. In lieu of an extremely long abstract summarising the contents, we invite the reader to look at the section headings and their authors, and then to indulge in a feast of stimulating topics spanning the current frontiers of fundamental physics from The Future of Physics by William D Phillips and What characterises topological effects in physics? by Gerard t Hooft through the contributions of the widest imaginable range of world leaders in their respective areas.

Pedia Sapiens: A Planetary Progeny Comes to Her/His Own Actual Factual Knowledge

Pierre-Yves Oudeyer. www.pyoudeyer.com.. . The French computational psychologist (search) is the director of the Flowers project-team at the Inria Center of University of Bordeaux. Current (March 2024) projects are now much involved with chatty AI features guided by insights gained from studies with children. A recent talk is Developmental AI: machines that learn like children and help children learn better. As the quotes say, another senior scholar finds evidence that both youngsters and large language modes use trail/error iterate methods in similar ways. See also Open-ended learning and development in machines and humans on the flowers.inria.fr. site.

Together with a great team, I study lifelong autonomous learning, and the self-organization of behavioural, cognitive and language structures at the frontiers of artificial intelligence and cognitive sciences. I use machines as tools to understand better how children learn and develop, and I study how one can build machines that learn autonomously like children, as well as integrate within human cultures, within the new field of developmental artificial intelligence. (P-Y O)

The Flowers project-team, at the University of Bordeaux and at Ensta ParisTech, studies versions of holistic individual development. These models can help us better understand how children learn, as well as to build machines that gain knowledge as children do, aka developmental artificial intelligence, with applications in educational technologies, automated discovery, robotics and human-computer interaction.

Wang, Yu, et al.. Can AI Understand Our Universe? Test of Fine-Tuning GPT by Astrophysical Data. arXiv:2404.10019. Eight computational astroscientists posted Italy, Armenia, China and Iran evaluate and compare guided applications of these current AI frontiers to data-intensive celestial studies. In their careful procedure they do find a valuable enhancement to an extent to define a new spiral phase of planetary human-computer teamwork.

As astro-researchers, we are curious about if scientific data can be correctly analyzed by large language models (LLMs) and yield accurate physics. In this article, we fine-tune the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) model from the observations of galaxies, quasars, stars, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and the black holes (BHs), whereby the our model is able to classify astrophysical phenomena, distinguish between two types of GRBs, deduce the redshift of quasars, and estimate BH parameters. With the volume of multidisciplinary data and the advancement of AI technology, we look forward to a deeper comprehensive understanding of our universe. This article also shares some interesting thoughts on data collection and AI design. Using the approach of understanding the universe as a guideline, we propose a method of series expansion for AI, suggesting ways to train and control AI that is smarter than humans. (Abstract)

Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

Meng, Xiangyi, et al.. Percolation Theories for Quantum Networks.. arXiv:2310.18420. We enter this item by Northeastern, Jiangsu, Stockholm, Oxford and Bar-Ilan University (Shlomo Havlin) system scientists as a current case of how nature’s ubiquitous cellular network complexities are even being found and finessed even in these deepest realms as they become neoclassical in similar kind.

Quantum networks have advanced in both theoretical and experimental domains over the last decade. There is now a need to understand their large-scale features by way of statistical physics. Here we discuss how entanglement can be effectively distributed between distant nodes in a quantum network which is partially entangled. We draw on mappings to percolation theory, a branch of statistical physics for network connectivity. Our approach leads to a “concurrence percolation'' which uncovers a quantum advantage. This suggests that quantum networks are more resilient within classical percolation contexts, which offers insights into future network design. (Abstract)

Lahav, Ofer and Andrew Liddle. The Cosmological Parameters (2023).. arXiv:2403.15526. . University College London and university of Lisbon theorists provide a latest exemplary synopsis.

This is a review article for The Review of Particle Physics 2024 (aka the Particle Data Book), appearing as Chapter 25. It forms a compact review of knowledge of these celestial entities and their properties near the end of 2023. Topics included are Parametrizing the Universe; Extensions to the standard model; Probes; Bringing observations together; Outlook for the future.

Nath, Pran. Particle physics and cosmology intertwined.. arXiv:2402.04170. While the widest substantial pairing that entitles this unit came together in the 1980s, and online for us in 2004, here in 2024 we post a latest version by a Northeastern University physicist to convey how their overall definitive unification has held up. See also A Search for Classical Subsystems in Quantum Worlds by Arsalan, Adil, et al at arXiv:2403.10895 for another example.

While the standard model describes data at the electroweak scale without inclusion of gravity, beyond the standard model physics is increasingly intertwined with gravitational phenomena and cosmology. Thus gravity mediated breaking of supersymmetry in supergravity models lead to particle masses, which are gravitational in origin, observable at TeV scales and testable at the LHC, and supergravity also provides a candidate for dark matter. The above implies that particle physics and cosmology are intrinsically intertwined in the resolution of essentially all of the cosmological phenomena. (Abstract)

Saarloos, Win van, et al. Soft Matter: Concepts, Phenomena, and Applications. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024. Wim van Saarloos is professor emeritus of theoretical physics at the Lorentz Institute at Leiden University, Vincenzo Vitelli is professor of physics at the University of Chicago and Zorana Zeravcic is professor of physics in the Gulliver Laboratory at ESPCI Paris. In regard they contribute the first book treatment of this animate subject, hardly a decade old. A chapter on Active Matter is included along Non-Equilibrium Pattern Formation, Elasticity, Designing Matter and so on. Altogether one more perspective upon a natural dynamic liveliness due to common codings gains a broad and deep expression.

Soft matter science is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, and materials science. It encompasses colloids, polymers, and liquid crystals as well as rapidly emerging topics such as metamaterials, memory formation and learning in matter, bioactive systems, and artificial life.. The presentation integrates statistical mechanics, dynamical systems, and hydrodynamic approaches with conservation laws and broken symmetries as guiding principles along with computational and machine learning advances.

Ambjørn, Jan and Y. Watabiki.. Is the present acceleration of the Universe caused by merging with other universes? Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 12/11, December, 2023. In these years, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen and Tokyo Institute of Technology (search JA) theorists are able to extend their mathematical conjectures to the farthest reaches of spacetime so to quantify, explain and wonder about these farthest multiversal realms.

"The main finding of our work is that the accelerated expansion of our universe, caused by the mysterious dark energy, might have a simple intuitive explanation, the merging with so-called baby universes, and that a model for this might fit the data better than the standard cosmological model," Jan Ambjørn, told LiveScience. The researchers' calculations showed that merging with other universes should increase the volume of our universe, which could b horizon.e perceived by our instruments as an expansion of the universe. (JA to LiveScience)

Munson, Anthony, et al. Complexity-constrained quantum thermodynamics. arXiv: 2403.04828. We cite this March entry by University of Maryland, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Freie Universität Berlin, and Harvard University physicists including Nicole Yunger Halpern as an example of current syntheses of these various computational aspects into a whole theoretic integrity.

Quantum complexity measures the difficulty of realizing a quantum process, such as preparing a state or implementing a unitary. We present an approach to quantifying the thermodynamic resources required to implement a process if the process's complexity is restricted. We focus on the prototypical task of information erasure, or Landauer erasure, wherein an n-qubit memory is reset to the all-zero state. We show that the minimum thermodynamic work required to reset an arbitrary state, via a complexity-constrained process, is quantified by the state's complexity entropy. Overall, our framework extends the resource-theoretic approach to thermodynamics to integrate a notion of time, as quantified by complexity. (Brief excerpt)

Sendker, Franziska, et al.. Emergence of fractal geometries in the evolution of a metabolic enzyme. Nature. April 10, 2024. MPI Terrestrial Microbiology researchers report finding what is considered to be the first actual notice of such self-similar topologies in organismic biological phenomena. The work became science news because it attests to much how nature’s infinite strata does manifest itself everywhere.

Fractals are patterns that are self-similar across multiple length-scales. Macroscopic fractals are common in nature; however, so far, molecular assembly into fractals is restricted to synthetic systems. Here we report the discovery of a natural protein, citrate synthase, which self-assembles into Sierpiński triangles. We use ancestral sequence reconstruction to retrace how the citrate synthase fractal evolved from non-fractal precursors. Our findings expand the space of protein complexes and show that intricate assemblies can evolve in a single substitution.

Gartner, Florian and Erwin Frey. Design principles for fast and efficient self-assembly processes. arXiv:2403.00213. Center for NanoScience, Ludwig-Maximilians-University physicists provide a latest theoretical explanations which substantiate nature’s characteristic tendency to actively organize itself into emergent, self-similar vitalities wherever it can. See also The role of mobility in epidemics near criticality by Beatrice Nettuno et al. at arXiv:2402.06505 from this group. And into springtime 2024, we begin to wonder if a sufficient confluence is being reached by our learned pediasphere about an actual discovery of a familial genesis and a worthy Earth.

Self-assembly is a fundamental concept in biology, and also nanotechnology. While significant recent progress has been made, less is known about kinetic constraints of dynamical properties like time efficiency. Here we investigate how the temporal straits of reversible self-assembly depend on the morphology of the systems. We find that the constituent shapes critically determines the formation time and how it scales with the size of the target structure. Using this method, we achieve an effective theory of the self-assembly kinetics, which we show exhibits an inherent scale invariance. We show how these insights on the kinetics of self-assembly processes can be used to design artificial self-assembly processes. (Excerpt)

Heylighen, Francis, et al. Chemical Organization Theory as a General Modeling Framework for Self-Sustaining Systems.. Systems. 12/4, 2024. FH and Shima Beigi, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Tomas Veloz, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile post a latest edition (search FH) of this ongoing thought process this collaborative group. In regard, its accomplishment provides support for an autocatalytic cosmopoiesis which originates life and long after engenders our personal retrospect.

This paper summarizes and reviews the Chemical Organization Theory (COT), a formalism for complex, self-organizing systems across multiple disciplines. Its elements are resources and reactions whose networks arrange themselves into invariant subnetworks. Altogether they provide a simple model of a natural autopoiesis which persistently recreates and recycles its own components. Application domains of COT include the origin of life, systems biology, cognition, ecosystems, Gaia versions, sustainability, consciousness, and social systems. (Excerpt)

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