English

An Algorithmic Approach to Emergence

Statistical Mechanics 2022-08-18 v2 Artificial Intelligence Dynamical Systems Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability Quantum Physics

Abstract

We suggest a quantitative and objective notion of emergence. Our proposal uses algorithmic information theory as a basis for an objective framework in which a bit string encodes observational data. A plurality of drops in the Kolmogorov structure function of such a string is seen as the hallmark of emergence. Our definition offers some theoretical results, in addition to extending the notions of coarse-graining and boundary conditions. Finally, we confront our proposal with applications to dynamical systems and thermodynamics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2205.12997,
  title  = {An Algorithmic Approach to Emergence},
  author = {Charles Alexandre Bédard and Geoffroy Bergeron},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.12997},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

46 pages, 11 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:28:51.476Z