Related papers: The Infinite in Sciences and Arts
Many believe that the deep question of "why is there something rather than nothing?" is unanswerable. The universe just is and no further explanation for its existence is possible. In this paper I explain why this question must have an…
A new sequential approach to investigations of structure of metric spaces at infinity is proposed. Criteria for finiteness and boundedness of metric spaces at infinity are found.
Dark matter is among the most important open problems in both astrophysics and particle physics. We review the status of art of dark matter search at theoretical and experimental level discussing also alternative hypotheses.
Many mathematical statements have the following form. If something is true for all finite subsets of an infinite set $I$, then it is true for all of $I$. This paper describes some old and new results on infinite sets of linear and…
We discuss several aspects of infinity in the history of mathematics.
The input and output algebras of an infinite qubit system and their representations are described.
The possibility to describe the laws of the Universe in a computational way seems to be correlated to a principle that the density of information is bounded. This principle, that is dual to that of a finite velocity of information, has…
This paper examines a denumerable version of the nested-set theorem and derives from it a contradiction involving the formal consistency of the actual infinity assumed by the Axiom of Infinity.
Without a doubt many problems in physics arise as a consequence of our philosophical conception of the world. In this contribution however we endeavor to alleviate this scenario by putting forward a philosophical approach under which some…
What is the largest number accessible to the human imagination? The question is neither entirely mathematical nor entirely philosophical. Mathematical formulations of the problem fall into two classes: those that fail to fully capture the…
Singularities appear in numerous important mathematical models used in Physics. And in most of such cases singularities are involved in essentially nonlinear contexts. For more than four decades, general enough nonlinear theories of…
We argue that whether the universe is infinite or finite is less crucial than usually supposed. Paradoxes of repeating behaviour in the infinite, or eternal inflationary, universe can be alleviated by a realistic definition of differing…
The uncertainty associated with probing the quantum state is expressed as the effective abundance (measure) of possibilities for its collapse. New kinds of uncertainty limits entailed by quantum description of the physical system arise in…
Discussions on indeterminism in physics focus on the possibility of an open future, i.e. the possibility of having potential alternative future events, the realisation of one of which is not fully determined by the present state of affairs.…
We review the current status of dimensions, as the result of a long and controversial history that includes input from philosophy and physics. Our conclusion is that they are subjective but essential concepts which provide a kind of…
General topology of the universe is descibed. It is concluded that topology of the present universe is greater or stronger than the topology of the universe in the past and topology of the future universe will be stronger or greater than…
Nature has found one method of organizing living matter, but maybe other options exist -- not yet discovered -- on how to create life. To study the life "as it could be" is the objective of an interdisciplinary field called Artificial Life…
The mathematical study of infinity seems to have the ability to transport the mind to lofty and unusual realms. Decades ago, I was transported in this way by Rudy Rucker's book Infinity and the Mind. Despite much subsequent learning and…
We study here what it means for the Universe to be nearly flat, as opposed to exactly flat. We give three definitions of nearly flat, based on density, geometry and dynamics; all three definitions are equivalent and depend on a single…
Most of the matter in the universe is invisible. I review the status of dark matter and describe how both the theory of galaxy formation and novel types of experimental searches are revitalizing attempts to find non-baryonic dark matter.