Related papers: Science in a Very Large Universe
Curiously overlooked in physics is its dependence on the transmission of numbers. For example the transmission of numerical clock readings is implicit in the concept of a coordinate system. The transmission of numbers and other logical…
The cosmological principle says that the Universe is spatially homogeneous and isotropic. It predicts, among other phenomena, the cosmic redshift of light and the Hubble law. Nevertheless, the existence of structure in the Universe violates…
In Everett's many worlds interpretation, quantum measurements are considered to be decoherence events. If so, then inexact decoherence may allow large worlds to mangle the memory of observers in small worlds, creating a cutoff in observable…
Physics is a model of nature able to both describe and predict the results of measurements made with respect to reference systems. These reference systems, in turn, are themselves physical and thus subject to the laws of physics. The…
The framework of generalized probabilistic theories is a powerful tool for studying the foundations of quantum physics. It provides the basis for a variety of recent findings that significantly improve our understanding of the rich physical…
The distribution function of particles over clusters is proposed for a system of identical intersecting spheres, the centres of which are uniformly distributed in space. Consideration is based on the concept of the rank number of clusters,…
Cosmology has come a long way from being based on a small number of observations to being a data-driven precision science. We discuss the questions "What is observable?", "What in the Universe is knowable?" and "What are the fundamental…
We attempt to contribute some novel points of view to the "foundations of quantum mechanics", using mathematical tools from "quantum probability theory" (such as the theory of operator algebras). We first introduce an abstract algebraic…
A finite dimensional-system whose physics is governed by a Gaussian distribution can be regarded as a subsystem of an infinite dimensional-underlying system described by a uniform distribution on the (infinite dimensional) sphere. In turn,…
Standard models of galaxy formation predict that matter distribution is statistically homogeneous and isotropic and characterized by (i) spatial homogeneity for r<10 Mpc/h, (ii) small-amplitude structures of relatively limited size (i.e.,…
The physical basis of the modern cosmological inflationary models with baryosynthesis and nonbaryonic dark matter and energy implies such predictions of particle theory, that, in turn, apply to cosmology for their test. It makes physics of…
For a given spatial distribution of the lenses and distribution of the transverse velocity of the lens relative to the line-of-sight, a probability distribution for the lens mass for a single observed event is derived. In addition, similar…
A characteristical property of a classical physical theory is that the observables are real functions taking an exact outcome on every (pure) state; in a quantum theory, at the contrary, a given observable on a given state can take several…
We develop a general theory for estimating the probability that a galaxy cluster of a given shape exists. The theory is based on the observed result that the distribution of galaxies is very close to quasi-equilibrium, in both its linear…
We review briefly the concepts underlying complex systems and probability distributions. The later are often taken as the first quantitative characteristics of complex systems, allowing one to detect the possible occurrence of regularities…
Special relativity is most naturally formulated as a theory of space-time geometry, but within the space-time framework probability apears to be at best an epistemic notion - a matter of what can be known, not of the status of events in…
Quantum gravity is known to be mostly a kind of metaphysical speculation. In this brief essay, we try to argue that, although still extremely difficult to reach, observational signatures can in fact be expected. The early universe is an…
The conserved probability densities (attributed to the conserved currents derived from relativistic wave equations) should be non-negative and the integral of them over an entire hypersurface should be equal to one. To satisfy these…
In quantum mechanics, outcomes of measurements on a state have a probabilistic interpretation while the evolution of the state is treated deterministically. Here we show that one can also treat the evolution as being probabilistic in nature…
Cosmological discoveries over the past century have completely changed our picture of our place in the universe. New observations have a realistic chance of probing nature on heretofore unimaginable scales, and as a result are changing the…