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Determining the state of a quantum system is a consuming procedure. For this reason, whenever one is interested only in some particular property of a state, it would be desirable to design a measurement setup that reveals this property with…
We briefly review the most relevant aspects of complete integrability for classical systems and identify those aspects which should be present in a definition of quantum integrability. We show that a naive extension of classical concepts to…
Depth is a complexity measure for natural systems of the kind studied in statistical physics and is defined in terms of computational complexity. Depth quantifies the length of the shortest parallel computation required to construct a…
We present a Lagrangian approach to counting degrees of freedom in first-order field theories. The emphasis is on the systematic attainment of a complete set of constraints. In particular, we provide the first comprehensive procedure to…
General relativity and quantum mechanics are incompatible at the Planck scale. This contention can be examined if a quantum computer is set to operate at a rate that exceeds the classical limit of one operation per Planck volume-time, or…
We present several philosophical ideas emerging from the studies of complex systems. We make a brief introduction to the basic concepts of complex systems, for then defining "abstraction levels". These are useful for representing…
We critically analyse the point of view for which laws of nature are just a mean to compress data. Discussing some basic notions of dynamical systems and information theory, we show that the idea that the analysis of large amount of data by…
Excess freedom in how computers are used creates problems that include: bit rot, problems with big data, problems in the creation and debugging of software, and problems with cyber security. To tame excess freedom, "tough love" is needed in…
All natural things process and transform information. They receive environmental information as input, and transform it into appropriate output responses. Much of science is dedicated to building models of such systems -- algorithmic…
Do quantum computers already exist in Nature? It is proposed that they do. Photosynthesis is one example in which a 'quantum computer' component may play a role in the 'classical' world of complex biological systems. A 'translation' of the…
This article focuses on the connection between the possibility of quantum computers, the predictability of complex quantum systems in nature, and the issue of free will.
Partial descriptions of the Universe are presented in the form of linear equations considered in the free (full, super) Fock space. The universal properties of these equations are discussed. The closure problem caused by computational and…
We identify five selected open problems in the theory of quantum information, which are rather simple to formulate, were well-studied in the literature, but are technically not easy. As these problems enjoy diverse mathematical connections,…
We introduced the notation of a set of prohibitions and give definitions of a complete set and a crucial word with respect to a given set of prohibitions. We consider 3 particular sets which appear in different areas of mathematics and for…
Examining individual components of cellular systems has been successful in uncovering molecular reactions and interactions. However, the challenge lies in integrating these components into a comprehensive system-scale map. This difficulty…
At present, there is a great deal of confusion regarding complexity and its measures (reviews on complexity measures are found in, e.g. Lloyd, 2001 and Shalizi, 2006 and more references therein). Moreover, there is also confusion regarding…
The limited distinctness of physical systems is roughly expressed by uncertainty relations. Here we show distinctness is a finite resource we can exactly count to define basic physical quantities, limits to the resolution of space and time,…
Understanding degrees of freedom in classical mechanics is fundamental to characterizing physical systems. Counting them is usually easy, especially if we can assign them a clear meaning. However, the precise definition of a degree of…
We consider the question of counting the degrees of freedom in theoretical models, with an emphasis on theories of fields and gravity. Among the possible approaches, the Hamiltonian formulation remains one of the most systematic and robust…
Forgetfulness is a common feature of nature. Moreover, without forgetfulness, repeatability would be impossible. Despite this, small systems constantly leak information about their state to their surroundings, and quantum mechanics tells us…