Related papers: Disassembling the Clockwork Mechanism
The cyclic sieving phenomenon is a well-studied occurrence in combinatorics appearing when a cyclic group acts on a finite set. In this paper, we demonstrate a natural extension of this theory to finite abelian groups. We also present a…
The origin and nature of time in complex systems is explored using quantum (or 'Feynman') clocks and the signals produced by them. Networks of these clocks provide the basis for the evolution of complex systems. The general concept of…
A general definition of a clock is proposed, and the role of clocks in establishing temporal pre-conditions in quantum mechanical questions is critically discussed. The different status of clocks as used by theorists external to a system…
The process of identifying a time variable in time reparameterization invariant theories results in great ambiguities about the actual laws of physics described by a given theory. A theory set up to describe one set of physical laws can…
We present a relational framework in which temporal structure is not fundamental but emerges from correlations within a globally stationary quantum state. Each subsystem includes an internal clock, and conditional states evolve effectively…
Thermal machines are physical systems designed to convert thermal energy into practical work through cyclic state transformations. A key component in such a machine is a clock-equipped control element that dictates which interaction…
We demonstrate an unsuspected freedom in physics, by showing an essential unpredictability in the relation between the behavior of clocks on the workbench and explanations of that behavior written in symbols on the blackboard. In theory,…
We study at the classical and quantum mechanical level the time-dependent Yang-Mills theory that one obtains via the generalisation of discrete light-cone quantisation to singular homogeneous plane waves. The non-Abelian nature of this…
We introduce logical synchrony, a framework that allows distributed computing to be coordinated as tightly as in synchronous systems without the distribution of a global clock or any reference to universal time. We develop a model of events…
A general procedure to reveal an Abelian structure of Yang-Mills theories by means of a (nonlocal) change of variables, rather than by gauge fixing, in the space of connections is proposed. The Abelian gauge group is isomorphic to the…
This article generalizes the conditional probability interpretation of time in which time evolution is realized through entanglement between a clock and a system of interest. This formalism is based upon conditioning a solution to the…
We present a higher order generalisation of the clockwork mechanism starting from an underlying non-linear multigravity theory with a single scale and nearest neighbour ghost-free interactions. Without introducing any hierarchies in the…
We discuss the construction of non-Abelian black holes and globally regular monopole solutions to N=2, d=4 EYM theories. Special emphasis is put on how the attractor mechanism works for the non-Abelian black holes.
We consider the algebra associated to a group of transformations which are symmetries of a regular mechanical system (i.e. system free of constraints). For time dependent coordinate transformations we show that a central extension may…
In this article, we review recent theoretical works on the Schwingermechanism of particle production in external electrical fields. Although the non-perturbative Schwinger mechanism is at the center of this discussion, many of the…
At an elementary level, we present some non-perturbative aspects of non-abelian gauge theories in four dimensional space-time. Some rigorous results have been obtained in the framework of supersymmetric theories, and a very rich physics…
The operational approach to time is a cornerstone of relativistic theories, as evidenced by the notion of proper time. In standard quantum mechanics, however, time is an external parameter. Recently, many attempts have been made to extend…
We present a derivation of the structure and dynamics of a ticking clock by showing that for finite systems a single natural principle serves to distinguish what we understand as ticking clocks from time-keeping systems in general. As a…
We investigate an optomechanical system as a model of an autonomous mechanical pendulum clock in the quantum regime, whose operation relies only on incoherent (thermal) resources. The escapement of the clock, the mechanism that translates…
The essence of the gravitomagnetic clock effect is properly defined showing that its origin is in the topology of world lines with closed space projections. It is shown that, in weak field approximation and for a spherically symmetric…