Related papers: The pollen and the electron: a study in randomness
To study materials phenomena simultaneously at various length scales, descriptions in which matter can be coarse grained to arbitrary levels, are necessary. Attempts to do this in the static regime (i.e. zero temperature) have already been…
Collapse of the wave function appears to violate the quantum superposition principle as well as deterministic evolution. Objective collapse models propose a dynamical explanation for this phenomenon, by making a stochastic non-unitary and…
We have numerically studied a model of granular landscape eroded by wind. We show the appearance of labyrinthic patterns when the wind orientation turns by $90^\circ$. The occurence of such structures are discussed. Morever, we introduce…
We describe an explicit mechanism for the emergence of a dynamical holographic bulk from the structure of entanglement in a quantum state. We start with a generic system in complete isolation, assuming it has a classical limit involving…
The predictions of quantum mechanics are probabilistic. Quantum probabilities are extracted using a postulate of the theory called the Born rule, the status of which is central to the "measurement problem" of quantum mechanics. Efforts to…
A notion of quantization is proposed that is independent of the original statistical interpretation of the distribution of energy in a photon gas or of the quantization of angular momentum in hydrogen atom. Such a procedutre implies the…
Optically confined colloidal particles, when placed in close proximity, form a dissipatively coupled system through hydrodynamic interactions. The role of such interactions influencing irreversibility and energy dissipation in…
Both deterministic and indeterministic physical laws are incompatible with control by genuine (non-illusory) free will. We propose that an indeterministic dynamics can be $weakly$ compatible with free will (FW), whereby the latter acts by…
In this PhD thesis the ancient question of determinism ('Does every event have a cause ?') will be re-examined. In the philosophy of science and physics communities the orthodox position states that the physical world is indeterministic:…
We study the motion of an overdamped particle connected to a thermal heat bath in the presence of an external periodic potential in one dimension. When we coarse-grain, i.e., bin the particle positions using bin sizes that are larger than…
A self-consistent and universal description of friction and diffusion for Brownian particles (grains) in different systems, as a gas with Boltzmann collisions, dusty plasma with ion absorption by grains, and for active particles (e.g.,…
Quantum theory is extremely successful in explaining most physical phenomena, and is not contradicted by any experiment. Yet, the theory has many puzzling features : the occurrence of probabilities, the unclear distinction between the…
To understand the earliest stages of planet formation, it is crucial to be able to predict the rate and the outcome of dust grains collisions, be it sticking and growth, bouncing, or fragmentation. The outcome of such collisions depends on…
In polycrystalline materials, grain boundaries are sites of enhanced atomic motion, but the complexity of the atomic structures within a grain boundary network makes it difficult to link the structure and atomic dynamics. Here we use a…
The issue of whether we make decisions freely has vexed philosophers for millennia, Resolving this is vital for solving a diverse range of problems, from the physiology of how the brain makes decisions (and how we assign moral…
The origin of the uncertainty inherent in quantum measurements has been discussed since quantum theory's inception, but to date the source of the indeterminacy of measurements performed at an angle with respect to a quantum state's…
Brownian motion is the perpetual irregular motion exhibited by small particles immersed in a fluid. Such random motion of the particles is produced by statistical fluctuations in the collisions they suffer with the molecules of the…
The lack of superposition of different position states or the emergence of classicality in macroscopic systems have been a puzzle for decades. Classicality exists in every measuring apparatus, and is the key for understanding what can be…
Pollen grains are known for their impressive variety of species-specific, microscale surface patterning. Despite having similar biological developmental steps, pollen grain surface features are remarkably geometrically varied. Previous work…
The present contribution is based on the assumption that the probabilistic character of quantum mechanics does not originate from uncertainties caused by the process of measurement or observation, but rather reflects the presence of…