Related papers: On the map-territory fallacy fallacy
The Local-to-Global-Principle used in the proof of convexity theorems for momentum maps has been extracted as a statement of pure topology enriched with a structure of convexity. We extend this principle to not necessarily closed maps…
Effective field theories (EFTs) are widely considered by physicists to be explanatory and to be the appropriate frameworks for modelling various phenomena at different scales. At the same time, they are known to be approximate, restricted,…
Simplified mechanistic models in ecology have been criticized for the fact that a good fit to data does not imply the mechanism is true: pattern does not equal process. In parallel, the maximum entropy principle (MaxEnt) has been applied in…
A different general philosophy, to be called Full Randomness (FR), for the analysis of random effects models is presented, involving a notion of reducing or preferably eliminating fixed effects, at least formally. For example, under FR…
We introduce and analyze free energy landscapes defined by associating to any point inside the sphere a free energy calculated on a thin spherical band around it, using many orthogonal replicas. This allows us to reinterpret, rigorously…
In this PhD thesis, we explore and apply methods inspired by the free energy principle to two important areas in machine learning and neuroscience. The free energy principle is a general mathematical theory of the necessary…
We present a theoretical framework for analyzing spatial sampling of fields in three-dimensional space. The framework bridges Shannon's sampling and information theory to Bayesian probabilistic inference and experimental design. Based on…
The introduction of loopy belief propagation (LBP) revitalized the application of graphical models in many domains. Many recent works present improvements on the basic LBP algorithm in an attempt to overcome convergence and local optima…
Disordered and frustrated graphical systems are ubiquitous in physics, biology, and information science. For models on complete graphs or random graphs, deep understanding has been achieved through the mean-field replica and cavity methods.…
Belief propagation is a fundamental message-passing algorithm for probabilistic reasoning and inference in graphical models. While it is known to be exact on trees, in most applications belief propagation is run on graphs with cycles.…
The superposition principle lies at the heart of many non-classical properties of quantum mechanics. Motivated by this, we introduce a rigorous resource theory framework for the quantification of superposition of a finite number of linear…
We develop a novel data-driven approach to the inverse problem of classical statistical mechanics: given experimental data on the collective motion of a classical many-body system, how does one characterise the free energy landscape of that…
We consider a continuous dynamical system $f:X\to X$ on a compact metric space $X$ equipped with an $m$-dimensional continuous potential $\Phi=(\phi_1,\cdots,\phi_m):X\to \bR^m$. We study the set of ground states $ GS(\alpha)$ of the…
Resource theory is a widely-applicable framework for analyzing the physical resources required for given tasks, such as computation, communication, and energy extraction. In this paper, we propose a general scheme for analyzing resource…
Information field theory (IFT) is an emerging technique for posing infinite-dimensional inverse problems using the mathematics found in quantum field theory. Under IFT, the field inference task is formulated in a Bayesian setting where the…
Systematic inaccuracy is inherent in any computational estimate of a non-linear average, such as the free energy difference (Delta-F) between two states or systems, because of the availability of only a finite number of data values, N. In…
Effective Field Theory (EFT) is the successful paradigm underlying modern theoretical physics, including the "Core Theory" of the Standard Model of particle physics plus Einstein's general relativity. I will argue that EFT grants us a…
Self-organization is a process where order of a whole system arises out of local interactions between small components of a system. Emergy, spelled with an 'm', defined as the amount of (solar) energy used to make a product or service, is…
Electromagnetic (EM) scattering systems widely exist in EM engineering domain. For a certain objective scattering system, all of its working modes constitute a linear space, i.e. modal space. Characteristic mode theory (CMT) can effectively…
The thermodynamic definition of entropy can be extended to nonequilibrium systems based on its relation to information. To apply this definition in practice requires access to the physical system's microstates, which may be prohibitively…