Is Causality a Necessary Tool for Understanding Our Universe,or Is It a Part of the Problem?

In this paper, the concept of causality in physics is discussed. Causality is a necessary tool for the understanding of almost all physical phenomena. However, taking it as a fundamental principle may lead us to wrong conclusions, particularly in cosmology. Here, three very well-known problems—the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox, the accelerating expansion and the asymmetry of time—are discussed from this perspective. In particular, the implications of causality are compared to those of an alternative approach, where we instead take the probability space of all possible developments as the starting point.     

Understanding the Nature of the Long-Range Memory Phenomenon in Socioeconomic Systems

In the face of the upcoming 30th anniversary of econophysics, we review our contributions and other related works on the modeling of the long-range memory phenomenon in physical, economic, and other social complex systems. Our group has shown that the long-range memory phenomenon can be reproduced using various Markov processes, such as point processes, stochastic differential equations, and agent-based models—reproduced well enough to match other statistical properties of the financial markets, such as return and trading activity distributions and first-passage time distributions. Research has lead us to question whether the observed long-range memory is a result of the actual long-range memory process or just a consequence of the non-linearity of Markov processes. As our most recent result, we discuss the long-range memory of the order flow data in the financial markets and other social systems from the perspective of the fractional Lèvy stable motion. We test widely used long-range memory estimators on discrete fractional Lèvy stable motion represented by the auto-regressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA) sample series. Our newly obtained results seem to indicate that new estimators of self-similarity and long-range memory for analyzing systems with non-Gaussian distributions have to be developed.     

Earth’s Complexity Is Non-Computable: The Limits of Scaling Laws,Nonlinearity and Chaos

Current physics commonly qualifies the Earth system as ‘complex’ because it includes numerous different processes operating over a large range of spatial scales, often modelled as exhibiting non-linear chaotic response dynamics and power scaling laws. This characterization is based on the fundamental assumption that the Earth’s complexity could, in principle, be modeled by (surrogated by) a numerical algorithm if enough computing power were granted. Yet, similar numerical algorithms also surrogate different systems having the same processes and dynamics, such as Mars or Jupiter, although being qualitatively different from the Earth system. Here, we argue that understanding the Earth as a complex system requires a consideration of the Gaia hypothesis: the Earth is a complex system because it instantiates life—and therefore an autopoietic, metabolic-repair (M,R) organization—at a planetary scale. This implies that the Earth’s complexity has formal equivalence to a self-referential system that inherently is non-algorithmic and, therefore, cannot be surrogated and simulated in a Turing machine. We discuss the consequences of this, with reference to in-silico climate models, tipping points, planetary boundaries, and planetary feedback loops as units of adaptive evolution and selection.     

Wigner’s Friend Scenarios and the Internal Consistency of Standard Quantum Mechanics

Wigner’s friend scenarios involve an Observer, or Observers, measuring a Friend, or Friends, who themselves make quantum measurements. In recent discussions, it has been suggested that quantum mechanics may not always be able to provide a consistent account of a situation involving two Observers and two Friends. We investigate this problem by invoking the basic rules of quantum mechanics as outlined by Feynman in the well-known “Feynman Lectures on Physics”. We show here that these “Feynman rules” constrain the a priori assumptions which can be made in generalised Wigner’s friend scenarios, because the existence of the probabilities of interest ultimately depends on the availability of physical evidence (material records) of the system’s past. With these constraints obeyed, a non-ambiguous and consistent account of all measurement outcomes is obtained for all agents, taking part in various Wigner’s Friend scenarios.     

Distinguishability and Disturbance in the Quantum Key Distribution Protocol Using the Mean Multi-Kings’ Problem

We introduce a quantum key distribution protocol using mean multi-kings’ problem. Using this protocol, a sender can share a bit sequence as a secret key with receivers. We consider a relation between information gain by an eavesdropper and disturbance contained in legitimate users’ information. In BB84 protocol, such relation is known as the so-called information disturbance theorem. We focus on a setting that the sender and two receivers try to share bit sequences and the eavesdropper tries to extract information by interacting legitimate users’ systems and an ancilla system. We derive trade-off inequalities between distinguishability of quantum states corresponding to the bit sequence for the eavesdropper and error probability of the bit sequence shared with the legitimate users. Our inequalities show that eavesdropper’s extracting information regarding the secret keys inevitably induces disturbing the states and increasing the error probability.     

Information Processing in the Brain as Optimal Entropy Transport: A Theoretical Approach

We consider brain activity from an information theoretic perspective. We analyze the information processing in the brain, considering the optimality of Shannon entropy transport using the Monge–Kantorovich framework. It is proposed that some of these processes satisfy an optimal transport of informational entropy condition. This optimality condition allows us to derive an equation of the Monge–Ampère type for the information flow that accounts for the branching structure of neurons via the linearization of this equation. Based on this fact, we discuss a version of Murray’s law in this context.     

Conditional Action and Imperfect Erasure of Qubits

We consider state changes in quantum theory due to “conditional action” and relate these to the discussion of entropy decrease due to interventions of “intelligent beings” and the principles of Szilard and Landauer/Bennett. The mathematical theory of conditional actions is a special case of the theory of “instruments”, which describes changes of state due to general measurements and will therefore be briefly outlined in the present paper. As a detailed example, we consider the imperfect erasure of a qubit that can also be viewed as a conditional action and will be realized by the coupling of a spin to another small spin system in its ground state.     

Schrödinger’s Ballot: Quantum Information and the Violation of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem

We study Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem in the quantum setting. Our work is based on the work of Bao and Halpern, in which it is proved that the quantum analogue of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem is not valid. However, we feel unsatisfied about the proof presented in Bao and Halpern’s work. Moreover, the definition of Quantum Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (QIIA) in Bao and Halpern’s work seems not appropriate to us. We give a better definition of QIIA, which properly captures the idea of the independence of irrelevant alternatives, and a detailed proof of the violation of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem in the quantum setting with the modified definition.     

Survival of Virus Particles in Water Droplets: Hydrophobic Forces and Landauer’s Principle

Many small biological objects, such as viruses, survive in a water environment and cannot remain active in dry air without condensation of water vapor. From a physical point of view, these objects belong to the mesoscale, where small thermal fluctuations with the characteristic kinetic energy of k_BT (where k_B is the Boltzmann’s constant and T is the absolute temperature) play a significant role. The self-assembly of viruses, including protein folding and the formation of a protein capsid and lipid bilayer membrane, is controlled by hydrophobic forces (i.e., the repulsing forces between hydrophobic particles and regions of molecules) in a water environment. Hydrophobic forces are entropic, and they are driven by a system’s tendency to attain the maximum disordered state. On the other hand, in information systems, entropic forces are responsible for erasing information, if the energy barrier between two states of a switch is on the order of k_BT, which is referred to as Landauer’s principle. We treated hydrophobic interactions responsible for the self-assembly of viruses as an information-processing mechanism. We further showed a similarity of these submicron-scale processes with the self-assembly in colloidal crystals, droplet clusters, and liquid marbles.     

Infinite Ergodic Walks in Finite Connected Undirected Graphs

The micro-canonical, canonical, and grand canonical ensembles of walks defined in finite connected undirected graphs are considered in the thermodynamic limit of infinite walk length. As infinitely long paths are extremely sensitive to structural irregularities and defects, their properties are used to describe the degree of structural imbalance, anisotropy, and navigability in finite graphs. For the first time, we introduce entropic force and pressure describing the effect of graph defects on mobility patterns associated with the very long walks in finite graphs; navigation in graphs and navigability to the nodes by the different types of ergodic walks; as well as node’s fugacity in the course of prospective network expansion or shrinking.     

From Quantum Probabilities to Quantum Amplitudes

The task of reconstructing the system’s state from the measurements results, known as the Pauli problem, usually requires repetition of two successive steps. Preparation in an initial state to be determined is followed by an accurate measurement of one of the several chosen operators in order to provide the necessary “Pauli data”. We consider a similar yet more general problem of recovering Feynman’s transition (path) amplitudes from the results of at least three consecutive measurements. The three-step histories of a pre- and post-selected quantum system are subjected to a type of interference not available to their two-step counterparts. We show that this interference can be exploited, and if the intermediate measurement is “fuzzy”, the path amplitudes can be successfully recovered. The simplest case of a two-level system is analysed in detail. The “weak measurement” limit and the usefulness of the path amplitudes are also discussed.     

Quantumness Measures for a System of Two Qubits Interacting with a Field in the Presence of the Time-Dependent Interaction and Kerr Medium

In this work, we introduce the standard Tavis-Cummings model to describe two-qubit system interacting with a single-mode field associated to power-law (PL) potentials. We explore the effect of the time-dependent interaction and the Kerr-like medium. We solve the Schrödinger equation to obtain the density operator that allows us to investigate the dynamical behaviour of some quantumness measures, such as von Neumann entropy, negativity and Mandel’s parameter. We provide how these entanglement measures depend on the system parameters, which paves the way towards better control of entanglement generation in two-qubit systems. We find that the enhancement and preservation of the atoms-field entanglement and atom-atom entanglement can be achieved by a proper choice of the initial parameters of the field in the absence and presence of the time-dependent interaction and Kerr medium. We examine the photons distribution of the field and determine the situations for which the field exhibits super-poissonian, poissonian or sub-poissonian distribution.     

Formulation of Time-Fractional Electrodynamics Based on Riemann-Silberstein Vector

In this paper, the formulation of time-fractional (TF) electrodynamics is derived based on the Riemann-Silberstein (RS) vector. With the use of this vector and fractional-order derivatives, one can write TF Maxwell’s equations in a compact form, which allows for modelling of energy dissipation and dynamics of electromagnetic systems with memory. Therefore, we formulate TF Maxwell’s equations using the RS vector and analyse their properties from the point of view of classical electrodynamics, i.e., energy and momentum conservation, reciprocity, causality. Afterwards, we derive classical solutions for wave-propagation problems, assuming helical, spherical, and cylindrical symmetries of solutions. The results are supported by numerical simulations and their analysis. Discussion of relations between the TF Schrödinger equation and TF electrodynamics is included as well.     

On Yaglom’s Law for the Interplanetary Proton Density and Temperature Fluctuations in Solar Wind Turbulence

In the past decades, there has been an increasing literature on the presence of an inertial energy cascade in interplanetary space plasma, being interpreted as the signature of Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence (MHD) for both fields and passive scalars. Here, we investigate the passive scalar nature of the solar wind proton density and temperature by looking for scaling features in the mixed-scalar third-order structure functions using measurements on-board the Ulysses spacecraft during two different periods, i.e., an equatorial slow solar wind and a high-latitude fast solar wind, respectively. We find a linear scaling of the mixed third-order structure function as predicted by Yaglom’s law for passive scalars in the case of slow solar wind, while the results for fast solar wind suggest that the mixed fourth-order structure function displays a linear scaling. A simple empirical explanation of the observed difference is proposed and discussed.     

Quasi-Static Variation of Power-Law and Log-Normal Distributions of Urban Population

We analytically derived and confirmed by empirical data the following three relations from the quasi-time-reversal symmetry, Gibrat’s law, and the non-Gibrat’s property observed in the urban population data of France. The first is the relation between the time variation of the power law and the quasi-time-reversal symmetry in the large-scale range of a system that changes quasi-statically. The second is the relation between the time variation of the log-normal distribution and the quasi-time-reversal symmetry in the mid-scale range. The third is the relation among the parameters of log-normal distribution, non-Gibrat’s property, and quasi-time-reversal symmetry.     

Arbitrary-Order Finite-Time Corrections for the Kramers–Moyal Operator

With the aim of improving the reconstruction of stochastic evolution equations from empirical time-series data, we derive a full representation of the generator of the Kramers–Moyal operator via a power-series expansion of the exponential operator. This expansion is necessary for deriving the different terms in a stochastic differential equation. With the full representation of this operator, we are able to separate finite-time corrections of the power-series expansion of arbitrary order into terms with and without derivatives of the Kramers–Moyal coefficients. We arrive at a closed-form solution expressed through conditional moments, which can be extracted directly from time-series data with a finite sampling intervals. We provide all finite-time correction terms for parametric and non-parametric estimation of the Kramers–Moyal coefficients for discontinuous processes which can be easily implemented—employing Bell polynomials—in time-series analyses of stochastic processes. With exemplary cases of insufficiently sampled diffusion and jump-diffusion processes, we demonstrate the advantages of our arbitrary-order finite-time corrections and their impact in distinguishing diffusion and jump-diffusion processes strictly from time-series data.     

Novel plasma biomarker surrogating cerebral amyloid deposition

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common and devastating dementia. Simple and practical biomarkers for AD are urgently required for accurate diagnosis and to facilitate the development of disease-modifying interventions. The subjects for the study were selected on the basis of PiB amyloid imaging by PET. Forty PiB-positive (PiB+) individuals, including cognitively healthy controls (HC), and mild cognitive impairment and AD individuals, and 22 PiB-negative (PiB−) HC participated. Employing our novel highly sensitive immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry, we measured plasma amyloid β-proteins (Aβs; Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42) and Aβ-approximate peptides (AβAPs), which were cleaved from amyloid precursor protein (APP). Among the AβAPs, APP669-711 appeared to be a good reference for deciphering pathological change of Aβ1-42. We evaluated the performance of the ratio of APP669-711 to Aβ1-42 (APP669-711/Aβ1-42) as a biomarker. APP669-711/Aβ1-42 significantly increased in the PiB+ groups. The sensitivity and specificity to discriminate PiB+ individuals from PiB− individuals were 0.925 and 0.955, respectively. Our plasma biomarker precisely surrogates cerebral amyloid deposition.     

The catecholamine system in health and disease —Relation to tyrosine 3-monooxygenase and other catecholamine-synthesizing enzymes—

Catecholamines [dopamine, noradrenaline (norepinephrine), and adrenaline (epinephrine); CAs] are neurotransmitters in the central and peripheral nervous systems as well as hormones in the endocrine system. CAs in the brain play a central role in versatile functions as slow-acting neurotransmitters functioning in synaptic neurotransmission, modulating the effects of fast-acting neurotransmitters such as glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). In this review, I focus on recent advances in the biochemistry and molecular biology of the CA system in humans in health and disease, especially in neuropsychiatric diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), in relation to the biosynthesis of CAs regulated by a pteridine-dependent monooxygenase, tyrosine 3-monooxygenase (tyrosine hydroxylase, TH) and its pteridine cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4).     

Implications of Local Friendliness Violation for Quantum Causality

We provide a new formulation of the Local Friendliness no-go theorem of Bong et al. [Nat. Phys. 16, 1199 (2020)] from fundamental causal principles, providing another perspective on how it puts strictly stronger bounds on quantum reality than Bell’s theorem. In particular, quantum causal models have been proposed as a way to maintain a peaceful coexistence between quantum mechanics and relativistic causality while respecting Leibniz’s methodological principle. This works for Bell’s theorem but does not work for the Local Friendliness no-go theorem, which considers an extended Wigner’s Friend scenario. More radical conceptual renewal is required; we suggest that cleaving to Leibniz’s principle requires extending relativity to events themselves.