An Introduction to Influence Theory: Kinematics and Dynamics

Influence theory is a foundational theory of physics that is not based on traditional empirically defined concepts, such as positions in space and time, mass, energy, or momentum. Instead, the aim is to derive these concepts, and their empirically determined relationships, from a more primitive model. It is postulated that there exist things, which are call particles, that influence one another in a discrete and directed fashion resulting in a partially ordered set of influence events. The problem of consistent quantification of the influence events is considered. Observers are modeled as particle chains (observer chains) as if an observer were able to track a particle and quantify the influence events that the particle experiences. From these quantified influence events, consistent quantification of the universe of events based on the observer chains is studied. Herein, the kinematics and dynamics of particles from the perspective of influence theory are both reviewed and further developed.     

Guiding functions and periodic solutions for inclusions with causal multioperators

In the present paper, the method of guiding functions is applied to study the periodic problem for a differential inclusion with a causal multioperator. At first we consider the case when the multioperator is closed and convex-valued. Then the case of a non-convex-valued and lower semicontinuous right-hand part is considered. Thereafter, the theory is extended to the case of non-smooth guiding functions.     

时变系统的稳定化

This paper deals with the stabilization problem for linear time-varying systems within the framework of nest algebras. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a class of plants to be stabilizable, and we also study the simultaneous and strong stabilization problems.     

A Traditional Scientific Perspective on the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness

This paper assesses two different theories for explaining consciousness, a phenomenon that is widely considered amenable to scientific investigation despite its puzzling subjective aspects. I focus on Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which says that consciousness is integrated information (as ϕ^Max) and says even simple systems with interacting parts possess some consciousness. First, I evaluate IIT on its own merits. Second, I compare it to a more traditionally derived theory called Neurobiological Naturalism (NN), which says consciousness is an evolved, emergent feature of complex brains. Comparing these theories is informative because it reveals strengths and weaknesses of each, thereby suggesting better ways to study consciousness in the future. IIT’s strengths are the reasonable axioms at its core; its strong logic and mathematical formalism; its creative “experience-first” approach to studying consciousness; the way it avoids the mind-body (“hard”) problem; its consistency with evolutionary theory; and its many scientifically testable predictions. The potential weakness of IIT is that it contains stretches of logic-based reasoning that were not checked against hard evidence when the theory was being constructed, whereas scientific arguments require such supporting evidence to keep the reasoning on course. This is less of a concern for the other theory, NN, because it incorporated evidence much earlier in its construction process. NN is a less mature theory than IIT, less formalized and quantitative, and less well tested. However, it has identified its own neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and offers a roadmap through which these NNCs may answer the questions of consciousness using the hypothesize-test-hypothesize-test steps of the scientific method.     

Determining Causal Skeletons with Information Theory

Modeling a causal association as arising from a communication process between cause and effect, simplifies the discovery of causal skeletons. The communication channels enabling these communication processes, are fully characterized by stochastic tensors, and therefore allow us to use linear algebra. This tensor-based approach reduces the dimensionality of the data needed to test for conditional independence, e.g., for systems comprising three variables, pair-wise determined tensors suffice to infer the causal skeleton. The only thing needed is a minor extension to information theory, namely the concept of path information.     

Influence of an indefinite causal order on an Otto heat engine

The quantum effect plays an important role in quantum thermodynamics, and recently the application of an indefinite causal order to quantum thermodynamics has attracted much attention. Based on two trapped ions, we propose a scheme to add an indefinite causal order to the isochoric cooling stroke of an Otto engine through reservoir engineering. Then, we observe that the quasi-static efficiency of this heat engine is far beyond the efficiency of a normal Otto heat engine and may reach one. When the power is its maximum, the efficiency is also much higher than that of a normal Otto heat engine. This enhancement may originate from the non-equilibrium of the reservoir and the measurement on the control qubit.     

On harmonic analysis of causal operators

We follow the group representation theory approach to define causal operators on Banach modules and present some of their spectral properties.     

Corner view on the crown domain

In this paper we raise a question about the boundary of the crown domain of a Riemannian symmetric space X. In case X is of Hermitian type we give an affirmative answer.     

Nonstatistical quantum-classical correspondence in phase space

We study the properties of a causal quantum theory in phase space for which phase space classical mechanics is obtained as a limit. The causal quantum theory is obtained from a generalized coherent state representation. The behavior for the one particle case and the manyparticle case are illustrated for the harmonic oscillator. We also answer to the arguments against the possibility of constructing causal theories in phase space.     

A Geometric formulation of the causal Interpretation of quantum mechanics

The principles of the causal interpretation are embodied in a conformally invariant theory in Weyl space. The particle is represented by a spherically symmetric thin-shell solution to Einstein's equations. Use of the Gauss-Mainardi-Codazzi formalism yields new insights into the issues of nonlocality, the quantum potential, and the guidance mechanism.1. The issue of negative probabilities associated with second-order wave equations in the causal interpretation is discussed in Ref. 19.