Are Words the Quanta of Human Language? Extending the Domain of Quantum Cognition

In previous research, we showed that ‘texts that tell a story’ exhibit a statistical structure that is not Maxwell–Boltzmann but Bose–Einstein. Our explanation is that this is due to the presence of ‘indistinguishability’ in human language as a result of the same words in different parts of the story being indistinguishable from one another, in much the same way that ’indistinguishability’ occurs in quantum mechanics, also there leading to the presence of Bose–Einstein rather than Maxwell–Boltzmann as a statistical structure. In the current article, we set out to provide an explanation for this Bose–Einstein statistics in human language. We show that it is the presence of ‘meaning’ in ‘texts that tell a story’ that gives rise to the lack of independence characteristic of Bose–Einstein, and provides conclusive evidence that ‘words can be considered the quanta of human language’, structurally similar to how ‘photons are the quanta of electromagnetic radiation’. Using several studies on entanglement from our Brussels research group, we also show, by introducing the von Neumann entropy for human language, that it is also the presence of ‘meaning’ in texts that makes the entropy of a total text smaller relative to the entropy of the words composing it. We explain how the new insights in this article fit in with the research domain called ‘quantum cognition’, where quantum probability models and quantum vector spaces are used in human cognition, and are also relevant to the use of quantum structures in information retrieval and natural language processing, and how they introduce ‘quantization’ and ‘Bose–Einstein statistics’ as relevant quantum effects there. Inspired by the conceptuality interpretation of quantum mechanics, and relying on the new insights, we put forward hypotheses about the nature of physical reality. In doing so, we note how this new type of decrease in entropy, and its explanation, may be important for the development of quantum thermodynamics. We likewise note how it can also give rise to an original explanatory picture of the nature of physical reality on the surface of planet Earth, in which human culture emerges as a reinforcing continuation of life.     

Sofic equivalence relations

We introduce the notion of sofic measurable equivalence relations. Using them we prove that Connes' Embedding Conjecture as well as the Measurable Determinant Conjecture of Lück, Sauer and Wegner hold for treeable equivalence relations.     

压缩真空场与原子非线性作用过程中的纠缠与消纠缠

用Von Neumann熵研究了附加克尔介质的压缩真空场与二能级原子依赖强度耦合相互作用量子体系的量子纠缠特性.讨论了初始压缩真空场的压缩度以及克尔非线性作用的强度对该量子体系纠缠特性的影响.结果表明，克尔介质的非线性作用的强弱可以改变体系量子纠缠的周期性；在初始压缩度较大（r=5）时，克尔介质的非线性作用可导致原子与场持续地处于最大纠缠态，无消纠缠态或持续地处于消纠缠态. 关键词： 压缩真空态 克尔介质 依赖强度耦合J-C模型 Von Neumann熵 量子纠缠     

混合von Mises 模型的参数估计

有限混合von Mises模型在天文学、生物学、地理和医药等许多领域都有重要的应用．可是,不论样本量有多大,此模型的似然函数都是无界的．因此,参数的最大似然估计(MLE)是不相合的．我们发现,与混合正态模型一样,上述困难可以通过引入关于分布浓度参数的一个惩罚函数或对参数空间添加适当的约束来克服．在此文中,我们从理论上证明了这两种方法是可行的,相应的参数估计是强相合的,且是渐近有效的．我们还通过计算机模拟来探讨这些新方法在有限样本情况下的统计性质,并与现有的矩估计作了比较．结果发现,惩罚极大似然估计在均方误差方面表现最佳．最后我们还分析了一组实际数据,以进一步介绍新的估计方法．     

Perturbations of subalgebras of type II1 factors

In this paper we consider two von Neumann subalgebras and of a type II₁ factor . For a map φ on , we define

     

Applications of the Wold decomposition to the study of row contractions associated with directed graphs

Based on a Wold decomposition for families of partial isometries and projections of Cuntz-Krieger-Toeplitz-type, we extend several fundamental theorems from the case of single vertex graphs to the general case of countable directed graphs with no sinks. We prove a Szego-type factorization theorem for CKT families, which leads to information on the structure of the unit ball in free semigroupoid algebras, and show that joint similarity implies joint unitary equivalence for such families. For each graph we prove a generalization of von Neumann's inequality which applies to row contractions of operators on Hilbert space which are related to the graph in a natural way. This yields a functional calculus determined by quiver algebras and free semigroupoid algebras. We establish a generalization of Coburn's theorem for the -algebra of a CKT family, and prove a universality theorem for -algebras generated by these families. In both cases, the -algebras generated by quiver algebras play the universal role.

     

Wandering vector multipliers for unitary groups

A wandering vector multiplier is a unitary operator which maps the set of wandering vectors for a unitary system into itself. A special case of unitary system is a discrete unitary group. We prove that for many (and perhaps all) discrete unitary groups, the set of wandering vector multipliers is itself a group. We completely characterize the wandering vector multipliers for abelian and ICC unitary groups. Some characterizations of special wandering vector multipliers are obtained for other cases. In particular, there are simple characterizations for diagonal and permutation wandering vector multipliers. Similar results remain valid for irrational rotation unitary systems. We also obtain some results concerning the wandering vector multipliers for those unitary systems which are the ordered products of two unitary groups. There are applications to wavelet systems.

     

Exchange Relation Planar Algebras

An inclusion of II ₁ factors NM of finite index has as an invariant, a double sequence of finite-dimensional algebras known as the standard invariant. Planar algebras were introduced by V. Jones as a geometric tool for computing standard invariants of existing subfactors as well as generating standard invariants for new subfactors. In this paper we define a class of planar algebras, termed exchange relation planar algebras, that provides a general framework for understanding several classes of known subfactor inclusions: the Fuss–Catalan algebras (i.e. those coming from the presence of intermediate subfactors) and all depth 2 subfactors. In addition, we present a new class of planar algebras (and thus a new class of subfactors) coming from automorphism subgroups of finite groups.     

On the Blum-Hanson theorem for quantum quadratic processes

In this paper an analog of the Blum-Hanson theorem for quantum quadratic processes on the von Neumann algebra is proved, i.e., it is established that the following conditions are equivalent: