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00:43
Hello there
hi Zest
Hi :D
@TRiG Interestingly, this was the first question I had about imaginary numbers as well.
Hi Nick. What's up?
Hey everyone!
00:59
Heya Demonark
How's it going?
warmly, as everywhere
This is true, had to turn on the fan today
Well, we know you love to have fans.
Heh, better than enemies in any event
01:40
Complex numbers aren't just vectors. They are multivectors (scalars + bivectors in particular), equipped with the geometric product.
I have made it my mission in life to call people out when they confuse vectors with bivectors. The magnetic field is a bivector field!
 
1 hour later…
03:52
in The h Bar, 6 mins ago, by danielunderwood
Guys I've discovered a tremendous fact

$$
{10^n \choose 2} = 4 \underbrace{9 \cdots 9}_{n + 1} 5 \underbrace{0 \cdots 0}_{n - 1}
$$
@user2236 These vanishing instances where you still have hope of humanity
@LeakyNun are you good at statistics?
okay thanks anyway
vzn
vzn
wonders if the fields medal was stolen by anyone associated with a brazilian slum favela... seems maybe odds are good o_O telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/…
2
> “It’s often said also that drug gangs prefer to avoid conflict with tourists as this attracts unwanted attention to their territory.” lol
04:41
@Secret yeah, it was a nice gesture
05:04
@vzn what does it mean to be "associated" with a favela, it's literally just a place where people live (and most of the people who live there are firmly middle class, but whatever you can also believe propaganda pieces written by people who dont actually understand the local politics).
@rschwieb localizations at prime ideals, yeah
05:30
Hmmmm...
Let {1,2,3,4,5} be a set with discrete topolpgy
consider a permutation map:
Then given any open set, it's orbit will intersect all other open sets
zhk
zhk
Hello everyone!
I need help to come up with a weak form of a system of PDEs
Anyone please guide me
Thanks
Thus for any pair of open set, there exists some n such that $f^n(A) \cap B \neq \varnothing$
So the permutation map is topologically transitive and hence topologically mixing
So is that chaos?
[Random]
Self indulgent hyperbolic mixing
Weak formulations are important tools for the analysis of mathematical equations that permit the transfer of concepts of linear algebra to solve problems in other fields such as partial differential equations. In a weak formulation, an equation is no longer required to hold absolutely (and this is not even well defined) and has instead weak solutions only with respect to certain "test vectors" or "test functions". This is equivalent to formulating the problem to require a solution in the sense of a distribution. We introduce weak formulations by a few examples and present the main theorem for the...
hmm...
 
1 hour later…
06:54
$$\lim_{s \to 1^+} (s-1) \sum_{n=1}^\infty n^{-s}$$
07:12
$$\sum_{n=1}^\infty n^{-s} \le 1 + \int_1^\infty x^{-s} \ \mathrm dx = 1 + \frac1{s-1}$$
$$\sum_{n=1}^\infty n^{-s} \ge \int_1^\infty x^{-s} \ \mathrm dx = \frac1 {s-1}$$
so the limit is $1$
07:23
Hello!
As everybody knows, the measure of a point wrt Lebesgue measure is 0. This leads to a conundrum when one wants to "draw a sample from the uniform distribution on [0,1]"
Every point has measure zero, so it is impossible for any point to be returned as a sample, instead one can only sample a range, ie an array of yes/no statements of the form: The sample is in the set A_n
I was wondering whether anybody knows a nice exposition on this thing?
08:07
You can also have statements of the form "the sample is the point 0.5", they just have negative answer with probability 1
You can find more in any book on probability (with the measure-theoretic approach)
08:31
Mathematical probabilty theory texts dont talk about a sampling process
and that is what I am interested in, what I describe above is a dumbed down version of what von Neumann describes in his book on quantum mechanics, but I am interested in something more modern and explicitly addressing this
09:20
Hello, i am searching for material on $k$-th complete coefficient $C_{k}$ for a continued fraction. I have searched online for the same and looked at wiki but found nothing nice, if anyone knows anything please tell me.
10:24
Chaotic sphere
Contrast this with:
 
1 hour later…
11:42
Some dynamical systems exhibit shearing ; that is, the differentials are transvections. Then they can stretch open sets, and wrap them around so as to get topological mixing, while still having zero Lyapunov exponents. An example would be the horocycle flow on a compact surface of negative curvature, which exhibits 2, but neither 1 nor 3. — D. Thomine 1 hour ago
Ah interesting...
So that means, chaos = positive Lyapunov coefficient + topological mixing + dense periodic orbits
ok the latter two is very easy to visualise, it's the former that is a headache
In summary:
1,2,3 = chaos
1 only: e.g. scaling
2 only: e.g. shearing map that topologically mixes
3 only: e.g. tent map + permutations
1+2: e.g. constant rotations of points on a circle consists of only irrational points
1+3: e.g phase space where there are orbits around every rational point, such that no two orbits intersect each other (think of them stacked like a 2D generalisation of ford circles, and there are orbits inscribed in each in a dense manner)
2+3 implies 1
So that means... once we saw signs of topological mixing and locate the dense orbits, we have chaos
So... the logistic map's chaotic region should be full of these cycles lurking somewhere in that seemly homogeneous mass
But can we do better: If we knew the full set of dense orbits, and their whole profile of interaction strengths on nearby trajectories, can we then figure out which trajectory we are on and hence predict chaos?
Chaos is deterministic, meaning everything is determined by the initial condition. Alternately, it means given a particle at an initial condition, the dynamics will cause it to trace out a trajectory. Even if this trajectory is almost impossible to know in principle, the particle will have zero chance of leaving that trajectory
12:03
So it goes like this:
12:14
Deterministic, nonrandom and locally predictable: Almost all Newtonian dynamics, where every future and past part of a trajectory is contained in the differential equations and can be computed using only information at a given point on the trajectory
Deterministic, nonrandom and predictable: Some long range dynamics, where more than one point can influence a trajectory. All information still contains in the differential equation systems
Deterministic, nonrandom and limited predictablity: Chaotic dynamics, where exact and error free information of the whole trajectory is needed to predict the dynamics given initial condition, but at small enough ranges, the probability of finding a point somewhere can be predicted
Deterministic, nonrandom and unpredictable: Systems which has more than one solutions, future evolution of a point cannot be predicted at those branching points
Deterministic, random and locally predictable: Brownian motions and other random walks
Deterministic, random and predictable: Stochastic systems with a lot of mixing, or long range interactions
Deterministic, random and limited predictability: Chaotic dynamics plus noise
sorry, the previous 3 should be nondeterministic
[s]I cannot think of any deterministic system that you only have pdfs as information[/s]
Actually, there is one...
Deterministic, random and limited predictability: Quantum systems
Deterministic, random and unpredictable: ??? Something that, when at equlibrium, gives quantum mechanics
Nondeterministic, random and unpredictable: Unknowns
Nondeterministic, nonrandom and unpredictable: Unknown unknowns
In pictures:
13:03
@Secret if one takes the randomness to reflect our inability to know the initial conditions of the system, then I’d say dBB fits here
ah, so we cannot calculate the specific trajectories beforehand because we cannot know where the particle initially is?
you cannot calculate the specific trajectory, singular
once you specify the initial wavefunction and the evolution equation of the system, you can deduce how the wavefunction evolves in time
that time-dependent wavefunction, in turn, will enforce a set of allowed trajectories for the particle
with the initial position dictating which one of these allowed trajectories is actually chosen
trajectory possibilities
trajectories
possible paths
13:11
Hmm.. so it is kinda a flipped around version of the narrative in standard QM as for that, you knew the initial condition, but there is no trajectory, whereas in dBB, you knew the set of trajectories but cannot know the initial condition, thus you can at best only said the probability of which trajectory the particle landed on
It's worth keeping in mind that, in dBB, the 'complete' initial specification of a system is the initial wavefunction plus the initial position
However, one can learn about the wavefunction statistically---i.e. make many measurements of $x$ at time $t$ in order to deduce $\rho(x,t)$
But by that same token, one can only learn about the initial position in a statistical way
hmm...
The basic problem is that the question of 'what trajectories are allowed to the electron' is a contextual one.
It depends on how the system is prepared, and on what interactions subsequently take place
You can measure the electron to learn its position at a given time, but to do so requires interacting with the electron
and once you've done that, the experimental context has changed. hence you lose any further opportunity to learn about the trajectory of the electron in the original context.
Now, you can characterize the original context in a statistical sense by repeatedly preparing said system and measuring it
which is to say, you can estimate $\rho(x,t)$ from actual measurements
@Secret the reason I distrust that way of putting it is that, even in usual QM, one doesn't speak of knowing the position of the electron at time t=0 to infinite precision
one rather says that you measure $x$ at $t=0$ with a certain uncertainty
right
The point is more that, if you can only ever measure the position of an electron along a trajectory in a given context once, then what use is that concept of trajectory?
In classical Newtonian physics, the utility of a trajectory is precisely that we can measure the particle at different times along the path and see what is happening
in QM, you lose the ability to make sense of successive measurements as forming a path
or, at least, you lose the option of interpreting those successive measurements as revealing the path in a sense that's independent of the measurement device
13:25
yup
because unlike in classical, every measurement disrupt the system and thus changing its context
so after every measurement, we are technically dealing with a fresh system which we knew nothing about
Not nothing, but not much
Take the example of two SG devices which are at 45 degree angles to one another
If an electron comes out as spin up in one of them, then the odds of coming out spin up/down in the other won't be fifty-fifty. (it would be if they were at 90 degrees to each other)
and that difference in probabilities means that we do know 'something' about our system. it's just that knowing 'something' isn't the same as being able to predict the outcome
Right, we knew the statistics to some extent, but statistics only give some information on what the outcome is like
Yeah. Huzzah for conditional probabilities
(Unrelated) Currently applying the explosive generalisation operator onto the discussion we had above as I chat with WSE people about how to think of very very hard magic
hi guys!
what is dBB?
13:41
de Brogile Bohmian mechanics
(a brief soapbox: to regard the concept of a trajectory as having no utility in QM is, to me, a perfectly legitimate reason for not talking about it. but to regard such trajectories as therefore 'nonscientific' and worthy of mockery is frankly irritating.)
yes
but given his propensity for conflating disagreement with him as proof of intellectual (and moral) inferiority
I basically don't have any interest in what he has to say.
ok. don't know what to think about it. that the heat cap. would come out wrong would kill it. hes a foul mouth.
but politeness would not alter the argument i supp.
Best way to deal with Motl = tell him to walk from 0 to $\omega_1$
13:52
lol!
Debating with a normal person is like a random walk on a sphere
Do you have exp. with him?
you can credibly hope that if you keep going long enough, you'll eventually get where you need to go
debating with LM, however, seems more like a random walk in 3D
:-)
Anyway it seems dBB is not settled, or is it?
Depends on what we're talking about
In terms of dBB unto itself, i.e. unmodified and restricted to a non-relativistic context
in that context, you've got three postualtes: waves evolve according to the Schrodinger equation, particles are guided by waves, and the initial positions of particles are distributed according to the Born rule
once you grant those, then you can show the equivalence to QM in all its predictions
13:58
Heat capacities of solids?
is a prediction of QM and therefore is a prediction of dBB
well maybe except the relative intensities of the fringes, I read some 2013 paper saying that the intensities are slightly different between QM and dBB
@Secret people have raised stuff like that, but as far as I'm aware it's not true
in order to get dBB to disagree with QM, you have to introduce additional premises/assumptions which modify dBB
but if you do that, then what you're critiquing isn't dBB anymore
@Semiclassical how would that work when you'd have the same phase space volume for a particle as in classical mechanics?
You wouldn't. dBB isn't a Newtonian theory.
14:02
oh
To the extent that you'd talk about volume, it'd be configuration space volume not phase space volume
For better or worse, dBB is a story on configuration space not on classical phase space
but this is indicative of a sleight of hand that people like to pull
What, exactly, is meant by 'classical mechanics'?
If you're talking about phase space, I can only infer you're talking about some formulation of Newtonian mechanics
But in that sense, dBB is not a theory of classical mechanics
This is how imagined the Bohmian trajectories
On the other hand, people also like to talk about any theory in which trajectories exist as 'classical mechanics'
14:05
I identify that with Newtonian. Without thinking about it ...
I mean in nature there are not that many possibilities (in principle ...)
I think a very minimal account of 'classical mechanics' would be that Newton's laws hold
And, well, dBB doesn't even accept that much :)
suppose you have a single particle, starting at rest in a system with no external forces
I did not know that. So the Bohmian trajectories violate Newtons laws?
in Newtonian physics, you'd conclude that the particle must remain at rest for all times
In dBB, though, you've also got the wavefunction
and that's what dictates the allowed trajectories of the particle
as such, it's trivial to come up with particles which will start at rest but will accelerate to a final velocity
14:09
But there is no resting particle
in QM
my point basically being that particles in dBB can accelerate despite the absence of an external force
now, you can actually write the theory in such a way that the wavefunction contributes a term to the potential and therefore gives a 'quantum' contribution to the force
but the more basic lesson seems to be that the wavefunction dictates that the velocity is a function of position and time, which is not the case classically
I guess the way I'd say it is that, in the standard QM story, you interpret the uncertainty principle as forcing you to give up on both configuration and phase space
whereas in dBB you only give up on phase space
Now, that choice isn't without it's consequences
And I think it's not unreasonable to conclude that this cure is worse than the disease
You understand by phase space the "position space" I suppose and only by "phase space" both pos. and mom.?
configuration space = positions of particles, phase space = positions and momenta
14:18
yes.
@Rudi_Birnbaum (you said phase space twice)
yes.
oh sorry I confused it
this does mean, I should note, that dBB for better or worse does not treat momentum and position symmetrically
you do recover such a symmetry once you go to the classical limit, of course
but the interpretation does place position measurements as being privileged as compared with velocity measurements
As far as i know, that symmetric treatment in QM has very profound (practical) limits.
as well
I think that privileging position isn't so unreasonable, given that the only way I know how to measure velocity is by making two position measurements
The problem, though, is that it seems to commit you to thinking of an N-particle wavefunction---a function on 3N-dimensional configuration space---as an objective entity
This is (at least one reason) why Heisenberg, for instance, couldn't stomach the idea of the N-particle wavefunction as being objective
14:23
Of course in pure QM theory that is not the case.
An objective wave in 3D space is one thing. An objective wave in 3N-D space?
The fact that it's a wave on 3N-dimensional configuration space also commits one to some version of nonlocality
if you act on one of the particles, you change the entire wavefunction
there is no "one"
of the particles.
you have fermions or bosons
and nothing were a particle has an "identity"
Well, there's two responses here
14:27
which makes a lot of sense for the world of the "small" in my opinion.
one is that, in ordinary QM, there's also no notion of indistinguishability. You only get that by further imposing symmetry/antisymmetry on the wavefunctions
which, to be sure, one has good reasons to do
but it's something you impose upon from the formalism from without. it's not something that the formalism itself tells you to do
Well the wave function is not an observable.
its Physics, no formalism lives there on its own
Or what you mean by formalism?
my point is that the definition of fermions/bosons isn't one which is told to you by either the Schrodinger equation or the measurement postulates
I think that the wavefunction is not an observable should be somehow deducible from that its no eigenvalue of an hermitian operator.
Only the density is-
and then you got only two choices left
to say that the wavefunction is not an observable and therefore not physically real is already to assume the Copenhagen interpretation, though
in particular, one has to have already assumed the validity of the measurement postulates
in dBB, you don't do that.
14:31
don't know about "real" its just not observable. Since obsevables are eigenvalues of operators acting on the wavefunction. that is "the formalism", isn't it?
I see.
in particular, there's no collapse postulate in dBB
you still have collapse for practical purposes, but it's not a postulate
What I wanted to say, earlier already. When dBB and QM are formally equivalent then I do not see why any one should have a problem with it.
Well, and then its a question about predictions as well. You like both to agree.
When they not agree both, something must by fishy ...
well, there's two ways dBB can 'not agree' with QM
one is basically by not using dBB correctly :P
lets forget that
I'd love to, but the examples in the literature of such are basically all of this kind as far as I know
the other way dBB can fail to agree with QM is if one consciously modifies it or violates its postulates
14:36
ok, but thats just some more wrong stuff in primary literature, its full of that ...
in particular, one of the postulates is the so-called 'quantum equilibrium hypothesis'
then its great.
what is that?
this postulate in particular has seemed rather artificial to people
more or less, it states that the born rule is fulfilled at some moment in time
once you assume that, then the other two postulates---that the wave evolves according to an appropriate Schrodinger equation, and the particles are guided by the wave in a specific way---ensure that the Born rule will be fulfilled at every other time
The natural response, of course, is: Why should we expect, a priori, the Born rule to be fulfilled at any particular instant?
If you're interpreting $\rho(x,t)$ as a probability density, as in the usual story, then the Born rule basically is a definition. but the dBB story doesn't have that option.
Now, the QEH is not quite as strict a requirement as it might seem. There's been work showing that, if QEH were not true at some time t=0, then nevertheless for times t>0 the system will rapidly 'relax' to equilibrium
just as one would have a system relaxing to thermal equilibrium at some rate in thermodynamics
The implication being that, even if quantum non-equilibrium is possible in dBB, it is by no means probable.
that said, one can consider the possibility of observing such quantum non-equilibrium
and such observations would violate the predictions of QM. (they'd also violate the postulates of dBB, but that's considered a plus for people who consider the QEH postulate as artificial.)
Well, so I see that we have two equivalent theories and one requires a slighty more "volumninous"/complicated formulation.
Yep.
I mean, in some ways the construction is rather elegant
14:49
That means its a matter of taste or style which one to use at which instance.
for instance, the guidance law for particles is simply that they move in the direction of their probability current
But I tend to agree with your framing of it.
How does that work for many-body wave functions?
I mean that guidance principle?
You have one current but many particles in the wave function.
you have one current in 3N-dimensional configuration space, but that projects down to currents for each particle in 3-space
But I suppose they will be all the same?
not necessarily. indeed, if you have two particles colliding head-to-head, the probability currents should not be the same
14:55
I am thinking about electrons in a static magnetic field.
I think there you run into some complications due to having to worrying about spin, as there's an additional contribution to the probability current
That can be separated (at least non-relativistically) The wave function gets an imaginary component proportional to the field, hence a non-zero real current.
In a non-time dependent problem you have only an imaginary current density.
without field
no. the current density is always real-valued
has to be, otherwise the continuity equation wouldn't make sense
14:59
Well for a static problem, non-time dependent, the wavefunction is constant and real.
only if we're talking about stationary states
Thus the current is imaginary.
No. In that case, the current is zero.
yes (in Chemistry thats most relevant).
Maybe we're just talking different definitions
15:00
No its a phase fluctuation.
Lest check it - a second.
when I say probability current, I mean $\vec{j}=\frac{\hbar}{2im}(\Psi^*\nabla \Psi-\Psi\nabla \Psi^*)$
in which case $\partial_t \rho+\nabla \cdot \vec{j}=0$
Sorry you are right its 0!
imaginary zero ;-)
Anyway when you switch on a static B field you get an imaginary component to wave function.
the
a static imaginary component.
you're almost right from my perspective, tho. you can rewrite that as $\vec{j} = \frac{\hbar}{m}\text{Im}[\Psi^* \nabla \Psi] = \frac{1}{m}\text{Re}(\Psi^* \hat{\vec{p}}\Psi)$
so $\vec{j}$ is the imaginary part of a complex-valued function
15:05
Yes,
The real part btw would be the density gradient
which continues me to puzzle ...
but thats a different story
right
anyways, the guidance law would be that $\vec{v}=\vec{j}/\rho$
But now we can have of course a many particle wave function. Ah OK!
thats the velocity field!
which, if you rearrange it a bit, is $m\vec{v}=\text{Re}\left[\dfrac{\Psi^* \hat{\vec{p}}\Psi}{\Psi^*\Psi}\right]$
"momentum field"?
in that rewriting of it, yeah
I'm not sure whether to take velocity or momentum as more fundamental in this POV, though
15:09
So but how are now the "individual" electrons flowing?
Well, in the equation I just wrote, that really is a one-particle equation
so the statement would be that, if an electron is at spacetime point (x,t), then you plug that into the RHS and so compute the momentum of the particle at that point
(Well the velocity field has the same form like the vector potential of the magnetic field ...) So it means it works for one particle based approximations, I suppose.
which is to say, the wavefunction imposes a specific relation between the velocity and the position of a particle
I'm not sure this takes into account the coupling to the vector potential, though
SO in qBB the velocity field really is a velocity field ...
15:13
Thats nice you know.
I am doing lots of research in currents (mainly applied).
If you go to the N-particle context without worrying about spin, then the only real differnence is that $\vec{v}$ is now a vector on 3N-dimensional configuration space
but of course if you go component by component you'll get a guidance equations for each of the N particles
this description, though, really only works if you take the particle to be spinless. the probability current gets modified if you include spin
Would continuity hold for those?
Usually we do "closed shell" so all spins are paired in all "orbitals"
it should. You'd basically have $\vec{v}=(\vec{v}_1,\vec{v}_2,\cdots,\vec{v}_N)$
and $\hat{\vec{p}} = (\hat{\vec{p}}_1,\hat{\vec{p}}_2,\cdots ,\hat{\vec{p}}_N)$
where $\hat{\vec{p}}_N = -i\hbar \nabla_i$
so the 3N-dimensional guidance equation projects to N guidance equations on 3-space
I see (sorry I have to leave for an hour or so!).
15:19
cu
sP_
sP_
What is √-25*√-4? I suddenly got so confused. Is it -10 or 10? I feel both the answers are right :x
> Remark: Ordinary laws can give inconsistent results, giving lawyers opportunities to get rich. Mathematical laws have to meet a higher standard.
lol
15:23
I really hope all legal systems are mathematical, that way, no more stupid loopholes
I think if you're hoping all existing legal systems to be like that, you're going to be disappointed
indeed, human nature is weird
plus, even if you had multiple legal systems which were each consistent unto themselves
sP_
sP_
@Semiclassical ty! :)
you could easily have scenarios where they each have jurisdiction and therefore issue competing demands
Reminds me of the following. You've got three people trying to decide on beverages. The first prefers beer to hard liquor to water (B>L>W), the second L>W>B, and the third W>B>L
15:27
that's classical rock paper scissors scenario
yep
If they vote on beer versus hard liquor, then beer wins 2-to-1.
If they vote on hard liquor versus water, then hard liquor wins 2-to-1.
If they vote on water versus beer, then water wins 2-to-1.
So even though they individually hold transitive preferences, as a group they don't have pairwise transitive preferences
Hence why pairwise voting methods are rather problematic :)
(It also means you can basically get any outcome you want. If you want to have beer, then have them vote on liquor vs. water (liquor wins) and then beer vs. liquor (beer wins). Since beer beats liquor and liquor beats water, beer "must" have been the preferred outcome.)
cyclic orders often give me an impression that they have some underlying stability, but one can never get that if they look at things pairwise or partially
there's an underlying symmetry, yeah
Donald Saari uses that perspective to advocate on behalf of the Borda count: If you've got three candidates, then your top-ranked choice gets 2 votes and your second-ranked choice gets 1 vote
in that case, the above cyclic set of voters would lead to all three choices getting 3 votes i.e. a tie
which is pretty much the only reasonable interpretation of the outcome
now, to be fair, that's also true if you just have people give one vote for their top ranked candidate (i.e. voting by plurality)
but the borda count is also symmetric between voters with A>B>C vs. C>B>A
a plurality vote would instead give A,C two votes and B no vote
Hence why plurality votes tend to give short shrift to candidates people like but don't love :P
sounds like something to be aware of as here in Australia, we use preferential voting
ah, neat
saari's got a nice summary here: colorado.edu/education/DMP/voting_b.html
vzn
vzn
15:55
@EricSilva dont have an axe to grind but from misc sources brazilian favelas seem to be massive, crimeridden and some of the most dangerous places in the world & think many locals would not disagree with those sentiments. its assertions to the contrary that sound like propaganda to me, some of it to decrease tourism alarm. another harrowing/ (now) high profile story that surfaced lately, Christina Rickardsson, TED talk etc brasilwire.com/the-lottery-of-life-christina-rickardsson
bet - call - raise

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