Talks

Conventional quantum mechanics answers this question by specifying the required mathematical properties of wavefunctions and invoking the Born postulate. The ontological question remains unanswered. There is one exception to this. A variation of the Feynman chessboard model allows a classical stochastic process to assemble a wavefunction, based solely on the geometry of spacetime paths. A direct comparison of how a related process assembles a Probability Density Function reveals both how and why PDFs and wavefunctions differ from the perspective of an underlying kinetic theory. If the fine-scale motion of a particle through spacetime is continuous and position is a single valued function of time, then we are able to describe ensembles of paths directly by PDFs. However, should paths have time reversed portions so that position is not a single-valued function of time, a simple Bernoulli counting of paths fails, breaking the link to PDF\'s! Under certain circumstances, correcting the path-counting to accommodate time-reversed sections results in wavefunctions not PDFs. The result is that a single `switch\' simultaneously turns on both special relativity and quantum propagation. Physically, fine-scale random motion in space alone yields a diffusive process with PDFs governed by the Telegraph equations. If the fine-scale motion includes both directions in time, the result is a wavefunction satisfying the Dirac equation that also provides a detailed answer to the title question.

It is argued that space-time is discretized on the basis of the gravitational interactions among the degrees of freedom of quantum fields.Configurations of fields fall into 2 classes,propagating (cisplanckian in length scale) and those that are transplanckian, sequestered in the space-time that is localized in discrete elements.Only the former determine the hubble expansion parameter and are therefore used to construct the inflaton.The model used for discretization is Sorkin\'s causet construction.From this the covariant massy Klein Gordon equation can be rationalized.The mass is encoded as an exchange matrix element between the sequestered (bound) degrees of freedom and those that propagate,presumably by tunneling thereby exlaining why m<<1.

We discuss holography for geometries that are asymptotic to non-conformal brane backgrounds. The near-horizon limit of all non-conformal branes, including D-branes and the fundamental string but excluding five-branes, is conformal to $AdS_{p+2} imes S^{8-p}$ with a linear dilaton. They exhibit a generalized conformal structure, both on the QFT and on the gravitational side. We develop holographic renormalization for all these cases and discuss a number of applications. We compute the holographic 2-point functions of the stress energy tensor and gluon operator and show they satisfy the expected Ward identities and the constraints of generalized conformal structure. The holographic results are also manifestly compatible with the M-theory uplift, with the asymptotic solutions, counterterms, one and two point functions etc. of the IIA F1 and D4 appropriately descending from those of M2 and M5 branes, respectively.

I will illustrate the case of interacting dark Energy, that is to say cosmologies in which the dark energy scalar field interacts with other things in the universe (gravity, cold dark matter or neutrinos). After briefly presenting the status of our work for the first two classes of models, regarding both linear perturbations and Nbody simulations, I will in particular focus on the case of \'growing neutrinos\': in these models, neutrinos with a mass increasing with time might be driven to cluster at very large scales, due to a new interaction stronger than gravity and mediated by the dark energy scalar field.

Many statistics problems involve predicting the joint strategy that will be chosen by the players in a noncooperative game. Conventional game theory predicts that the joint strategy will satisfy an ``equilibrium concept\'\'. The relative probabilities of the joint strategies satisfying the equilibrium concept are not given, and all joint strategies that do not satisfy it are given probability zero. As an alternative, I view the prediction problem as one of statistical inference, where the ``data\'\' includes the details of the noncooperative game. This replaces conventional game theory\'s focus on how to specify a set of equilibrium joint strategies with a focus on how to specify a density function over joint strategies. I explore a Bayesian version of such a Predictive Game Theory (PGT) that provides a posterior density over joint strategies. It is based on the the entropic prior and on a likelihood that quantifies the rationalities of the players. The Quantal Response Equilibrium (QRE) is a popular game theory equilibrium concept parameterized by player rationalities. I show that for some games the local peaks of the posterior density over joint strategies approximate the associated QRE\'s, and derive the associated correction terms. I also discuss how to estimate parameters of the likelihood from observational data, and how to sample from the posterior. I end by showing how PGT can be used to specify a {it{unique}} equilibrium for any noncooperative game, thereby providing a solution to a long-standing problem of conventional game theory.

The semiclassical-quantum correspondence (SQC) is a new principle which has enabled the explicit solution of the quantum constraints of GR in the full theory in the Ashtekar variables for gravity coupled to matter. The solutions, which constitute the physical space of states implementing the quantum dynamics of GR in the Dirac procedure, include a special class of states known as the generalized Kodama states (GKod). The GKodS can be seen as an analogue of the pure Kodama state (Kod) when quantum gravity (QGRA) is coupled to matter fields quantized on the same footing. The criterion for finiteness stems from a precise cancellation of the ultraviolet singularities stemming from the quantum Hamiltonian constraint, allowing for an exact solution. This signifies the following developments for 4D QGRA: (i) Equivalence among the Dirac, reduced phase, geometric and path integration approaches to quantization for GKods; (ii) A generalization of topological field theory to include matter fields via the instanton representation of GKod; (iii) A possible mechanism to establish 4D QGRA, via tree networks, as a renormalizable theory (iv) A direct link from QGRA to Minkoswki spacetime physics, which would enable tests of 4D QGRA without the necessity to access the Planck scale (v) A third-quantized analogy to second quantized spin network states implementing the quantum dynamics of GR. The aforementioned algorithm is designed to construct explicit solutions to the constraints of the full theory by inspection, while implementing any desired ‘boundary’ conditions on the states necessary to reduce to the appropriate semiclassical limit. Conversely, the finite states of 4D QGRA can place severe restrictions on phenomena occurring in the weak gravitational limit below the Planck scale. While we demonstrate this for the GKodS in this talk, the procedure can be applied to obtain a family of states labeled by two arbitrary functions of position, which possess the requisite Hilbert space structure in the limit where the matter fields are turned off. Remaining areas of research in progress include the illumination of the Hilbert space structure of the GKodS, analysis of various models for which the SQC can produce tractable solutions, in the full theory and in minisuperspace, and the addressal of any issues of interest regarding the mathematical rigor of the states.

This course is aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, and is inspired by a book by the same title, written by Padmanabhan. Each session consists of solving one or two pre-determined problems, which is done by a randomly picked student. While the problems introduce various subjects in Astrophysics and Cosmology, they do not serve as replacement for standard courses in these subjects, and are rather aimed at educating students with hands-on analytic/numerical skills to attack new problems.

This course is aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, and is inspired by a book by the same title, written by Padmanabhan. Each session consists of solving one or two pre-determined problems, which is done by a randomly picked student. While the problems introduce various subjects in Astrophysics and Cosmology, they do not serve as replacement for standard courses in these subjects, and are rather aimed at educating students with hands-on analytic/numerical skills to attack new problems.

By storing quantum information in the degenerate ground state of a Hamiltonian, it is hoped that it can be made quite robust against noise processes. We will examine this situation, with particular emphasis on the Toric code in 2D, and show how adversarial effects, either perturbations to the Hamiltonian or interactions with an environment, destroy the stored information extremely quickly.

We show that if a condensed matter system (a quantum qbit system) is in a string-net condensed state, then the low energy excitation in such a system can be gauge bosons (such as photons) and fermions (such as electrons). Such a system is actually the ether that we have been looking for 150 years. We will also discuss a quantum qbit system that may even give rise to emergent gravitons.