Phenomena in gauge theory are often described in the physics literature via a specific choice of gauge. In foundational and philosophical discussions this is often criticized as introducing gauge dependence, and contrasted against (often aspirational) "gauge-invariant" descriptions of the physics. I argue, largely in the context of scalar electrodynamics, that this is misguided, and that descriptions of a physical process within a specific gauge are in fact gauge-invariant descriptions. However, most of them are non-local descriptions of that physics, and I suggest that this ought to be the real objection to such descriptions. I explore the unitary gauge as the exception to this nonlocality and consider its strengths and limitations, as well as (more briefly) its extension beyond scalar electrodynamics.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2024.09.002 | DOI Listing |
Recent Pat Nanotechnol
January 2025
Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 9, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
The increase in computational power demand led by the development of Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming unsustainable. New paradigms of computation, which potentially differ from digital computation, together with novel hardware architecture and devices, are anticipated to reduce the exorbitant energy demand for data-processing tasks. Memristive systems with resistive switching behavior are under intense research, given their prominent role in the fabrication of memory devices that promise the desired hardware revolution in our intensive data-driven era.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem Lett
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
Continuous production of entropy and the corresponding energy dissipation is a defining characteristic of nonequilibrium systems. When a system's full chemical kinetic description is known, its entropy production rate can be computed from the microscopic rate constants. However, such a calculation typically underestimates energy dissipation when the states of the underlying system are mesoscopic, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEntropy (Basel)
December 2024
Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco, c/Nicolás Cabrera 13-15, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
Non-Hermitian quantum field theories are a promising tool to study open quantum systems. These theories preserve unitarity if PT symmetry is respected, and in that case, an equivalent Hermitian description exists via the so-called Dyson map. Generically, PT-symmetric non-Hermitian theories can also feature phases where PT symmetry is broken and unitarity is lost.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med
January 2025
Early Intervention Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, 264 Guangzhou Street, Nanjing, China.
Background: Intermediate phenotypes, such as characteristic neuroimaging patterns, offer unique insights into the genetic and stress-related underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders like depression. This study aimed to identify neuroimaging intermediate phenotypes associated with depression, bridging etiological factors to behavioral manifestations and connecting insights from animal models to diverse clinical populations.
Methods: We analyzed datasets from both rodents and humans.
J Phys Chem B
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
Conventional methods for extracting rare earth metals (REMs) from mined mineral ores are inefficient, expensive, and environmentally damaging. Recent discovery of lanmodulin (LanM), a protein that coordinates REMs with high-affinity and selectivity over competing ions, provides inspiration for new REM refinement methods. Here, we used quantum mechanical (QM) methods to investigate trivalent lanthanide cation (Ln) interactions with coordination systems representing bulk solvent water and protein binding sites.
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