arXiv subjects

Damian R. Sowinski

Publications and source records attributed to Damian R. Sowinski.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Search for Technosignatures: a Review of Possibilities

This paper reviews the diverse range of technosignatures that have been proposed in the literature. We organize the review by spatial scales from the Earth and the solar system to the edge of the Universe, not tied to a specific observatory or technical capability. This provides a more comprehensive view of technosignature science beyond the search for radio signals that has dominated SETI since its inception. We introduce the Kardashev and Barrow scales before exploring exoplanetary technosignatures, from surface, atmospheric to orbital sources. Next, we consider stellar technosignatures that may involve massive energy utilization, stellar modification or stellar pollution, and end with a section about compact objects. We then review attempts to detect interstellar communication, and discuss many dimensions of the search space from first principles. We also consider interstellar travel technosignatures, and end with galactic, extragalactic and universal signatures. The paper argues for stronger synergies between biosignature and technosignature searches, and the importance of multimodal and multimessenger strategies. Central to this is the importance of anomaly detection as a fundamental and agnostic search strategy. We highlight instruments for detecting technosignatures, as well as a science traceability matrix template.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Information bounds production in replicator systems

Environmental fluctuations can shape replicator dynamics, with important consequences for both prebiotic and modern ecosystems. However, it remains unclear how simple replicators can acquire and use information about fluctuating environments, given that such information processing is often assumed to require sophisticated mechanisms for sensing and control. Here, we show that even simple replicator networks can increase productivity by exploiting environmental information in a functional way. Using a model of autocatalytic replicators in a flow reactor, we derive an information-theoretic decomposition of productivity, with separate contributions from environmental uncertainty, side information, and distribution mismatch. We derive optimal strategies and universal bounds on the benefit of information and compare our findings with existing work, including ``Kelly gambling'' in information theory. By applying our framework to a model of real-world molecular replicators, we demonstrate the benefits of internal memory and propose an experimental setup for detecting functional information in a minimal chemical system.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2025

Notions of Adiabatic Drift in the Quantized Harper model

We study a quantized, discrete and drifting version of the Harper Hamiltonian, also called the finite almost Mathieu operator, which resembles the pendulum Hamiltonian but in phase space is confined to a torus. Spacing between pairs of eigenvalues of the operator spans many orders of magnitude, with nearly degenerate pairs of states at energies that are associated with circulating orbits in the associated classical system. When parameters of the system slowly vary, both adiabatic and diabatic transitions can take place at drift rates that span many orders of magnitude. Only under an extremely negligible drift rate would all transitions into superposition states be suppressed. The wide range of energy level spacings could be a common property of quantum systems with non-local potentials that are related to resonant classical dynamical systems. Notions for adiabatic drift are discussed for quantum systems that are associated with classical ones with divided phase space.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Consensus between Epistemic Agents is Difficult

We introduce an epistemic information measure between two data streams, that we term $influence$. Closely related to transfer entropy, the measure must be estimated by epistemic agents with finite memory resources via sampling accessible data streams. We show that even under ideal conditions, epistemic agents using slightly different sampling strategies might not achieve consensus in their conclusions about which data stream is influencing which. As an illustration, we examine a real world data stream where different sampling strategies result in contradictory conclusions, explaining why some politically charged topics might exist due to purely epistemic reasons irrespective of the actual ontology of the world.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2018

Shape Is Destiny II: Configurational Information Approach to Instantons and False Vacuum Decay in D-dimensional Spacetime

We extend the use of Configurational Information Measures (CIMSs) to instantons and vacuum decay in arbitrary spatial dimensions. We find that both the complexity and the information content in the shape of instanton solutions have distinct regions of behavior in parameter space, discriminating between qualitative thin and thick wall profiles. For Euclidean spaces of dimension $D$, we show that for $D \gt 6$ instantons undergo a qualitative change of behavior from their lower- dimensional counterparts, indicating that $D=6$ is a critical dimension. We also find a scaling law relating the different CIMs to the rate of vacuum decay, thus connecting the stability of the vacuum to the informational complexity stored in the shape of the related critical bounce.

hep-th↗