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arXiv2023

Paradoxos da Relatividade

In this article, we present several apparent paradoxes of special relativity and their respective solutions. These paradoxes have appeared since the advent of relativity in 1905, and in fact they are never paradoxes. From a didactic point of view, paradoxes are an excellent learning tool. They lead the student to confront, and abandon, several central concepts of Galilean theory, such as simultaneity and rigidity of extended bodies. In particular, we review a new and simple solution to the twin paradox, recently found by one of the present authors [1]. It does not need to consider reference accelerators or light signals, which are the solutions presented in the literature.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

Life in the Cosmos: Paradox of Silence and Self-Awareness

As humanity embarks on an age of exploration, the question of whether we are alone in the universe remains unanswered. This comprehensive review reflects on the paradoxical nature of our existence in a seemingly lifeless cosmos, delving into the silence we encounter and the depths of our self-awareness. We embark on a journey that encompasses the search for life within our solar system, the mysteries of exoplanets, and the absence of technologically detectable life. Traditional definitions of life are challenged, especially in the context of artificial intelligence, as we strive to understand the complexities of existence. Contemplating our significance and insignificance in the vast cosmos, we grapple with the profound responsibility that accompanies being the only known life forms. Through introspection and contemplation, we capture the essence of our epoch -- an era defined by cosmic loneliness yet magnificent self-awareness.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2024

Social Thermodynamics 2.0

Trailing the modern ideas of sociophysics, a minimalistic thermodynamic model of society is proposed, which consists of three social ingredients: people, economy, and entropy. Employing the universal van der Waals equation of state, many important relationships are discovered, including laws of econophysics. A paramount finding is that the Second Law of thermodynamics governs irreversible social evolution, revealing the power of social liberty and economic freedom.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2023

Musical Excellence of Mridangam: an introductory review

This is an introductory review of Musical Excellence of Mridangam by Dr. Umayalpuram K Sivaraman, Dr. T Ramasami and Dr. Naresh, which is a scientific treatise exploring the unique tonal properties of the ancient Indian classical percussive instrument -- the Mridangam. This review aims to bridge the gap between the primary intended audience of Musical Excellence of Mridangam - listeners, artistes and makers -- and the scientific rigour with which the original treatise is written, by first introducing the concepts of musical analysis and then presenting and explaining the discoveries made within this context. The first three chapters of this review introduce the basic scientific concepts used in Musical Excellence of Mridangam and provides background to previous scientific research into this instrument, starting from the seminal work of Dr. CV Raman. This also includes brief discussions of the corresponding chapters in Musical Excellence of Mridangam. The next chapters all serve the purpose of explaining the main scientific results presented in Musical Excellence of Mridangam in each of the corresponding chapters in the treatise, and finally summarizing the relevance of the work.

cs.SD↗

arXiv2023

The Space Experiment of the Exo-ecosystem

The experiment of exo-ecosystem and the exploration of extraterrestrial habitability aims to explore the adaptation of terrestrial life in space conditions for the manned space program and the future interstellar migration, which shows great scientific significance and public interests. By our knowledge the early life on Earth, archaea and extremophile have the ability to adapt to extreme environmental conditions and can potentially habitat in extraterrestrial environments. Here we proposed a design and framework for the experiment on exo-ecosystem and extraterrestrial habitability. The conceptual approach involves building an ecosystem based on archaea and extremophiles in a simulated extraterrestrial environment, with a focus on assessing the exobiological potential and adaptability of terrestrial life forms in such conditions through controlled experiments. Specifically, we introduce the Chinese Exo-Ecosystem Space Experiment (CHEESE), which investigates the survivability and potential for sustained growth, reproduction, and ecological interactions of methanogens under simulated Mars and Moon environments using the China Space Station (CSS) as a platform. We highlight that the space station provides unique yet relatively comprehensive conditions for simulating extraterrestrial environments. In conclusion, space experiments involving exo-ecosystems could pave the way for long-term human habitation in space, ensuring our ability to sustain colonies and settlements beyond Earth while minimizing our ecological impact on celestial bodies.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2023

Fast but multi-partisan: Bursts of communication increase opinion diversity in the temporal Deffuant model

Human interactions create social networks forming the backbone of societies. Individuals adjust their opinions by exchanging information through social interactions. Two recurrent questions are whether social structures promote opinion polarisation or consensus in societies and whether polarisation can be avoided, particularly on social media. In this paper, we hypothesise that not only network structure but also the timings of social interactions regulate the emergence of opinion clusters. We devise a temporal version of the Deffuant opinion model where pairwise interactions follow temporal patterns and show that burstiness alone is sufficient to refrain from consensus and polarisation by promoting the reinforcement of local opinions. Individuals self-organise into a multi-partisan society due to network clustering, but the diversity of opinion clusters further increases with burstiness, particularly when individuals have low tolerance and prefer to adjust to similar peers. The emergent opinion landscape is well-balanced regarding clusters' size, with a small fraction of individuals converging to extreme opinions. We thus argue that polarisation is more likely to emerge in social media than offline social networks because of the relatively low social clustering observed online. Counter-intuitively, strengthening online social networks by increasing social redundancy may be a venue to reduce polarisation and promote opinion diversity.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2023

The color of the Galaxy

I perform a simple analysis of a random sample of Gaia satellite ERD3 sources in an attempt to answer the question posed sincerely by a visual artist: What color is the universe?

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2025

Testing GPT-4 with Wolfram Alpha and Code Interpreter plug-ins on math and science problems

This report describes a test of the large language model GPT-4 with the Wolfram Alpha and the Code Interpreter plug-ins on 105 original problems in science and math, at the high school and college levels, carried out in June-August 2023. Our tests suggest that the plug-ins significantly enhance GPT's ability to solve these problems. Having said that, there are still often "interface" failures; that is, GPT often has trouble formulating problems in a way that elicits useful answers from the plug-ins. Fixing these interface failures seems like a central challenge in making GPT a reliable tool for college-level calculation problems.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2023

Optimal strategies for kiiking: active pumping to invert a swing

Kiiking is an extreme sport in which athletes alternate between standing and squatting to pump a standing swing till it is inverted and completes a rotation. A minimal model of the sport may be cast in terms of the control of an actively driven pendulum of varying length to determine optimal strategies. We show that an optimal control perspective, subject to known biological constraints, yields time-optimal control strategy similar to a greedy algorithm that aims to maximize the potential energy gain at the end of every cycle. A reinforcement learning algorithms with a simple reward is consistent with the optimal control strategy. When accounting for air drag, our theoretical framework is quantitatively consistent with experimental observations while pointing to the ultimate limits of kiiking performance.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2024

Applicability of QKD: TerraQuantum view on the NSA's scepticism

Quantum communication offers unique features that have no classical analog, in particular, it enables provably secure quantum key distribution (QKD). Despite the benefits of quantum communication are well understood within the scientific community, the practical implementations sometimes meet with scepticism or even resistance. In a recent publication [1], NSA claims that QKD is inferior to "quantum-resistant" cryptography and does not recommend it for use. Here we show that such a sceptical approach to evaluation of quantum security is not well justified. We hope that our arguments will be helpful to clarify the issue.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Are we visible to advanced alien civilizations?

We considered the question of how our artificial constructions are visible to advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Taking the universality of the laws of physics, we found that the maximum distance where the detection is possible is of the order of $3000$ ly and under certain conditions Type-II advanced alien societies might be able to resolve this problem.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

Magical or magnetic? Less commonly taught facts about real-world permanent magnets and their diverse interactions with objects

Permanent magnets are fascinating. They generate magnetic field and act as the key component in compasses, motors, speakers for practical applications. They are also made into magnetic toys for entertainment and education with magical magnetic tricks. Some of these tricks fueled the recent upsurge for magnetic-responsive objects including but not limited to a LK-99 mixture. A lack of full consideration of the magnetic interactions seems to be the reason why some tricks like "half levitation" is misinterpreted, and the situation is not really rectified in the following replications and discussions. Here I would like to go through some less commonly taught facts about real-world permanent magnets starting from the nonuniformity to their combined effects with other factors. Based on these facts, I will also break down the situation of some examples of how permanent magnets diversely interact even with ordinary objects, as one may have seen from recent sources. I believe this discussion is useful both in an informative and educational way, helping those who want to think deeper about magnetic mechanism beyond a simple attract/repel terminology.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

Exploring the Use of Generative AI in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a field that has long been within the domain of traditional signal processing techniques. However, with the advent of powerful generative AI models, such as GPT-3, we are now able to explore new ways of analyzing SETI data and potentially uncover previously hidden signals. In this work, we present a novel approach for using generative AI to analyze SETI data, with focus on data processing and machine learning techniques. Our proposed method uses a combination of deep learning and generative models to analyze radio telescope data, with the goal of identifying potential signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. We also discuss the challenges and limitations of using generative AI in SETI, as well as potential future directions for this research. Our findings suggest that generative AI has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and we encourage further exploration of this approach in the SETI community. (Disclosure: For the purpose of demonstration, the abstract and title were generated by ChatGPT and slightly modified by the lead author.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

Interstellar Diplomacy

The Defense Department and NASA are investigating the possibility that aliens are currently surveilling Earth. This aligns with some search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence (SETI) theorists who have concluded that ET's best strategy for opening a channel of communication is to send artificially intelligent probes to our Solar System for that purpose. This is a golden age for traditional SETI, which is currently well funded, with most of the world's radio telescopes now engaged in the hunt. One way or another, contact with aliens may be imminent. There has been no planning among nations for the aftermath of a first detection. This paper advocates for such planning and diplomacy.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

Axions for amateurs

Axions are an increasingly popular topic in theoretical physics, and are sparking a global experimental effort. In the following I review the motivations for the existence of axions, the theories underlying them, and the methods to search for them. The target audience is an interested amateur, physics undergraduate, or scientist in another field, and so I use no complicated mathematics or advanced theoretical topics, and instead use lots of analogies.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

Twisting Uneven Ropes

A classical two-stranded rope can be made by twisting two identical strands together under strain. Despite being conceptually simple, the contact-equations for helically twisted identical strands have only been solved within the last 20 years. Our goal here is basic: to understand the twisting of two circular strands, where one is thicker than the other. This is what we call an uneven rope. The geometry of the uneven rope depend on the ratio, $r$, between the diameters of the two strands. In particular, the maximally twisted geometry may be determined as a function of $r$ by solving the contact-equations for the two strands numerically.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

The chiral knife edge: a simplified rattleback to illustrate spin inversion

We present the chiral knife edge rattleback, an alternative version of previously presented systems that exhibit spin inversion. We offer a full treatment of the model using qualitative arguments, analytical solutions as well as numerical results. We treat a reduced, one--mode problem which not only contains the essence of the physics of spin inversion, but that also exhibits an unexpected connection to the Chaplygin sleigh, providing new insight into the non-holonomic structure of the problem. We also present exact results for the full problem together with estimates of the time between inversions that agree with previous results in the literature.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2023

The life and entangled adventures of Schrodinger's cat

In this lecture, intended for a general audience, I describe Schrödinger's thought experiment which was designed to show the strange results of extending the formalism of quantum theory, particularly the idea of superposition, beyond the subatomic regime. I describe a way to understand superposition in the terms of formal logic. I trace the development of Schrodinger's ideas after this thought experiment, and briefly sketch some work which realises it in actual experiments, and proposals for taking it further.

physics.pop-ph↗