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physics/0001048
High-resolution path-integral development of financial options
physics.comp-ph cs.CE physics.data-an q-fin.PR
The Black-Scholes theory of option pricing has been considered for many years as an important but very approximate zeroth-order description of actual market behavior. We generalize the functional form of the diffusion of these systems and also consider multi-factor models including stochastic volatility. Daily Eurodollar futures prices and implied volatilities are fit to determine exponents of functional behavior of diffusions using methods of global optimization, Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA), to generate tight fits across moving time windows of Eurodollar contracts. These short-time fitted distributions are then developed into long-time distributions using a robust non-Monte Carlo path-integral algorithm, PATHINT, to generate prices and derivatives commonly used by option traders.
physics/0002054
Evolution of differentiated expression patterns in digital organisms
physics.bio-ph cs.NE q-bio.PE
We investigate the evolutionary processes behind the development and optimization of multiple threads of execution in digital organisms using the avida platform, a software package that implements Darwinian evolution on populations of self-replicating computer programs. The system is seeded with a linearly executed ancestor capable only of reproducing its own genome, whereas its underlying language has the capacity for multiple threads of execution (i.e., simultaneous expression of sections of the genome.) We witness the evolution to multi-threaded organisms and track the development of distinct expression patterns. Additionally, we examine both the evolvability of multi-threaded organisms and the level of thread differentiation as a function of environmental complexity, and find that differentiation is more pronounced in complex environments.
physics/0004057
The information bottleneck method
physics.data-an cond-mat.dis-nn cs.LG nlin.AO
We define the relevant information in a signal $x\in X$ as being the information that this signal provides about another signal $y\in \Y$. Examples include the information that face images provide about the names of the people portrayed, or the information that speech sounds provide about the words spoken. Understanding the signal $x$ requires more than just predicting $y$, it also requires specifying which features of $\X$ play a role in the prediction. We formalize this problem as that of finding a short code for $\X$ that preserves the maximum information about $\Y$. That is, we squeeze the information that $\X$ provides about $\Y$ through a `bottleneck' formed by a limited set of codewords $\tX$. This constrained optimization problem can be seen as a generalization of rate distortion theory in which the distortion measure $d(x,\x)$ emerges from the joint statistics of $\X$ and $\Y$. This approach yields an exact set of self consistent equations for the coding rules $X \to \tX$ and $\tX \to \Y$. Solutions to these equations can be found by a convergent re-estimation method that generalizes the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm. Our variational principle provides a surprisingly rich framework for discussing a variety of problems in signal processing and learning, as will be described in detail elsewhere.
physics/0005062
Applying MDL to Learning Best Model Granularity
physics.data-an cs.AI cs.CV
The Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle is solidly based on a provably ideal method of inference using Kolmogorov complexity. We test how the theory behaves in practice on a general problem in model selection: that of learning the best model granularity. The performance of a model depends critically on the granularity, for example the choice of precision of the parameters. Too high precision generally involves modeling of accidental noise and too low precision may lead to confusion of models that should be distinguished. This precision is often determined ad hoc. In MDL the best model is the one that most compresses a two-part code of the data set: this embodies ``Occam's Razor.'' In two quite different experimental settings the theoretical value determined using MDL coincides with the best value found experimentally. In the first experiment the task is to recognize isolated handwritten characters in one subject's handwriting, irrespective of size and orientation. Based on a new modification of elastic matching, using multiple prototypes per character, the optimal prediction rate is predicted for the learned parameter (length of sampling interval) considered most likely by MDL, which is shown to coincide with the best value found experimentally. In the second experiment the task is to model a robot arm with two degrees of freedom using a three layer feed-forward neural network where we need to determine the number of nodes in the hidden layer giving best modeling performance. The optimal model (the one that extrapolizes best on unseen examples) is predicted for the number of nodes in the hidden layer considered most likely by MDL, which again is found to coincide with the best value found experimentally.
physics/0007070
Predictability, complexity and learning
physics.data-an cond-mat.dis-nn cond-mat.other cs.LG nlin.AO q-bio.OT
We define {\em predictive information} $I_{\rm pred} (T)$ as the mutual information between the past and the future of a time series. Three qualitatively different behaviors are found in the limit of large observation times $T$: $I_{\rm pred} (T)$ can remain finite, grow logarithmically, or grow as a fractional power law. If the time series allows us to learn a model with a finite number of parameters, then $I_{\rm pred} (T)$ grows logarithmically with a coefficient that counts the dimensionality of the model space. In contrast, power--law growth is associated, for example, with the learning of infinite parameter (or nonparametric) models such as continuous functions with smoothness constraints. There are connections between the predictive information and measures of complexity that have been defined both in learning theory and in the analysis of physical systems through statistical mechanics and dynamical systems theory. Further, in the same way that entropy provides the unique measure of available information consistent with some simple and plausible conditions, we argue that the divergent part of $I_{\rm pred} (T)$ provides the unique measure for the complexity of dynamics underlying a time series. Finally, we discuss how these ideas may be useful in different problems in physics, statistics, and biology.
physics/0007075
Optimization of Trading Physics Models of Markets
physics.comp-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.CE physics.data-an q-fin.ST
We describe an end-to-end real-time S&P futures trading system. Inner-shell stochastic nonlinear dynamic models are developed, and Canonical Momenta Indicators (CMI) are derived from a fitted Lagrangian used by outer-shell trading models dependent on these indicators. Recursive and adaptive optimization using Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA) is used for fitting parameters shared across these shells of dynamic and trading models.
physics/0009032
Information theory and learning: a physical approach
physics.data-an cond-mat.dis-nn cs.LG nlin.AO
We try to establish a unified information theoretic approach to learning and to explore some of its applications. First, we define {\em predictive information} as the mutual information between the past and the future of a time series, discuss its behavior as a function of the length of the series, and explain how other quantities of interest studied previously in learning theory - as well as in dynamical systems and statistical mechanics - emerge from this universally definable concept. We then prove that predictive information provides the {\em unique measure for the complexity} of dynamics underlying the time series and show that there are classes of models characterized by {\em power-law growth of the predictive information} that are qualitatively more complex than any of the systems that have been investigated before. Further, we investigate numerically the learning of a nonparametric probability density, which is an example of a problem with power-law complexity, and show that the proper Bayesian formulation of this problem provides for the `Occam' factors that punish overly complex models and thus allow one {\em to learn not only a solution within a specific model class, but also the class itself} using the data only and with very few a priori assumptions. We study a possible {\em information theoretic method} that regularizes the learning of an undersampled discrete variable, and show that learning in such a setup goes through stages of very different complexities. Finally, we discuss how all of these ideas may be useful in various problems in physics, statistics, and, most importantly, biology.
physics/0101021
Adaptive evolution on neutral networks
physics.bio-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.NE nlin.AO q-bio.PE
We study the evolution of large but finite asexual populations evolving in fitness landscapes in which all mutations are either neutral or strongly deleterious. We demonstrate that despite the absence of higher fitness genotypes, adaptation takes place as regions with more advantageous distributions of neutral genotypes are discovered. Since these discoveries are typically rare events, the population dynamics can be subdivided into separate epochs, with rapid transitions between them. Within one epoch, the average fitness in the population is approximately constant. The transitions between epochs, however, are generally accompanied by a significant increase in the average fitness. We verify our theoretical considerations with two analytically tractable bitstring models.
physics/0102009
Self-adaptive exploration in evolutionary search
physics.bio-ph cs.NE nlin.AO q-bio
We address a primary question of computational as well as biological research on evolution: How can an exploration strategy adapt in such a way as to exploit the information gained about the problem at hand? We first introduce an integrated formalism of evolutionary search which provides a unified view on different specific approaches. On this basis we discuss the implications of indirect modeling (via a ``genotype-phenotype mapping'') on the exploration strategy. Notions such as modularity, pleiotropy and functional phenotypic complex are discussed as implications. Then, rigorously reflecting the notion of self-adaptability, we introduce a new definition that captures self-adaptability of exploration: different genotypes that map to the same phenotype may represent (also topologically) different exploration strategies; self-adaptability requires a variation of exploration strategies along such a ``neutral space''. By this definition, the concept of neutrality becomes a central concern of this paper. Finally, we present examples of these concepts: For a specific grammar-type encoding, we observe a large variability of exploration strategies for a fixed phenotype, and a self-adaptive drift towards short representations with highly structured exploration strategy that matches the ``problem's structure''.
physics/0209085
The calculation of a normal force between multiparticle contacts using fractional operators
physics.comp-ph cs.CE cs.NA math.NA physics.class-ph physics.geo-ph
This paper deals with the complex problem of how to simulate multiparticle contacts. The collision process is responsible for the transfer and dissipation of energy in granular media. A novel model of the interaction force between particles has been proposed and tested. Such model allows us to simulate multiparticle collisions and granular cohesion dynamics.
physics/0307117
Symbolic stochastic dynamical systems viewed as binary N-step Markov chains
physics.data-an cond-mat.stat-mech cs.CL math-ph math.MP nlin.AO physics.class-ph
A theory of systems with long-range correlations based on the consideration of binary N-step Markov chains is developed. In the model, the conditional probability that the i-th symbol in the chain equals zero (or unity) is a linear function of the number of unities among the preceding N symbols. The correlation and distribution functions as well as the variance of number of symbols in the words of arbitrary length L are obtained analytically and numerically. A self-similarity of the studied stochastic process is revealed and the similarity group transformation of the chain parameters is presented. The diffusion Fokker-Planck equation governing the distribution function of the L-words is explored. If the persistent correlations are not extremely strong, the distribution function is shown to be the Gaussian with the variance being nonlinearly dependent on L. The applicability of the developed theory to the coarse-grained written and DNA texts is discussed.
physics/0308041
Ensembles of Protein Molecules as Statistical Analog Computers
physics.bio-ph cs.AI cs.NE physics.comp-ph physics.data-an q-bio.NC
A class of analog computers built from large numbers of microscopic probabilistic machines is discussed. It is postulated that such computers are implemented in biological systems as ensembles of protein molecules. The formalism is based on an abstract computational model referred to as Protein Molecule Machine (PMM). A PMM is a continuous-time first-order Markov system with real input and output vectors, a finite set of discrete states, and the input-dependent conditional probability densities of state transitions. The output of a PMM is a function of its input and state. The components of input vector, called generalized potentials, can be interpreted as membrane potential, and concentrations of neurotransmitters. The components of output vector, called generalized currents, can represent ion currents, and the flows of second messengers. An Ensemble of PMMs (EPMM) is a set of independent identical PMMs with the same input vector, and the output vector equal to the sum of output vectors of individual PMMs. The paper suggests that biological neurons have much more sophisticated computational resources than the presently popular models of artificial neurons.
physics/0405044
Least Dependent Component Analysis Based on Mutual Information
physics.comp-ph cs.IT math.IT physics.data-an q-bio.QM
We propose to use precise estimators of mutual information (MI) to find least dependent components in a linearly mixed signal. On the one hand this seems to lead to better blind source separation than with any other presently available algorithm. On the other hand it has the advantage, compared to other implementations of `independent' component analysis (ICA) some of which are based on crude approximations for MI, that the numerical values of the MI can be used for: (i) estimating residual dependencies between the output components; (ii) estimating the reliability of the output, by comparing the pairwise MIs with those of re-mixed components; (iii) clustering the output according to the residual interdependencies. For the MI estimator we use a recently proposed k-nearest neighbor based algorithm. For time sequences we combine this with delay embedding, in order to take into account non-trivial time correlations. After several tests with artificial data, we apply the resulting MILCA (Mutual Information based Least dependent Component Analysis) algorithm to a real-world dataset, the ECG of a pregnant woman. The software implementation of the MILCA algorithm is freely available at http://www.fz-juelich.de/nic/cs/software
physics/0406023
Maximum Entropy Multivariate Density Estimation: An exact goodness-of-fit approach
physics.data-an cs.IT math.IT math.ST stat.TH
We consider the problem of estimating the population probability distribution given a finite set of multivariate samples, using the maximum entropy approach. In strict keeping with Jaynes' original definition, our precise formulation of the problem considers contributions only from the smoothness of the estimated distribution (as measured by its entropy) and the loss functional associated with its goodness-of-fit to the sample data, and in particular does not make use of any additional constraints that cannot be justified from the sample data alone. By mapping the general multivariate problem to a tractable univariate one, we are able to write down exact expressions for the goodness-of-fit of an arbitrary multivariate distribution to any given set of samples using both the traditional likelihood-based approach and a rigorous information-theoretic approach, thus solving a long-standing problem. As a corollary we also give an exact solution to the `forward problem' of determining the expected distributions of samples taken from a population with known probability distribution.
physics/0412029
Spectral Mixture Decomposition by Least Dependent Component Analysis
physics.data-an cs.IT math.IT physics.chem-ph
A recently proposed mutual information based algorithm for decomposing data into least dependent components (MILCA) is applied to spectral analysis, namely to blind recovery of concentrations and pure spectra from their linear mixtures. The algorithm is based on precise estimates of mutual information between measured spectra, which allows to assess and make use of actual statistical dependencies between them. We show that linear filtering performed by taking second derivatives effectively reduces the dependencies caused by overlapping spectral bands and, thereby, assists resolving pure spectra. In combination with second derivative preprocessing and alternating least squares postprocessing, MILCA shows decomposition performance comparable with or superior to specialized chemometrics algorithms. The results are illustrated on a number of simulated and experimental (infrared and Raman) mixture problems, including spectroscopy of complex biological materials. MILCA is available online at http://www.fz-juelich.de/nic/cs/software
physics/0504185
Frequency of occurrence of numbers in the World Wide Web
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.DB math.ST stat.TH
The distribution of numbers in human documents is determined by a variety of diverse natural and human factors, whose relative significance can be evaluated by studying the numbers' frequency of occurrence. Although it has been studied since the 1880's, this subject remains poorly understood. Here, we obtain the detailed statistics of numbers in the World Wide Web, finding that their distribution is a heavy-tailed dependence which splits in a set of power-law ones. In particular, we find that the frequency of numbers associated to western calendar years shows an uneven behavior: 2004 represents a `singular critical' point, appearing with a strikingly high frequency; as we move away from it, the decreasing frequency allows us to compare the amounts of existing information on the past and on the future. Moreover, while powers of ten occur extremely often, allowing us to obtain statistics up to the huge 10^127, `non-round' numbers occur in a much more limited range, the variations of their frequencies being dramatically different from standard statistical fluctuations. These findings provide a view of the array of numbers used by humans as a highly non-equilibrium and inhomogeneous system, and shed a new light on an issue that, once fully investigated, could lead to a better understanding of many sociological and psychological phenomena.
physics/0509039
The Dynamics of Viral Marketing
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.DB cs.DS
We present an analysis of a person-to-person recommendation network, consisting of 4 million people who made 16 million recommendations on half a million products. We observe the propagation of recommendations and the cascade sizes, which we explain by a simple stochastic model. We analyze how user behavior varies within user communities defined by a recommendation network. Product purchases follow a 'long tail' where a significant share of purchases belongs to rarely sold items. We establish how the recommendation network grows over time and how effective it is from the viewpoint of the sender and receiver of the recommendations. While on average recommendations are not very effective at inducing purchases and do not spread very far, we present a model that successfully identifies communities, product and pricing categories for which viral marketing seems to be very effective.
physics/0509075
Sharp transition towards shared vocabularies in multi-agent systems
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.GT cs.MA
What processes can explain how very large populations are able to converge on the use of a particular word or grammatical construction without global coordination? Answering this question helps to understand why new language constructs usually propagate along an S-shaped curve with a rather sudden transition towards global agreement. It also helps to analyze and design new technologies that support or orchestrate self-organizing communication systems, such as recent social tagging systems for the web. The article introduces and studies a microscopic model of communicating autonomous agents performing language games without any central control. We show that the system undergoes a disorder/order transition, going trough a sharp symmetry breaking process to reach a shared set of conventions. Before the transition, the system builds up non-trivial scale-invariant correlations, for instance in the distribution of competing synonyms, which display a Zipf-like law. These correlations make the system ready for the transition towards shared conventions, which, observed on the time-scale of collective behaviors, becomes sharper and sharper with system size. This surprising result not only explains why human language can scale up to very large populations but also suggests ways to optimize artificial semiotic dynamics.
physics/0510117
Modeling bursts and heavy tails in human dynamics
physics.soc-ph cs.MA
Current models of human dynamics, used from risk assessment to communications, assume that human actions are randomly distributed in time and thus well approximated by Poisson processes. We provide direct evidence that for five human activity patterns the timing of individual human actions follow non-Poisson statistics, characterized by bursts of rapidly occurring events separated by long periods of inactivity. We show that the bursty nature of human behavior is a consequence of a decision based queuing process: when individuals execute tasks based on some perceived priority, the timing of the tasks will be heavy tailed, most tasks being rapidly executed, while a few experiencing very long waiting times. We discuss two queueing models that capture human activity. The first model assumes that there are no limitations on the number of tasks an individual can hadle at any time, predicting that the waiting time of the individual tasks follow a heavy tailed distribution with exponent alpha=3/2. The second model imposes limitations on the queue length, resulting in alpha=1. We provide empirical evidence supporting the relevance of these two models to human activity patterns. Finally, we discuss possible extension of the proposed queueing models and outline some future challenges in exploring the statistical mechanisms of human dynamics.
physics/0511201
Strategies for fast convergence in semiotic dynamics
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.GT cs.MA
Semiotic dynamics is a novel field that studies how semiotic conventions spread and stabilize in a population of agents. This is a central issue both for theoretical and technological reasons since large system made up of communicating agents, like web communities or artificial embodied agents teams, are getting widespread. In this paper we discuss a recently introduced simple multi-agent model which is able to account for the emergence of a shared vocabulary in a population of agents. In particular we introduce a new deterministic agents' playing strategy that strongly improves the performance of the game in terms of faster convergence and reduced cognitive effort for the agents.
physics/0512045
Topology Induced Coarsening in Language Games
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.GT cs.MA
We investigate how very large populations are able to reach a global consensus, out of local "microscopic" interaction rules, in the framework of a recently introduced class of models of semiotic dynamics, the so-called Naming Game. We compare in particular the convergence mechanism for interacting agents embedded in a low-dimensional lattice with respect to the mean-field case. We highlight that in low-dimensions consensus is reached through a coarsening process which requires less cognitive effort of the agents, with respect to the mean-field case, but takes longer to complete. In 1-d the dynamics of the boundaries is mapped onto a truncated Markov process from which we analytically computed the diffusion coefficient. More generally we show that the convergence process requires a memory per agent scaling as N and lasts a time N^{1+2/d} in dimension d<5 (d=4 being the upper critical dimension), while in mean-field both memory and time scale as N^{3/2}, for a population of N agents. We present analytical and numerical evidences supporting this picture.
physics/0601118
Learning about knowledge: A complex network approach
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.NE physics.comp-ph
This article describes an approach to modeling knowledge acquisition in terms of walks along complex networks. Each subset of knowledge is represented as a node, and relations between such knowledge are expressed as edges. Two types of edges are considered, corresponding to free and conditional transitions. The latter case implies that a node can only be reached after visiting previously a set of nodes (the required conditions). The process of knowledge acquisition can then be simulated by considering the number of nodes visited as a single agent moves along the network, starting from its lowest layer. It is shown that hierarchical networks, i.e. networks composed of successive interconnected layers, arise naturally as a consequence of compositions of the prerequisite relationships between the nodes. In order to avoid deadlocks, i.e. unreachable nodes, the subnetwork in each layer is assumed to be a connected component. Several configurations of such hierarchical knowledge networks are simulated and the performance of the moving agent quantified in terms of the percentage of visited nodes after each movement. The Barab\'asi-Albert and random models are considered for the layer and interconnecting subnetworks. Although all subnetworks in each realization have the same number of nodes, several interconnectivities, defined by the average node degree of the interconnection networks, have been considered. Two visiting strategies are investigated: random choice among the existing edges and preferential choice to so far untracked edges. A series of interesting results are obtained, including the identification of a series of plateaux of knowledge stagnation in the case of the preferential movements strategy in presence of conditional edges.
physics/0601161
Monte Carlo Algorithm for Least Dependent Non-Negative Mixture Decomposition
physics.chem-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT math.IT math.PR math.ST physics.comp-ph physics.data-an stat.TH
We propose a simulated annealing algorithm (called SNICA for "stochastic non-negative independent component analysis") for blind decomposition of linear mixtures of non-negative sources with non-negative coefficients. The de-mixing is based on a Metropolis type Monte Carlo search for least dependent components, with the mutual information between recovered components as a cost function and their non-negativity as a hard constraint. Elementary moves are shears in two-dimensional subspaces and rotations in three-dimensional subspaces. The algorithm is geared at decomposing signals whose probability densities peak at zero, the case typical in analytical spectroscopy and multivariate curve resolution. The decomposition performance on large samples of synthetic mixtures and experimental data is much better than that of traditional blind source separation methods based on principal component analysis (MILCA, FastICA, RADICAL) and chemometrics techniques (SIMPLISMA, ALS, BTEM) The source codes of SNICA, MILCA and the MI estimator are freely available online at http://www.fz-juelich.de/nic/cs/software
physics/0602033
Community Structure in the United States House of Representatives
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.stat-mech cs.MA nlin.AO physics.data-an
We investigate the networks of committee and subcommittee assignments in the United States House of Representatives from the 101st--108th Congresses, with the committees connected by ``interlocks'' or common membership. We examine the community structure in these networks using several methods, revealing strong links between certain committees as well as an intrinsic hierarchical structure in the House as a whole. We identify structural changes, including additional hierarchical levels and higher modularity, resulting from the 1994 election, in which the Republican party earned majority status in the House for the first time in more than forty years. We also combine our network approach with analysis of roll call votes using singular value decomposition to uncover correlations between the political and organizational structure of House committees.
physics/0603002
Functional dissipation microarrays for classification
physics.data-an cs.CV
In this article, we describe a new method of extracting information from signals, called functional dissipation, that proves to be very effective for enhancing classification of high resolution, texture-rich data. Our algorithm bypasses to some extent the need to have very specialized feature extraction techniques, and can potentially be used as an intermediate, feature enhancement step in any classification scheme. Functional dissipation is based on signal transforms, but uses the transforms recursively to uncover new features. We generate a variety of masking functions and `extract' features with several generalized matching pursuit iterations. In each iteration, the recursive process modifies several coefficients of the transformed signal with the largest absolute values according to the specific masking function; in this way the greedy pursuit is turned into a slow, controlled, dissipation of the structure of the signal that, for some masking functions, enhances separation among classes. Our case study in this paper is the classification of crystallization patterns of amino acids solutions affected by the addition of small quantities of proteins.
physics/0606053
Optimal estimation for Large-Eddy Simulation of turbulence and application to the analysis of subgrid models
physics.class-ph cs.NE
The tools of optimal estimation are applied to the study of subgrid models for Large-Eddy Simulation of turbulence. The concept of optimal estimator is introduced and its properties are analyzed in the context of applications to a priori tests of subgrid models. Attention is focused on the Cook and Riley model in the case of a scalar field in isotropic turbulence. Using DNS data, the relevance of the beta assumption is estimated by computing (i) generalized optimal estimators and (ii) the error brought by this assumption alone. Optimal estimators are computed for the subgrid variance using various sets of variables and various techniques (histograms and neural networks). It is shown that optimal estimators allow a thorough exploration of models. Neural networks are proved to be relevant and very efficient in this framework, and further usages are suggested.
physics/0607116
Utilisation de la substitution sensorielle par \'{e}lectro-stimulation linguale pour la pr\'{e}vention des escarres chez les parapl\'{e}giques. Etude pr\'{e}liminaire
physics.med-ph cs.RO q-bio.NC
Pressure ulcers are recognized as a major health issue in individuals with spinal cord injuries and new approaches to prevent this pathology are necessary. An innovative health strategy is being developed through the use of computer and sensory substitution via the tongue in order to compensate for the sensory loss in the buttock area for individuals with paraplegia. This sensory compensation will enable individuals with spinal cord injuries to be aware of a localized excess of pressure at the skin/seat interface and, consequently, will enable them to prevent the formation of pressure ulcers by relieving the cutaneous area of suffering. This work reports an initial evaluation of this approach and the feasibility of creating an adapted behavior, with a change in pressure as a response to electro-stimulated information on the tongue. Obtained during a clinical study in 10 healthy seated subjects, the first results are encouraging, with 92% success in 100 performed tests. These results, which have to be completed and validated in the paraplegic population, may lead to a new approach to education in health to prevent the formation of pressure ulcers within this population. Keywords: Spinal Cord Injuries, Pressure Ulcer, Sensory Substitution, Health Education, Biomedical Informatics.
physics/0608166
Information filtering via Iterative Refinement
physics.data-an cs.IR physics.soc-ph
With the explosive growth of accessible information, expecially on the Internet, evaluation-based filtering has become a crucial task. Various systems have been devised aiming to sort through large volumes of information and select what is likely to be more relevant. In this letter we analyse a new ranking method, where the reputation of information providers is determined self-consistently.
physics/0608185
Updating Probabilities
physics.data-an cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT math.IT
We show that Skilling's method of induction leads to a unique general theory of inductive inference, the method of Maximum relative Entropy (ME). The main tool for updating probabilities is the logarithmic relative entropy; other entropies such as those of Renyi or Tsallis are ruled out. We also show that Bayes updating is a special case of ME updating and thus, that the two are completely compatible.
physics/0608293
Automatic Trading Agent. RMT based Portfolio Theory and Portfolio Selection
physics.soc-ph cs.CE q-fin.PM stat.AP
Portfolio theory is a very powerful tool in the modern investment theory. It is helpful in estimating risk of an investor's portfolio, which arises from our lack of information, uncertainty and incomplete knowledge of reality, which forbids a perfect prediction of future price changes. Despite of many advantages this tool is not known and is not widely used among investors on Warsaw Stock Exchange. The main reason for abandoning this method is a high level of complexity and immense calculations. The aim of this paper is to introduce an automatic decision - making system, which allows a single investor to use such complex methods of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). The key tool in MPT is an analysis of an empirical covariance matrix. This matrix, obtained from historical data is biased by such a high amount of statistical uncertainty, that it can be seen as random. By bringing into practice the ideas of Random Matrix Theory (RMT), the noise is removed or significantly reduced, so the future risk and return are better estimated and controlled. This concepts are applied to the Warsaw Stock Exchange Simulator http://gra.onet.pl. The result of the simulation is 18 % level of gains in comparison for respective 10 % loss of the Warsaw Stock Exchange main index WIG.
physics/0609097
F.A.S.T. - Floor field- and Agent-based Simulation Tool
physics.comp-ph cs.MA physics.soc-ph
In this paper a model of pedestrian motion is presented. As application its parameters are fitted to one run in a primary school evacuation exercise. Simulations with these parameters are compared to further runs during the same exercise.
physics/0610051
Structural Inference of Hierarchies in Networks
physics.soc-ph cs.LG physics.data-an
One property of networks that has received comparatively little attention is hierarchy, i.e., the property of having vertices that cluster together in groups, which then join to form groups of groups, and so forth, up through all levels of organization in the network. Here, we give a precise definition of hierarchical structure, give a generic model for generating arbitrary hierarchical structure in a random graph, and describe a statistically principled way to learn the set of hierarchical features that most plausibly explain a particular real-world network. By applying this approach to two example networks, we demonstrate its advantages for the interpretation of network data, the annotation of graphs with edge, vertex and community properties, and the generation of generic null models for further hypothesis testing.
physics/0701081
Spatio-Temporal Electromagnetic Field Shapes and their Logical Processing
physics.comp-ph cs.CV physics.gen-ph
This paper is on the spatio-temporal signals with the topologically modulated electromagnetic fields. The carrier of the digital information is the topological scheme composed of the separatrices-manifolds and equilibrium positions of the field. The signals and developed hardware for their processing in the space-time domain are considered
physics/0703126
The Laplace-Jaynes approach to induction
physics.data-an cs.AI quant-ph
An approach to induction is presented, based on the idea of analysing the context of a given problem into `circumstances'. This approach, fully Bayesian in form and meaning, provides a complement or in some cases an alternative to that based on de Finetti's representation theorem and on the notion of infinite exchangeability. In particular, it gives an alternative interpretation of those formulae that apparently involve `unknown probabilities' or `propensities'. Various advantages and applications of the presented approach are discussed, especially in comparison to that based on exchangeability. Generalisations are also discussed.
physics/0703164
Cultural route to the emergence of linguistic categories
physics.soc-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.MA
Categories provide a coarse grained description of the world. A fundamental question is whether categories simply mirror an underlying structure of nature, or instead come from the complex interactions of human beings among themselves and with the environment. Here we address this question by modelling a population of individuals who co-evolve their own system of symbols and meanings by playing elementary language games. The central result is the emergence of a hierarchical category structure made of two distinct levels: a basic layer, responsible for fine discrimination of the environment, and a shared linguistic layer that groups together perceptions to guarantee communicative success. Remarkably, the number of linguistic categories turns out to be finite and small, as observed in natural languages.
physics/9911006
Genetic Algorithms in Time-Dependent Environments
physics.bio-ph adap-org cs.NE nlin.AO q-bio
The influence of time-dependent fitnesses on the infinite population dynamics of simple genetic algorithms (without crossover) is analyzed. Based on general arguments, a schematic phase diagram is constructed that allows one to characterize the asymptotic states in dependence on the mutation rate and the time scale of changes. Furthermore, the notion of regular changes is raised for which the population can be shown to converge towards a generalized quasispecies. Based on this, error thresholds and an optimal mutation rate are approximately calculated for a generational genetic algorithm with a moving needle-in-the-haystack landscape. The so found phase diagram is fully consistent with our general considerations.
q-bio/0310011
Complex Independent Component Analysis of Frequency-Domain Electroencephalographic Data
q-bio.QM cs.CE physics.data-an q-bio.NC
Independent component analysis (ICA) has proven useful for modeling brain and electroencephalographic (EEG) data. Here, we present a new, generalized method to better capture the dynamics of brain signals than previous ICA algorithms. We regard EEG sources as eliciting spatio-temporal activity patterns, corresponding to, e.g., trajectories of activation propagating across cortex. This leads to a model of convolutive signal superposition, in contrast with the commonly used instantaneous mixing model. In the frequency-domain, convolutive mixing is equivalent to multiplicative mixing of complex signal sources within distinct spectral bands. We decompose the recorded spectral-domain signals into independent components by a complex infomax ICA algorithm. First results from a visual attention EEG experiment exhibit (1) sources of spatio-temporal dynamics in the data, (2) links to subject behavior, (3) sources with a limited spectral extent, and (4) a higher degree of independence compared to sources derived by standard ICA.
q-bio/0310025
Pattern Excitation-Based Processing: The Music of The Brain
q-bio.NC cs.NE physics.bio-ph
An approach to information processing based on the excitation of patterns of activity by non-linear active resonators in response to their input patterns is proposed. Arguments are presented to show that any computation performed by a conventional Turing machine-based computer, called T-machine in this paper, could also be performed by the pattern excitation-based machine, which will be called P-machine. A realization of this processing scheme by neural networks is discussed. In this realization, the role of the resonators is played by neural pattern excitation networks, which are the neural circuits capable of exciting different spatio-temporal patterns of activity in response to different inputs. Learning in the neural pattern excitation networks is also considered. It is shown that there is a duality between pattern excitation and pattern recognition neural networks, which allows to create new pattern excitation modes corresponding to recognizable input patterns, based on Hebbian learning rules. Hierarchically organized, such networks can produce complex behavior. Animal behavior, human language and thought are treated as examples produced by such networks.
q-bio/0401033
Parametric Inference for Biological Sequence Analysis
q-bio.GN cs.LG math.ST stat.TH
One of the major successes in computational biology has been the unification, using the graphical model formalism, of a multitude of algorithms for annotating and comparing biological sequences. Graphical models that have been applied towards these problems include hidden Markov models for annotation, tree models for phylogenetics, and pair hidden Markov models for alignment. A single algorithm, the sum-product algorithm, solves many of the inference problems associated with different statistical models. This paper introduces the \emph{polytope propagation algorithm} for computing the Newton polytope of an observation from a graphical model. This algorithm is a geometric version of the sum-product algorithm and is used to analyze the parametric behavior of maximum a posteriori inference calculations for graphical models.
q-bio/0402029
Fluctuation-dissipation theorem and models of learning
q-bio.NC cs.LG nlin.AO physics.data-an
Advances in statistical learning theory have resulted in a multitude of different designs of learning machines. But which ones are implemented by brains and other biological information processors? We analyze how various abstract Bayesian learners perform on different data and argue that it is difficult to determine which learning-theoretic computation is performed by a particular organism using just its performance in learning a stationary target (learning curve). Basing on the fluctuation-dissipation relation in statistical physics, we then discuss a different experimental setup that might be able to solve the problem.
q-bio/0403011
Memorization in a neural network with adjustable transfer function and conditional gating
q-bio.NC cs.NE
The main problem about replacing LTP as a memory mechanism has been to find other highly abstract, easily understandable principles for induced plasticity. In this paper we attempt to lay out such a basic mechanism, namely intrinsic plasticity. Important empirical observations with theoretical significance are time-layering of neural plasticity mediated by additional constraints to enter into later stages, various manifestations of intrinsic neural properties, and conditional gating of synaptic connections. An important consequence of the proposed mechanism is that it can explain the usually latent nature of memories.
q-bio/0403022
Intelligent encoding and economical communication in the visual stream
q-bio.NC cs.AI cs.CC nlin.AO
The theory of computational complexity is used to underpin a recent model of neocortical sensory processing. We argue that encoding into reconstruction networks is appealing for communicating agents using Hebbian learning and working on hard combinatorial problems, which are easy to verify. Computational definition of the concept of intelligence is provided. Simulations illustrate the idea.
q-bio/0403036
The Triplet Genetic Code had a Doublet Predecessor
q-bio.GN cs.CE q-bio.BM quant-ph
Information theoretic analysis of genetic languages indicates that the naturally occurring 20 amino acids and the triplet genetic code arose by duplication of 10 amino acids of class-II and a doublet genetic code having codons NNY and anticodons $\overleftarrow{\rm GNN}$. Evidence for this scenario is presented based on the properties of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, amino acids and nucleotide bases.
q-bio/0406015
Information theory, multivariate dependence, and genetic network inference
q-bio.QM cs.IT math.IT math.ST physics.data-an q-bio.GN stat.TH
We define the concept of dependence among multiple variables using maximum entropy techniques and introduce a graphical notation to denote the dependencies. Direct inference of information theoretic quantities from data uncovers dependencies even in undersampled regimes when the joint probability distribution cannot be reliably estimated. The method is tested on synthetic data. We anticipate it to be useful for inference of genetic circuits and other biological signaling networks.
q-bio/0411030
Statistical Mechanics Characterization of Neuronal Mosaics
q-bio.NC cond-mat.dis-nn cs.CV physics.bio-ph q-bio.QM
The spatial distribution of neuronal cells is an important requirement for achieving proper neuronal function in several parts of the nervous system of most animals. For instance, specific distribution of photoreceptors and related neuronal cells, particularly the ganglion cells, in mammal's retina is required in order to properly sample the projected scene. This work presents how two concepts from the areas of statistical mechanics and complex systems, namely the \emph{lacunarity} and the \emph{multiscale entropy} (i.e. the entropy calculated over progressively diffused representations of the cell mosaic), have allowed effective characterization of the spatial distribution of retinal cells.
q-bio/0501021
Spike timing precision and neural error correction: local behavior
q-bio.NC cs.NE math.DS
The effects of spike timing precision and dynamical behavior on error correction in spiking neurons were investigated. Stationary discharges -- phase locked, quasiperiodic, or chaotic -- were induced in a simulated neuron by presenting pacemaker presynaptic spike trains across a model of a prototypical inhibitory synapse. Reduced timing precision was modeled by jittering presynaptic spike times. Aftereffects of errors -- in this communication, missed presynaptic spikes -- were determined by comparing postsynaptic spike times between simulations identical except for the presence or absence of errors. Results show that the effects of an error vary greatly depending on the ongoing dynamical behavior. In the case of phase lockings, a high degree of presynaptic spike timing precision can provide significantly faster error recovery. For non-locked behaviors, isolated missed spikes can have little or no discernible aftereffects (or even serve to paradoxically reduce uncertainty in postsynaptic spike timing), regardless of presynaptic imprecision. This suggests two possible categories of error correction: high-precision locking with rapid recovery and low-precision non-locked with error immunity.
q-bio/0502023
Learning intrinsic excitability in medium spiny neurons
q-bio.NC cs.NE
We present an unsupervised, local activation-dependent learning rule for intrinsic plasticity (IP) which affects the composition of ion channel conductances for single neurons in a use-dependent way. We use a single-compartment conductance-based model for medium spiny striatal neurons in order to show the effects of parametrization of individual ion channels on the neuronal activation function. We show that parameter changes within the physiological ranges are sufficient to create an ensemble of neurons with significantly different activation functions. We emphasize that the effects of intrinsic neuronal variability on spiking behavior require a distributed mode of synaptic input and can be eliminated by strongly correlated input. We show how variability and adaptivity in ion channel conductances can be utilized to store patterns without an additional contribution by synaptic plasticity (SP). The adaptation of the spike response may result in either "positive" or "negative" pattern learning. However, read-out of stored information depends on a distributed pattern of synaptic activity to let intrinsic variability determine spike response. We briefly discuss the implications of this conditional memory on learning and addiction.
q-bio/0505021
Characterizing Self-Developing Biological Neural Networks: A First Step Towards their Application To Computing Systems
q-bio.NC cs.AR cs.NE nlin.AO
Carbon nanotubes are often seen as the only alternative technology to silicon transistors. While they are the most likely short-term one, other longer-term alternatives should be studied as well. While contemplating biological neurons as an alternative component may seem preposterous at first sight, significant recent progress in CMOS-neuron interface suggests this direction may not be unrealistic; moreover, biological neurons are known to self-assemble into very large networks capable of complex information processing tasks, something that has yet to be achieved with other emerging technologies. The first step to designing computing systems on top of biological neurons is to build an abstract model of self-assembled biological neural networks, much like computer architects manipulate abstract models of transistors and circuits. In this article, we propose a first model of the structure of biological neural networks. We provide empirical evidence that this model matches the biological neural networks found in living organisms, and exhibits the small-world graph structure properties commonly found in many large and self-organized systems, including biological neural networks. More importantly, we extract the simple local rules and characteristics governing the growth of such networks, enabling the development of potentially large but realistic biological neural networks, as would be needed for complex information processing/computing tasks. Based on this model, future work will be targeted to understanding the evolution and learning properties of such networks, and how they can be used to build computing systems.
q-bio/0505050
HLA and HIV Infection Progression: Application of the Minimum Description Length Principle to Statistical Genetics
q-bio.QM cs.IT math.IT
The minimum description length (MDL) principle states that the best model to account for some data minimizes the sum of the lengths, in bits, of the descriptions of the model and the residual error. The description length is thus a criterion for model selection. Description-length analysis of HLA alleles from the Chicago MACS cohort enables classification of alleles associated with plasma HIV RNA, an indicator of infection progression. Progression variation is most strongly associated with HLA-B. Individuals without B58s supertype alleles average viral RNA levels 3.6-fold greater than individuals with them.
q-bio/0507037
Neuromodulation Influences Synchronization and Intrinsic Read-out
q-bio.NC cs.NE nlin.AO
Background: The roles of neuromodulation in a neural network, such as in a cortical microcolumn, are still incompletely understood. Neuromodulation influences neural processing by presynaptic and postsynaptic regulation of synaptic efficacy. Neuromodulation also affects ion channels and intrinsic excitability. Methods: Synaptic efficacy modulation is an effective way to rapidly alter network density and topology. We alter network topology and density to measure the effect on spike synchronization. We also operate with differently parameterized neuron models which alter the neurons intrinsic excitability, i.e., activation function. Results: We find that (a) fast synaptic efficacy modulation influences the amount of correlated spiking in a network. Also, (b) synchronization in a network influences the read-out of intrinsic properties. Highly synchronous input drives neurons, such that differences in intrinsic properties disappear, while asynchronous input lets intrinsic properties determine output behavior. Thus, altering network topology can alter the balance between intrinsically vs. synaptically driven network activity. Conclusion: We conclude that neuromodulation may allow a network to shift between a more synchronized transmission mode and a more asynchronous intrinsic read-out mode. This has significant implications for our understanding of the flexibility of cortical computations.
q-bio/0510007
The fitness value of information
q-bio.PE cs.IT math.IT q-bio.NC
Biologists measure information in different ways. Neurobiologists and researchers in bioinformatics often measure information using information-theoretic measures such as Shannon's entropy or mutual information. Behavioral biologists and evolutionary ecologists more commonly use decision-theoretic measures, such the value of information, which assess the worth of information to a decision maker. Here we show that these two kinds of measures are intimately related in the context of biological evolution. We present a simple model of evolution in an uncertain environment, and calculate the increase in Darwinian fitness that is made possible by information about the environmental state. This fitness increase -- the fitness value of information -- is a composite of both Shannon's mutual information and the decision-theoretic value of information. Furthermore, we show that in certain cases the fitness value of responding to a cue is exactly equal to the mutual information between the cue and the environment. In general the Shannon entropy of the environment, which seemingly fails to take anything about organismal fitness into account, nonetheless imposes an upper bound on the fitness value of information.
q-bio/0511045
The use of the GARP genetic algorithm and internet grid computing in the Lifemapper world atlas of species biodiversity
q-bio.QM cs.DC cs.NE q-bio.OT
Lifemapper (http://www.lifemapper.org) is a predictive electronic atlas of the Earth's biological biodiversity. Using a screensaver version of the GARP genetic algorithm for modeling species distributions, Lifemapper harnesses vast computing resources through 'volunteers' PCs similar to SETI@home, to develop models of the distribution of the worlds fauna and flora. The Lifemapper project's primary goal is to provide an up to date and comprehensive database of species maps and prediction models (i.e. a fauna and flora of the world) using available data on species' locations. The models are developed using specimen data from distributed museum collections and an archive of geospatial environmental correlates. A central server maintains a dynamic archive of species maps and models for research, outreach to the general community, and feedback to museum data providers. This paper is a case study in the role, use and justification of a genetic algorithm in development of large-scale environmental informatics infrastructure.
q-bio/0511046
Improving ecological niche models by data mining large environmental datasets for surrogate models
q-bio.QM cs.AI
WhyWhere is a new ecological niche modeling (ENM) algorithm for mapping and explaining the distribution of species. The algorithm uses image processing methods to efficiently sift through large amounts of data to find the few variables that best predict species occurrence. The purpose of this paper is to describe and justify the main parameterizations and to show preliminary success at rapidly providing accurate, scalable, and simple ENMs. Preliminary results for 6 species of plants and animals in different regions indicate a significant (p<0.01) 14% increase in accuracy over the GARP algorithm using models with few, typically two, variables. The increase is attributed to access to additional data, particularly monthly vs. annual climate averages. WhyWhere is also 6 times faster than GARP on large data sets. A data mining based approach with transparent access to remote data archives is a new paradigm for ENM, particularly suited to finding correlates in large databases of fine resolution surfaces. Software for WhyWhere is freely available, both as a service and in a desktop downloadable form from the web site http://biodi.sdsc.edu/ww_home.html.
q-bio/0603007
Compression ratios based on the Universal Similarity Metric still yield protein distances far from CATH distances
q-bio.QM cs.CE physics.data-an q-bio.OT
Kolmogorov complexity has inspired several alignment-free distance measures, based on the comparison of lengths of compressions, which have been applied successfully in many areas. One of these measures, the so-called Universal Similarity Metric (USM), has been used by Krasnogor and Pelta to compare simple protein contact maps, showing that it yielded good clustering on four small datasets. We report an extensive test of this metric using a much larger and representative protein dataset: the domain dataset used by Sierk and Pearson to evaluate seven protein structure comparison methods and two protein sequence comparison methods. One result is that Krasnogor-Pelta method has less domain discriminant power than any one of the methods considered by Sierk and Pearson when using these simple contact maps. In another test, we found that the USM based distance has low agreement with the CATH tree structure for the same benchmark of Sierk and Pearson. In any case, its agreement is lower than the one of a standard sequential alignment method, SSEARCH. Finally, we manually found lots of small subsets of the database that are better clustered using SSEARCH than USM, to confirm that Krasnogor-Pelta's conclusions were based on datasets that were too small.
q-bio/0604024
The transposition distance for phylogenetic trees
q-bio.PE cs.CE math.GR q-bio.OT
The search for similarity and dissimilarity measures on phylogenetic trees has been motivated by the computation of consensus trees, the search by similarity in phylogenetic databases, and the assessment of clustering results in bioinformatics. The transposition distance for fully resolved phylogenetic trees is a recent addition to the extensive collection of available metrics for comparing phylogenetic trees. In this paper, we generalize the transposition distance from fully resolved to arbitrary phylogenetic trees, through a construction that involves an embedding of the set of phylogenetic trees with a fixed number of labeled leaves into a symmetric group and a generalization of Reidys-Stadler's involution metric for RNA contact structures. We also present simple linear-time algorithms for computing it.
q-bio/0605020
Laws in Darwinian Evolutionary Theory
q-bio.PE cond-mat.stat-mech cs.NE math.OC nlin.AO physics.bio-ph q-bio.QM
In the present article the recent works to formulate laws in Darwinian evolutionary dynamics are discussed. Although there is a strong consensus that general laws in biology may exist, opinions opposing such suggestion are abundant. Based on recent progress in both mathematics and biology, another attempt to address this issue is made in the present article. Specifically, three laws which form a mathematical framework for the evolutionary dynamics in biology are postulated. The second law is most quantitative and is explicitly expressed in the unique form of a stochastic differential equation. Salient features of Darwinian evolutionary dynamics are captured by this law: the probabilistic nature of evolution, ascendancy, and the adaptive landscape. Four dynamical elements are introduced in this formulation: the ascendant matrix, the transverse matrix, the Wright evolutionary potential, and the stochastic drive. The first law may be regarded as a special case of the second law. It gives the reference point to discuss the evolutionary dynamics. The third law describes the relationship between the focused level of description to its lower and higher ones, and defines the dichotomy of deterministic and stochastic drives. It is an acknowledgement of the hierarchical structure in biology. A new interpretation of Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection is provided in terms of the F-Theorem. The proposed laws are based on continuous representation in both time and population. Their generic nature is demonstrated through their equivalence to classical formulations. The present three laws appear to provide a coherent framework for the further development of the subject.
q-bio/0607018
A p-Adic Model of DNA Sequence and Genetic Code
q-bio.GN cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP physics.bio-ph
Using basic properties of p-adic numbers, we consider a simple new approach to describe main aspects of DNA sequence and genetic code. Central role in our investigation plays an ultrametric p-adic information space which basic elements are nucleotides, codons and genes. We show that a 5-adic model is appropriate for DNA sequence. This 5-adic model, combined with 2-adic distance, is also suitable for genetic code and for a more advanced employment in genomics. We find that genetic code degeneracy is related to the p-adic distance between codons.
q-bio/0610040
Metric learning pairwise kernel for graph inference
q-bio.QM cs.LG
Much recent work in bioinformatics has focused on the inference of various types of biological networks, representing gene regulation, metabolic processes, protein-protein interactions, etc. A common setting involves inferring network edges in a supervised fashion from a set of high-confidence edges, possibly characterized by multiple, heterogeneous data sets (protein sequence, gene expression, etc.). Here, we distinguish between two modes of inference in this setting: direct inference based upon similarities between nodes joined by an edge, and indirect inference based upon similarities between one pair of nodes and another pair of nodes. We propose a supervised approach for the direct case by translating it into a distance metric learning problem. A relaxation of the resulting convex optimization problem leads to the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm with a particular kernel for pairs, which we call the metric learning pairwise kernel (MLPK). We demonstrate, using several real biological networks, that this direct approach often improves upon the state-of-the-art SVM for indirect inference with the tensor product pairwise kernel.
q-bio/0612013
Clustering fetal heart rate tracings by compression
q-bio.TO cs.CV cs.IR q-bio.QM
Fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring, before and during labor, is a very important medical practice in the detection of fetuses in danger. We clustered FHR tracings by compression in order to identify abnormal ones. We use a recently introduced approach based on algorithmic information theory, a theoretical, rigorous and well-studied notion of information content in individual objects. The new method can mine patterns in completely different areas, there are no domain-specific parameters to set, and it does not require specific background knowledge. At the highest level the FHR tracings were clustered according to an unanticipated feature, namely the technology used in signal acquisition. At the lower levels all tracings with abnormal or suspicious patterns were clustered together, independent of the technology used. Moreover, FHR tracings with future poor neonatal outcomes were included in the cluster with other suspicious patterns.
q-bio/0701009
Attribute Exploration of Discrete Temporal Transitions
q-bio.QM cs.AI q-bio.MN
Discrete temporal transitions occur in a variety of domains, but this work is mainly motivated by applications in molecular biology: explaining and analyzing observed transcriptome and proteome time series by literature and database knowledge. The starting point of a formal concept analysis model is presented. The objects of a formal context are states of the interesting entities, and the attributes are the variable properties defining the current state (e.g. observed presence or absence of proteins). Temporal transitions assign a relation to the objects, defined by deterministic or non-deterministic transition rules between sets of pre- and postconditions. This relation can be generalized to its transitive closure, i.e. states are related if one results from the other by a transition sequence of arbitrary length. The focus of the work is the adaptation of the attribute exploration algorithm to such a relational context, so that questions concerning temporal dependencies can be asked during the exploration process and be answered from the computed stem base. Results are given for the abstract example of a game and a small gene regulatory network relevant to a biomedical question.
q-bio/0703044
On the existence of potential landscape in the evolution of complex systems
q-bio.QM cond-mat.stat-mech cs.IT math.DS math.IT nlin.AO q-bio.MN
A recently developed treatment of stochastic processes leads to the construction of a potential landscape for the dynamical evolution of complex systems. Since the existence of a potential function in generic settings has been frequently questioned in literature,herewe study several related theoretical issues that lie at core of the construction. We showthat the novel treatment,via a transformation,is closely related to the symplectic structure that is central in many branches of theoretical physics. Using this insight, we demonstrate an invariant under the transformation. We further explicitly demonstrate, in one-dimensional case, the contradistinction among the new treatment to those of Ito and Stratonovich, as well as others.Our results strongly suggest that the method from statistical physics can be useful in studying stochastic, complex systems in general.
quant-ph/0011122
Algorithmic Theories of Everything
quant-ph cs.AI cs.CC cs.LG hep-th math-ph math.MP physics.comp-ph
The probability distribution P from which the history of our universe is sampled represents a theory of everything or TOE. We assume P is formally describable. Since most (uncountably many) distributions are not, this imposes a strong inductive bias. We show that P(x) is small for any universe x lacking a short description, and study the spectrum of TOEs spanned by two Ps, one reflecting the most compact constructive descriptions, the other the fastest way of computing everything. The former derives from generalizations of traditional computability, Solomonoff's algorithmic probability, Kolmogorov complexity, and objects more random than Chaitin's Omega, the latter from Levin's universal search and a natural resource-oriented postulate: the cumulative prior probability of all x incomputable within time t by this optimal algorithm should be 1/t. Between both Ps we find a universal cumulatively enumerable measure that dominates traditional enumerable measures; any such CEM must assign low probability to any universe lacking a short enumerating program. We derive P-specific consequences for evolving observers, inductive reasoning, quantum physics, philosophy, and the expected duration of our universe.
quant-ph/0012111
Quantum error-correcting codes associated with graphs
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP
We present a construction scheme for quantum error correcting codes. The basic ingredients are a graph and a finite abelian group, from which the code can explicitly be obtained. We prove necessary and sufficient conditions for the graph such that the resulting code corrects a certain number of errors. This allows a simple verification of the 1-error correcting property of fivefold codes in any dimension. As new examples we construct a large class of codes saturating the singleton bound, as well as a tenfold code detecting 3 errors.
quant-ph/0102108
Quantum Kolmogorov Complexity Based on Classical Descriptions
quant-ph cs.CC cs.IT math.IT math.LO
We develop a theory of the algorithmic information in bits contained in an individual pure quantum state. This extends classical Kolmogorov complexity to the quantum domain retaining classical descriptions. Quantum Kolmogorov complexity coincides with the classical Kolmogorov complexity on the classical domain. Quantum Kolmogorov complexity is upper bounded and can be effectively approximated from above under certain conditions. With high probability a quantum object is incompressible. Upper- and lower bounds of the quantum complexity of multiple copies of individual pure quantum states are derived and may shed some light on the no-cloning properties of quantum states. In the quantum situation complexity is not sub-additive. We discuss some relations with ``no-cloning'' and ``approximate cloning'' properties.
quant-ph/0107129
Algebraic geometric construction of a quantum stabilizer code
quant-ph cs.IT math.AG math.IT math.SG
The stabilizer code is the most general algebraic construction of quantum error-correcting codes proposed so far. A stabilizer code can be constructed from a self-orthogonal subspace of a symplectic space over a finite field. We propose a construction method of such a self-orthogonal space using an algebraic curve. By using the proposed method we construct an asymptotically good sequence of binary stabilizer codes. As a byproduct we improve the Ashikhmin-Litsyn-Tsfasman bound of quantum codes. The main results in this paper can be understood without knowledge of quantum mechanics.
quant-ph/0108073
Quantum Information in Space and Time
quant-ph cond-mat.mes-hall cs.IT gr-qc hep-ph hep-th math-ph math.IT math.MP math.PR
Many important results in modern quantum information theory have been obtained for an idealized situation when the spacetime dependence of quantum phenomena is neglected. However the transmission and processing of (quantum) information is a physical process in spacetime. Therefore such basic notions in quantum information theory as the notions of composite systems, entangled states and the channel should be formulated in space and time. We emphasize the importance of the investigation of quantum information in space and time. Entangled states in space and time are considered. A modification of Bell`s equation which includes the spacetime variables is suggested. A general relation between quantum theory and theory of classical stochastic processes is proposed. It expresses the condition of local realism in the form of a {\it noncommutative spectral theorem}. Applications of this relation to the security of quantum key distribution in quantum cryptography are considered.
quant-ph/0108133
On Classical and Quantum Cryptography
quant-ph cond-mat.mes-hall cs.IT hep-th math-ph math.IT math.MP
Lectures on classical and quantum cryptography. Contents: Private key cryptosystems. Elements of number theory. Public key cryptography and RSA cryptosystem. Shannon`s entropy and mutual information. Entropic uncertainty relations. The no cloning theorem. The BB84 quantum cryptographic protocol. Security proofs. Bell`s theorem. The EPRBE quantum cryptographic protocol.
quant-ph/0110103
Quantum entanglement and geometry of determinantal varieties
quant-ph cs.IT math.AG math.IT
Quantum entanglement was first recognized as a feature of quantum mechanics in the famous paper of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen [18]. Recently it has been realized that quantum entanglement is a key ingredient in quantum computation, quantum communication and quantum cryptography ([16],[17],[6]). In this paper, we introduce algebraic sets, which are determinantal varieties in the complex projective spaces or the products of complex projective spaces, for the mixed states in bipartite or multipartite quantum systems as their invariants under local unitary transformations. These invariants are naturally arised from the physical consideration of measuring mixed states by separable pure states. In this way algebraic geometry and complex differential geometry of these algebraic sets turn to be powerful tools for the understanding of quantum enatanglement. Our construction has applications in the following important topics in quantum information theory: 1) separability criterion, it is proved the algebraic sets have to be the sum of the linear subspaces if the mixed states are separable; 2) lower bound of Schmidt numbers, that is, generic low rank bipartite mixed states are entangled in many degrees of freedom; 3) simulation of Hamiltonians, it is proved the simulation of semi-positive Hamiltonians of the same rank implies the projective isomorphisms of the corresponding algebraic sets; 4) construction of bound enatanglement, examples of the entangled mixed states which are invariant under partial transpositions (thus PPT bound entanglement) are constructed systematically from our new separability criterion. On the other hand many examples of entangled mixed states with rich algebraic-geometric structure in their associated determinantal varieties are constructed and studied from this point of view.
quant-ph/0202015
Semiclassical Neural Network
quant-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.AI q-bio
We have constructed a simple semiclassical model of neural network where neurons have quantum links with one another in a chosen way and affect one another in a fashion analogous to action potentials. We have examined the role of stochasticity introduced by the quantum potential and compare the system with the classical system of an integrate-and-fire model by Hopfield. Average periodicity and short term retentivity of input memory are noted.
quant-ph/0202016
Neural Networks with c-NOT Gated Nodes
quant-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.AI q-bio
We try to design a quantum neural network with qubits instead of classical neurons with deterministic states, and also with quantum operators replacing teh classical action potentials. With our choice of gates interconnecting teh neural lattice, it appears that the state of the system behaves in ways reflecting both the strengths of coupling between neurons as well as initial conditions. We find that depending whether there is a threshold for emission from excited to ground state, the system shows either aperiodic oscillations or coherent ones with periodicity depending on the strength of coupling.
quant-ph/0203010
Entangled Quantum Networks
quant-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.AI
We present some results from simulation of a network of nodes connected by c-NOT gates with nearest neighbors. Though initially we begin with pure states of varying boundary conditions, the updating with time quickly involves a complicated entanglement involving all or most nodes. As a normal c-NOT gate, though unitary for a single pair of nodes, seems to be not so when used in a network in a naive way, we use a manifestly unitary form of the transition matrix with c?-NOT gates, which invert the phase as well as flipping the qubit. This leads to complete entanglement of the net, but with variable coefficients for the different components of the superposition. It is interesting to note that by a simple logical back projection the original input state can be recovered in most cases. We also prove that it is not possible for a sequence of unitary operators working on a net to make it move from an aperiodic regime to a periodic one, unlike some classical cases where phase-locking happens in course of evolution. However, we show that it is possible to introduce by hand periodic orbits to sets of initial states, which may be useful in forming dynamic pattern recognition systems.
quant-ph/0203105
The capacity of hybrid quantum memory
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP math.OA
The general stable quantum memory unit is a hybrid consisting of a classical digit with a quantum digit (qudit) assigned to each classical state. The shape of the memory is the vector of sizes of these qudits, which may differ. We determine when N copies of a quantum memory A embed in N(1+o(1)) copies of another quantum memory B. This relationship captures the notion that B is as at least as useful as A for all purposes in the bulk limit. We show that the embeddings exist if and only if for all p >= 1, the p-norm of the shape of A does not exceed the p-norm of the shape of B. The log of the p-norm of the shape of A can be interpreted as the maximum of S(\rho) + H(\rho)/p (quantum entropy plus discounted classical entropy) taken over all mixed states \rho on A. We also establish a noiseless coding theorem that justifies these entropies. The noiseless coding theorem and the bulk embedding theorem together say that either A blindly bulk-encodes into B with perfect fidelity, or A admits a state that does not visibly bulk-encode into B with high fidelity. In conclusion, the utility of a hybrid quantum memory is determined by its simultaneous capacity for classical and quantum entropy, which is not a finite list of numbers, but rather a convex region in the classical-quantum entropy plane.
quant-ph/0205161
Contextualizing Concepts using a Mathematical Generalization of the Quantum Formalism
quant-ph cs.AI q-bio.NC
We outline the rationale and preliminary results of using the State Context Property (SCOP) formalism, originally developed as a generalization of quantum mechanics, to describe the contextual manner in which concepts are evoked, used, and combined to generate meaning. The quantum formalism was developed to cope with problems arising in the description of (1) the measurement process, and (2) the generation of new states with new properties when particles become entangled. Similar problems arising with concepts motivated the formal treatment introduced here. Concepts are viewed not as fixed representations, but entities existing in states of potentiality that require interaction with a context--a stimulus or another concept--to 'collapse' to an instantiated form (e.g. exemplar, prototype, or other possibly imaginary instance). The stimulus situation plays the role of the measurement in physics, acting as context that induces a change of the cognitive state from superposition state to collapsed state. The collapsed state is more likely to consist of a conjunction of concepts for associative than analytic thought because more stimulus or concept properties take part in the collapse. We provide two contextual measures of conceptual distance--one using collapse probabilities and the other weighted properties--and show how they can be applied to conjunctions using the pet fish problem
quant-ph/0207069
Data compression limit for an information source of interacting qubits
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP
A system of interacting qubits can be viewed as a non-i.i.d quantum information source. A possible model of such a source is provided by a quantum spin system, in which spin-1/2 particles located at sites of a lattice interact with each other. We establish the limit for the compression of information from such a source and show that asymptotically it is given by the von Neumann entropy rate. Our result can be viewed as a quantum analog of Shannon's noiseless coding theorem for a class of non - i.i.d. quantum information sources.
quant-ph/0210176
Quantum Pattern Recognition
quant-ph cond-mat.dis-nn cs.IR nlin.AO q-bio.NC
I review and expand the model of quantum associative memory that I have recently proposed. In this model binary patterns of n bits are stored in the quantum superposition of the appropriate subset of the computational basis of n qbits. Information can be retrieved by performing an input-dependent rotation of the memory quantum state within this subset and measuring the resulting state. The amplitudes of this rotated memory state are peaked on those stored patterns which are closest in Hamming distance to the input, resulting in a high probability of measuring a memory pattern very similar to it. The accuracy of pattern recall can be tuned by adjusting a parameter playing the role of an effective temperature. This model solves the well-known capacity shortage problem of classical associative memories, providing an exponential improvement in capacity. The price to pay is the probabilistic nature of information retrieval, a feature that, however, this model shares with our own brain.
quant-ph/0301075
Selective pressures on genomes in molecular evolution
quant-ph cs.NE nlin.AO physics.bio-ph q-bio.PE
We describe the evolution of macromolecules as an information transmission process and apply tools from Shannon information theory to it. This allows us to isolate three independent, competing selective pressures that we term compression, transmission, and neutrality selection. The first two affect genome length: the pressure to conserve resources by compressing the code, and the pressure to acquire additional information that improves the channel, increasing the rate of information transmission into each offspring. Noisy transmission channels (replication with mutations) gives rise to a third pressure that acts on the actual encoding of information; it maximizes the fraction of mutations that are neutral with respect to the phenotype. This neutrality selection has important implications for the evolution of evolvability. We demonstrate each selective pressure in experiments with digital organisms.
quant-ph/0307170
Quantum Stein's lemma revisited, inequalities for quantum entropies, and a concavity theorem of Lieb
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP
We derive the monotonicity of the quantum relative entropy by an elementary operational argument based on Stein's lemma in quantum hypothesis testing. For the latter we present an elementary and short proof that requires the law of large numbers only. Joint convexity of the quantum relative entropy is proven too, resulting in a self-contained elementary version of Tropp's approach to Lieb's concavity theorem, according to which the map tr(exp(h+log a)) is concave in a on positive operators for self-adjoint h.
quant-ph/0308158
New Approachs to Quantum Computer Simulaton in a Classical Supercomputer
quant-ph cs.CE
Classical simulation is important because it sets a benchmark for quantum computer performance. Classical simulation is currently the only way to exercise larger numbers of qubits. To achieve larger simulations, sparse matrix processing is emphasized below while trading memory for processing. It performed well within NCSA supercomputers, giving a state vector in convenient continuous portions ready for post processing.
quant-ph/0309022
Quantum Aspects of Semantic Analysis and Symbolic Artificial Intelligence
quant-ph cs.CL
Modern approaches to semanic analysis if reformulated as Hilbert-space problems reveal formal structures known from quantum mechanics. Similar situation is found in distributed representations of cognitive structures developed for the purposes of neural networks. We take a closer look at similarites and differences between the above two fields and quantum information theory.
quant-ph/0310075
Symmetric Informationally Complete Quantum Measurements
quant-ph cs.IT math.FA math.IT
We consider the existence in arbitrary finite dimensions d of a POVM comprised of d^2 rank-one operators all of whose operator inner products are equal. Such a set is called a ``symmetric, informationally complete'' POVM (SIC-POVM) and is equivalent to a set of d^2 equiangular lines in C^d. SIC-POVMs are relevant for quantum state tomography, quantum cryptography, and foundational issues in quantum mechanics. We construct SIC-POVMs in dimensions two, three, and four. We further conjecture that a particular kind of group-covariant SIC-POVM exists in arbitrary dimensions, providing numerical results up to dimension 45 to bolster this claim.
quant-ph/0411140
Improved Bounds on Quantum Learning Algorithms
quant-ph cs.LG
In this article we give several new results on the complexity of algorithms that learn Boolean functions from quantum queries and quantum examples. Hunziker et al. conjectured that for any class C of Boolean functions, the number of quantum black-box queries which are required to exactly identify an unknown function from C is $O(\frac{\log |C|}{\sqrt{{\hat{\gamma}}^{C}}})$, where $\hat{\gamma}^{C}$ is a combinatorial parameter of the class C. We essentially resolve this conjecture in the affirmative by giving a quantum algorithm that, for any class C, identifies any unknown function from C using $O(\frac{\log |C| \log \log |C|}{\sqrt{{\hat{\gamma}}^{C}}})$ quantum black-box queries. We consider a range of natural problems intermediate between the exact learning problem (in which the learner must obtain all bits of information about the black-box function) and the usual problem of computing a predicate (in which the learner must obtain only one bit of information about the black-box function). We give positive and negative results on when the quantum and classical query complexities of these intermediate problems are polynomially related to each other. Finally, we improve the known lower bounds on the number of quantum examples (as opposed to quantum black-box queries) required for $(\epsilon,\delta)$-PAC learning any concept class of Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension d over the domain $\{0,1\}^n$ from $\Omega(\frac{d}{n})$ to $\Omega(\frac{1}{\epsilon}\log \frac{1}{\delta}+d+\frac{\sqrt{d}}{\epsilon})$. This new lower bound comes closer to matching known upper bounds for classical PAC learning.
quant-ph/0501099
Simple Rate-1/3 Convolutional and Tail-Biting Quantum Error-Correcting Codes
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Simple rate-1/3 single-error-correcting unrestricted and CSS-type quantum convolutional codes are constructed from classical self-orthogonal $\F_4$-linear and $\F_2$-linear convolutional codes, respectively. These quantum convolutional codes have higher rate than comparable quantum block codes or previous quantum convolutional codes, and are simple to decode. A block single-error-correcting [9, 3, 3] tail-biting code is derived from the unrestricted convolutional code, and similarly a [15, 5, 3] CSS-type block code from the CSS-type convolutional code.
quant-ph/0501126
Primitive Quantum BCH Codes over Finite Fields
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
An attractive feature of BCH codes is that one can infer valuable information from their design parameters (length, size of the finite field, and designed distance), such as bounds on the minimum distance and dimension of the code. In this paper, it is shown that one can also deduce from the design parameters whether or not a primitive, narrow-sense BCH contains its Euclidean or Hermitian dual code. This information is invaluable in the construction of quantum BCH codes. A new proof is provided for the dimension of BCH codes with small designed distance, and simple bounds on the minimum distance of such codes and their duals are derived as a consequence. These results allow us to derive the parameters of two families of primitive quantum BCH codes as a function of their design parameters.
quant-ph/0501152
A generalized skew information and uncertainty relation
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
A generalized skew information is defined and a generalized uncertainty relation is established with the help of a trace inequality which was recently proven by J.I.Fujii. In addition, we prove the trace inequality conjectured by S.Luo and Z.Zhang. Finally we point out that Theorem 1 in {\it S.Luo and Q.Zhang, IEEE Trans.IT, Vol.50, pp.1778-1782 (2004)} is incorrect in general, by giving a simple counter-example.
quant-ph/0503236
On Self-Dual Quantum Codes, Graphs, and Boolean Functions
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
A short introduction to quantum error correction is given, and it is shown that zero-dimensional quantum codes can be represented as self-dual additive codes over GF(4) and also as graphs. We show that graphs representing several such codes with high minimum distance can be described as nested regular graphs having minimum regular vertex degree and containing long cycles. Two graphs correspond to equivalent quantum codes if they are related by a sequence of local complementations. We use this operation to generate orbits of graphs, and thus classify all inequivalent self-dual additive codes over GF(4) of length up to 12, where previously only all codes of length up to 9 were known. We show that these codes can be interpreted as quadratic Boolean functions, and we define non-quadratic quantum codes, corresponding to Boolean functions of higher degree. We look at various cryptographic properties of Boolean functions, in particular the propagation criteria. The new aperiodic propagation criterion (APC) and the APC distance are then defined. We show that the distance of a zero-dimensional quantum code is equal to the APC distance of the corresponding Boolean function. Orbits of Boolean functions with respect to the {I,H,N}^n transform set are generated. We also study the peak-to-average power ratio with respect to the {I,H,N}^n transform set (PAR_IHN), and prove that PAR_IHN of a quadratic Boolean function is related to the size of the maximum independent set over the corresponding orbit of graphs. A construction technique for non-quadratic Boolean functions with low PAR_IHN is proposed. It is finally shown that both PAR_IHN and APC distance can be interpreted as partial entanglement measures.
quant-ph/0506080
Entropy and Quantum Kolmogorov Complexity: A Quantum Brudno's Theorem
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.DS math.IT math.MP
In classical information theory, entropy rate and Kolmogorov complexity per symbol are related by a theorem of Brudno. In this paper, we prove a quantum version of this theorem, connecting the von Neumann entropy rate and two notions of quantum Kolmogorov complexity, both based on the shortest qubit descriptions of qubit strings that, run by a universal quantum Turing machine, reproduce them as outputs.
quant-ph/0507231
Algebras of Measurements: the logical structure of Quantum Mechanics
quant-ph cs.AI
In Quantum Physics, a measurement is represented by a projection on some closed subspace of a Hilbert space. We study algebras of operators that abstract from the algebra of projections on closed subspaces of a Hilbert space. The properties of such operators are justified on epistemological grounds. Commutation of measurements is a central topic of interest. Classical logical systems may be viewed as measurement algebras in which all measurements commute. Keywords: Quantum measurements, Measurement algebras, Quantum Logic. PACS: 02.10.-v.
quant-ph/0508070
Nonbinary stabilizer codes over finite fields
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
One formidable difficulty in quantum communication and computation is to protect information-carrying quantum states against undesired interactions with the environment. In past years, many good quantum error-correcting codes had been derived as binary stabilizer codes. Fault-tolerant quantum computation prompted the study of nonbinary quantum codes, but the theory of such codes is not as advanced as that of binary quantum codes. This paper describes the basic theory of stabilizer codes over finite fields. The relation between stabilizer codes and general quantum codes is clarified by introducing a Galois theory for these objects. A characterization of nonbinary stabilizer codes over GF(q) in terms of classical codes over GF(q^2) is provided that generalizes the well-known notion of additive codes over GF(4) of the binary case. This paper derives lower and upper bounds on the minimum distance of stabilizer codes, gives several code constructions, and derives numerous families of stabilizer codes, including quantum Hamming codes, quadratic residue codes, quantum Melas codes, quantum BCH codes, and quantum character codes. The puncturing theory by Rains is generalized to additive codes that are not necessarily pure. Bounds on the maximal length of maximum distance separable stabilizer codes are given. A discussion of open problems concludes this paper.
quant-ph/0511016
Convolutional and tail-biting quantum error-correcting codes
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Rate-(n-2)/n unrestricted and CSS-type quantum convolutional codes with up to 4096 states and minimum distances up to 10 are constructed as stabilizer codes from classical self-orthogonal rate-1/n F_4-linear and binary linear convolutional codes, respectively. These codes generally have higher rate and less decoding complexity than comparable quantum block codes or previous quantum convolutional codes. Rate-(n-2)/n block stabilizer codes with the same rate and error-correction capability and essentially the same decoding algorithms are derived from these convolutional codes via tail-biting.
quant-ph/0511172
On Classical Teleportation and Classical Nonlocality
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
An interesting protocol for classical teleportation of an unknown classical state was recently suggested by Cohen, and by Gour and Meyer. In that protocol, Bob can sample from a probability distribution P that is given to Alice, even if Alice has absolutely no knowledge about P. Pursuing a similar line of thought, we suggest here a limited form of nonlocality - "classical nonlocality". Our nonlocality is the (somewhat limited) classical analogue of the Hughston-Jozsa-Wootters (HJW) quantum nonlocality. The HJW nonlocality tells us how, for a given density matrix rho, Alice can generate any rho-ensemble on the North Star. This is done using surprisingly few resources - one shared entangled state (prepared in advance), one generalized quantum measurement, and no communication. Similarly, our classical nonlocality presents how, for a given probability distribution P, Alice can generate any P-ensemble on the North Star, using only one correlated state (prepared in advance), one (generalized) classical measurement, and no communication. It is important to clarify that while the classical teleportation and the classical non-locality protocols are probably rather insignificant from a classical information processing point of view, they significantly contribute to our understanding of what exactly is quantum in their well established and highly famous quantum analogues.
quant-ph/0511175
A Proof of the Security of Quantum Key Distribution
quant-ph cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
We prove the security of theoretical quantum key distribution against the most general attacks which can be performed on the channel, by an eavesdropper who has unlimited computation abilities, and the full power allowed by the rules of classical and quantum physics. A key created that way can then be used to transmit secure messages such that their security is also unaffected in the future.
quant-ph/0601115
Phase-Remapping Attack in Practical Quantum Key Distribution Systems
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Quantum key distribution (QKD) can be used to generate secret keys between two distant parties. Even though QKD has been proven unconditionally secure against eavesdroppers with unlimited computation power, practical implementations of QKD may contain loopholes that may lead to the generated secret keys being compromised. In this paper, we propose a phase-remapping attack targeting two practical bidirectional QKD systems (the "plug & play" system and the Sagnac system). We showed that if the users of the systems are unaware of our attack, the final key shared between them can be compromised in some situations. Specifically, we showed that, in the case of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol with ideal single-photon sources, when the quantum bit error rate (QBER) is between 14.6% and 20%, our attack renders the final key insecure, whereas the same range of QBER values has been proved secure if the two users are unaware of our attack; also, we demonstrated three situations with realistic devices where positive key rates are obtained without the consideration of Trojan horse attacks but in fact no key can be distilled. We remark that our attack is feasible with only current technology. Therefore, it is very important to be aware of our attack in order to ensure absolute security. In finding our attack, we minimize the QBER over individual measurements described by a general POVM, which has some similarity with the standard quantum state discrimination problem.
quant-ph/0602129
Non-catastrophic Encoders and Encoder Inverses for Quantum Convolutional Codes
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
We present an algorithm to construct quantum circuits for encoding and inverse encoding of quantum convolutional codes. We show that any quantum convolutional code contains a subcode of finite index which has a non-catastrophic encoding circuit. Our work generalizes the conditions for non-catastrophic encoders derived in a paper by Ollivier and Tillich (quant-ph/0401134) which are applicable only for a restricted class of quantum convolutional codes. We also show that the encoders and their inverses constructed by our method naturally can be applied online, i.e., qubits can be sent and received with constant delay.
quant-ph/0603031
Channel capacities of classical and quantum list decoding
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
We focus on classical and quantum list decoding. The capacity of list decoding was obtained by Nishimura in the case when the number of list does not increase exponentially. However, the capacity of the exponential-list case is open even in the classical case while its converse part was obtained by Nishimura. We derive the channel capacities in the classical and quantum case with an exponentially increasing list. The converse part of the quantum case is obtained by modifying Nagaoka's simple proof for strong converse theorem for channel capacity. The direct part is derived by a quite simple argument.
quant-ph/0603098
Quantum broadcast channels
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
We consider quantum channels with one sender and two receivers, used in several different ways for the simultaneous transmission of independent messages. We begin by extending the technique of superposition coding to quantum channels with a classical input to give a general achievable region. We also give outer bounds to the capacity regions for various special cases from the classical literature and prove that superposition coding is optimal for a class of channels. We then consider extensions of superposition coding for channels with a quantum input, where some of the messages transmitted are quantum instead of classical, in the sense that the parties establish bipartite or tripartite GHZ entanglement. We conclude by using state merging to give achievable rates for establishing bipartite entanglement between different pairs of parties with the assistance of free classical communication.
quant-ph/0603135
Interaction in Quantum Communication
quant-ph cs.CC cs.IT math.IT
In some scenarios there are ways of conveying information with many fewer, even exponentially fewer, qubits than possible classically. Moreover, some of these methods have a very simple structure--they involve only few message exchanges between the communicating parties. It is therefore natural to ask whether every classical protocol may be transformed to a ``simpler'' quantum protocol--one that has similar efficiency, but uses fewer message exchanges. We show that for any constant k, there is a problem such that its k+1 message classical communication complexity is exponentially smaller than its k message quantum communication complexity. This, in particular, proves a round hierarchy theorem for quantum communication complexity, and implies, via a simple reduction, an Omega(N^{1/k}) lower bound for k message quantum protocols for Set Disjointness for constant k. Enroute, we prove information-theoretic lemmas, and define a related measure of correlation, the informational distance, that we believe may be of significance in other contexts as well.
quant-ph/0604013
Beyond i.i.d. in Quantum Information Theory
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
The information spectrum approach gives general formulae for optimal rates of codes in many areas of information theory. In this paper the quantum spectral divergence rates are defined and properties of the rates are derived. The entropic rates, conditional entropic rates, and spectral mutual information rates are then defined in terms of the spectral divergence rates. Properties including subadditivity, chain rules, Araki-Lieb inequalities, and monotonicity are then explored.
quant-ph/0604161
Clifford Code Constructions of Operator Quantum Error Correcting Codes
quant-ph cs.IT math.IT
Recently, operator quantum error-correcting codes have been proposed to unify and generalize decoherence free subspaces, noiseless subsystems, and quantum error-correcting codes. This note introduces a natural construction of such codes in terms of Clifford codes, an elegant generalization of stabilizer codes due to Knill. Character-theoretic methods are used to derive a simple method to construct operator quantum error-correcting codes from any classical additive code over a finite field.
quant-ph/0605030
Strongly Universal Quantum Turing Machines and Invariance of Kolmogorov Complexity
quant-ph cs.IT math-ph math.IT math.MP
We show that there exists a universal quantum Turing machine (UQTM) that can simulate every other QTM until the other QTM has halted and then halt itself with probability one. This extends work by Bernstein and Vazirani who have shown that there is a UQTM that can simulate every other QTM for an arbitrary, but preassigned number of time steps. As a corollary to this result, we give a rigorous proof that quantum Kolmogorov complexity as defined by Berthiaume et al. is invariant, i.e. depends on the choice of the UQTM only up to an additive constant. Our proof is based on a new mathematical framework for QTMs, including a thorough analysis of their halting behaviour. We introduce the notion of mutually orthogonal halting spaces and show that the information encoded in an input qubit string can always be effectively decomposed into a classical and a quantum part.
quant-ph/0605041
Invertible Quantum Operations and Perfect Encryption of Quantum States
quant-ph cs.CR cs.IT math.IT
In this note, we characterize the form of an invertible quantum operation, i.e., a completely positive trace preserving linear transformation (a CPTP map) whose inverse is also a CPTP map. The precise form of such maps becomes important in contexts such as self-testing and encryption. We show that these maps correspond to applying a unitary transformation to the state along with an ancilla initialized to a fixed state, which may be mixed. The characterization of invertible quantum operations implies that one-way schemes for encrypting quantum states using a classical key may be slightly more general than the ``private quantum channels'' studied by Ambainis, Mosca, Tapp and de Wolf (FOCS 2000). Nonetheless, we show that their results, most notably a lower bound of 2n bits of key to encrypt n quantum bits, extend in a straightforward manner to the general case.