diff --git a/bib/dealb.bib b/bib/dealb.bib index df7ff1b..f8d7e5c 100644 --- a/bib/dealb.bib +++ b/bib/dealb.bib @@ -397,3 +397,50 @@ keywords = {Boolean P systems, Boolean networks, Reachability, Complexity}, biburl = {https://dblp.org/rec/phd/hal/Riva22.bib}, bibsource = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org} } + +@article{DotyKLOSW2023, + author = {David Doty and + Niels Kornerup and + Austin Luchsinger and + Leo Orshansky and + David Soloveichik and + Damien Woods}, + title = {Harvesting Brownian Motion: Zero Energy Computational Sampling}, + journal = {CoRR}, + volume = {abs/2309.06957}, + year = {2023}, + url = {https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.06957}, + doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2309.06957}, + eprinttype = {arXiv}, + eprint = {2309.06957}, + timestamp = {Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:19:04 +0100}, + biburl = {https://dblp.org/rec/journals/corr/abs-2309-06957.bib}, + bibsource = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org} +} + +@article{Bennett1973, + author = {Charles H. Bennett}, + title = {Logical reversibility of computation}, + journal = {IBM Journal of Research and Development}, + volume = {17(6)}, + pages = {525--532}, + year = {1973} +} + +@misc{CarrollArrowFAQ2007, + author = {Sean Carroll}, + title = {Arrow of Time {FAQ}}, + howpublished = + {\url{https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2007/12/03/arrow-of-time-faq/}}, + year = {2007} +} + +@misc{wikiStochastic, + author = "{Wikipedia contributors}", + title = "Stochastic process --- {Wikipedia}{,} The Free + Encyclopedia", + year = "2024", + howpublished = + "\url{https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stochastic_process&oldid=1194369849}", + note = "[Online; accessed 9-April-2024]" +} diff --git a/deal.tex b/deal.tex index d8bd274..a9efb44 100644 --- a/deal.tex +++ b/deal.tex @@ -564,6 +564,106 @@ reasons: Last but not least, this choice is motivated by my own expertise as a computer scientist lying in the field of discrete dynamical systems. +\subsection{Determinism, reversibility, stochasticity} +\label{sec:det-rever-stoch} + +The type of the function $\Phi$ as shown in the previous section +imposes \emph{deterministic} behavior: for any time interval $t\in T$, +$\Phi : X \times T \to X$ assigns to every state $s \in X$ exactly one +state $\Phi(s, t)$. Furthermore, when $T = \mathbb{Z}$ or +$T = \mathbb{R}$, the system is \emph{reversible}: to any state $s$ +and any time interval $t > 0$, $\Phi$ associates exactly one state +$\Phi(s, -t)$. In the case $T = \mathbb{Z}$, this implies that every +state $s \in X$ has exactly one preimage under the function $F$: +$|F^{-1}(s)| = 1$. + +While it is true that any non-deterministic Turing machine +$\mathcal{N}$ can be simulated by a deterministic Turing machine which +explores all non-deterministic branches of the computations of +$\mathcal{N}$, and Bennett showed in~\cite{Bennett1973} how any Turing +machine can be made reversible, determinism and reversibility are +quite strong restrictions. In particular, for discrete-time dynamical +systems, the state graph generated by $F$ is a set of +chains~\cite{DotyKLOSW2023}, i.e., it can be represented in the plane +as a set of linear parallel non-intersecting oriented paths. +Despite the fact that non-determinism and reversibility do not +increase the computational power of Turing machines, these +restrictions may have a significant impact in weaker models of +computation. On the other hand, non-determinism and irreversibility +are useful ingredients to have for practical reasons when building +models of reality: indeed, our intuitive perception is that many +phenomena in the world around us are non-deterministic, and most of +them appear irreversible\footnote{Here, I will only point the reader + to~\cite{CarrollArrowFAQ2007} for an entry point into the + fascinating discussion of the irreversibility observed in the + macroscopic world as opposed to the reversibility of the microscopic + world.}. + +A general way to capture the fact that a phenomenon may go different +ways at some point are stochastic processes, which can be defined as +sequences of random variables, each of which describes the possible +outcomes at a given moment of time~\cite{wikiStochastic}. In general, +stochastic processes can also describe irreversible processes, e.g., +because the total number of possible outcomes may decrease over time. +In the case of discrete-time dynamical systems with $T = \mathbb{N}$, +non-determinism can be represented in an arguably simpler way by +modifying the type of $F$ to be $F : X \to 2^X$, meaning that for +a state $s$, $F(s) \subseteq X$ represents the set of possible next +states. The notion of the state graph can be naturally extended by +defining it as graph whose set of nodes is $X$ and which contains an +edge from $s_1 \in X$ to $s_2 \in X$ if $s_2 \in F(s_1)$. +Modifying the type of $F$ in this way enriches the state graph in two +ways: +\begin{enumerate} +\item a state $s \in X$ may have no successor states, i.e., + $F(s) = \emptyset$, +\item they may be multiple edges originating at the same state + $s \in X$ if $|F(s)| > 1$. +\end{enumerate} +It is further possible to enrich the structure of $F$ by annotating +the next states in $F(s)$ with probabilities. More concretely, the +type of $F$ can be further extended to +$F : X \to 2^{X \times \mathbb{R}}$, thus making $F$ produce sets of +pairs (state, probability), with the normalization condition that for +every $s$ for which $F(s) \neq \emptyset$ the probabilities of the +next states amount to 1: $\sum_{(s', p) \in F(s)} p = 1$. + +In the rest of the manuscript I use the following terminology for +designating different types of discrete-time dynamical systems with +$T = \mathbb{N}$, depending on the type of $F$: +\begin{itemize} +\item $F : X \to X$: \emph{deterministic} discrete-time dynamical + system, or deterministic DDS; +\item $F : X \to 2^X$: \emph{non-deterministic} discrete-time + dynamical system, or non-deterministic DDS; +\item $F : X \to 2^{X \times \mathbb{R}}$ with the normalization + condition from the previous paragraph: \emph{stochastic} + discrete-time dynamical system, or stochastic DDS. +\end{itemize} + +Note how understanding discrete-time dynamical systems as a function +assigning states to states (i.e., of one of the types above) allows +separating non-determinism from stochasticity. Indeed, according to +the preceding discussion, non-determinism describes the possibility of +a state to have more than one successor state, while stochasticity +means that, in addition, a probability distribution is defined on the +set of successor states. Transposing this separation between +non-determinism and stochasticity to general dynamical systems defined +as $\Phi : X \times T \to X$ seems at least syntactically cumbersome, +and the traditional way of capturing non-determinism via stochastic +processes as sequences of random variables includes probability +distributions from the start. + +The definition of a trajectory in the case of non-deterministic and +irreversible dynamical systems depends on the choice of formalism, but +any definition should respect the intuition that a trajectory is a set +of states the dynamical system may traverse. In the case of +non-deterministic DDS defined as above, a trajectory is a sequence of +states $(s_i)_{i \in T}$ such that $s_{i+1} \in F(s_i)$. Similarly, +in the case of stochastic DDS, a trajectory is a sequence of state +$(s_i)_{i \in T}$ such that there exists a probability $p$ yielding +the pair $(s_{i+1}, p) \in F(s_i)$. + \printbibliography[heading=subbibliography] \end{refsection}