Field of Intimacy: Explorations of interiority within the landscape

<p>Interior Architecture cannot be bound by the confines of a building, it is not the catalyst of architectural intervention, in fact we can have interior experiences within the landscape. As a discipline Interior Architecture tends to be quite insular, struggling to connect to the exterior context of a design, whereas landscape architecture tends to be so involved with the context at the large scale, that the finer details and experiences of space can be lost. Generally, engineered systems tend to be internalized and designed without regard for the social. There is an interesting connection between landscape and interior architecture, with landscapes being able to generate their own sense of interiority. I have defined “existential intimacy” to describe the haptic bodily experience of a space through which one gains an understanding of something bigger than themselves (whether it be a system, process, or just being more aware and connected with their direct surroundings). This research explores what happens when notions of “existential intimacy” are applied within a landscape. Water is used as an important device for establishing existential intimacy enhancing the ability to engage with larger systems. By applying existential intimacy to the Wellington context of Mount Victoria and engaging with stormwater systems in the city, a field of intimacy is created connecting with water detention to allow more intensified experiential inhabitation of the green belt. Designing with a focus on existential intimacy, an expansiveness across scales is created, meaning that the design cannot lose context or detail, but is forced to engage with both, to create spaces which are both functional (in an engineered sense) and experiential.</p>

Field of Intimacy: Explorations of interiority within the landscape

<p>Interior Architecture cannot be bound by the confines of a building, it is not the catalyst of architectural intervention, in fact we can have interior experiences within the landscape. As a discipline Interior Architecture tends to be quite insular, struggling to connect to the exterior context of a design, whereas landscape architecture tends to be so involved with the context at the large scale, that the finer details and experiences of space can be lost. Generally, engineered systems tend to be internalized and designed without regard for the social. There is an interesting connection between landscape and interior architecture, with landscapes being able to generate their own sense of interiority. I have defined “existential intimacy” to describe the haptic bodily experience of a space through which one gains an understanding of something bigger than themselves (whether it be a system, process, or just being more aware and connected with their direct surroundings). This research explores what happens when notions of “existential intimacy” are applied within a landscape. Water is used as an important device for establishing existential intimacy enhancing the ability to engage with larger systems. By applying existential intimacy to the Wellington context of Mount Victoria and engaging with stormwater systems in the city, a field of intimacy is created connecting with water detention to allow more intensified experiential inhabitation of the green belt. Designing with a focus on existential intimacy, an expansiveness across scales is created, meaning that the design cannot lose context or detail, but is forced to engage with both, to create spaces which are both functional (in an engineered sense) and experiential.</p>

Optimally Deceiving a Learning Leader in Stackelberg Games

Recent results have shown that algorithms for learning the optimal commitment in a Stackelberg game are susceptible to manipulation by the follower. These learning algorithms operate by querying the best responses of the follower, who consequently can deceive the algorithm by using fake best responses, typically by responding according to fake payoffs that are different from the actual ones. For this strategic behavior to be successful, the main challenge faced by the follower is to pinpoint the fake payoffs that would make the learning algorithm output a commitment that benefits them the most. While this problem has been considered before, the related literature has only focused on a simple setting where the follower can only choose from a finite set of payoff matrices, thus leaving the general version of the problem unanswered. In this paper, we fill this gap by showing that it is always possible for the follower to efficiently compute (near-)optimal fake payoffs, for various scenarios of learning interaction between the leader and the follower. Our results also establish an interesting connection between the follower’s deception and the leader’s maximin utility: through deception, the follower can induce almost any (fake) Stackelberg equilibrium if and only if the leader obtains at least their maximin utility in this equilibrium.

Spacetime as a quantum circuit

We propose that finite cutoff regions of holographic spacetimes represent quantum circuits that map between boundary states at different times and Wilsonian cutoffs, and that the complexity of those quantum circuits is given by the gravitational action. The optimal circuit minimizes the gravitational action. This is a generalization of both the “complexity equals volume” conjecture to unoptimized circuits, and path integral optimization to finite cutoffs. Using tools from holographic $$ T\overline{T} $$ T T ¯ , we find that surfaces of constant scalar curvature play a special role in optimizing quantum circuits. We also find an interesting connection of our proposal to kinematic space, and discuss possible circuit representations and gate counting interpretations of the gravitational action.

An Evolution Based on Various Energy Strategies

The simplest model of the evolution of agents with different energy strategies is considered. The model is based on the most general thermodynamic ideas and includes the procedures for selection, inheritance, and variability. The problem of finding a universal strategy (principle) as a selection of possible competing strategies is solved. It is shown that when there is non-equilibrium between the medium and agents, a direction in the evolution of agents arises, but at the same time, depending on the conditions of the evolution, different strategies can be successful. However, for this case, the simulation results reveal that in the presence of significant competition of agents, the strategy that has the maximum total energy dissipation of agents arising as a result of evolution turns out to be successful. Thus, it is not the specific strategy that is universal, but the maximization of dissipation. This result discovers an interesting connection between the basic principles of Darwin–Wallace evolution and the maximum entropy production principle.

Near-zero-index media as electromagnetic ideal fluids

Near-zero-index (NZI) supercoupling, the transmission of electromagnetic waves inside a waveguide irrespective of its shape, is a counterintuitive wave effect that finds applications in optical interconnects and engineering light–matter interactions. However, there is a limited knowledge on the local properties of the electromagnetic power flow associated with supercoupling phenomena. Here, we theoretically demonstrate that the power flow in two-dimensional (2D) NZI media is fully analogous to that of an ideal fluid. This result opens an interesting connection between NZI electrodynamics and fluid dynamics. This connection is used to explain the robustness of supercoupling against any geometrical deformation, to enable the analysis of the electromagnetic power flow around complex geometries, and to examine the power flow when the medium is doped with dielectric particles. Finally, electromagnetic ideal fluids where the turbulence is intrinsically inhibited might offer interesting technological possibilities, e.g., in the design of optical forces and for optical systems operating under extreme mechanical conditions.

Meromorphic continuation of Koba-Nielsen string amplitudes

In this article, we establish in a rigorous mathematical way that Koba-Nielsen amplitudes defined on any local field of characteristic zero are bona fide integrals that admit meromorphic continuations in the kinematic parameters. Our approach allows us to study in a uniform way open and closed Koba-Nielsen amplitudes over arbitrary local fields of characteristic zero. In the regularization process we use techniques of local zeta functions and embedded resolution of singularities. As an application we present the regularization of p-adic open string amplitudes with Chan-Paton factors and constant B-field. Finally, all the local zeta functions studied here are partition functions of certain 1D log-Coulomb gases, which shows an interesting connection between Koba-Nielsen amplitudes and statistical mechanics.

The Incarnation as the Fundamental Mystery for Sacramentality in the Catholic Tübingen School

This article reveals part of the rich but unknown liturgical thought of the nineteenth-century Catholic Tübingen School. In the reflections of these German theologians on liturgy and especially the eucharist, the incarnation plays a vital role. Johann Sebastian Drey considers the incarnation as the “fundamental mystery” of the Christian faith. In this article, the importance of the incarnation for Drey’s liturgical thinking and his reflections on sacramentality are explored. Attention is also given to Drey’s student, Johann Adam Möhler. The crucial role of the incarnation for his ecclesiology has already been proven, but this article demonstrates the role of the incarnation in his liturgical and sacramental reflections. In his writings on the eucharist, he makes an interesting connection between what he calls “ongoing incarnation” and the idea of theosis. At the end of the article some contemporary liturgical theological perspectives are developed on the relevance of (ongoing) incarnation and theosis.

Two-component axionic dark matter halos

We consider a two-component dark matter halo (DMH) of a galaxy containing ultra-light axions (ULA) of different mass. The DMH is described as a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in its ground state. In the mean-field (MF) limit, we have derived the integro-differential equations for the spherically symmetrical wave functions of the two DMH components. We studied, numerically, the radial distribution of the mass density of ULA and constructed the parameters which could be used to distinguish between the two- and one-component DMH. We also discuss an interesting connection between the BEC ground state of a one-component DMH and Black Hole temperature and entropy, and Unruh temperature.

Linked Partition Ideals, Directed Graphs and $q$-Multi-Summations

In this paper, we start by considering generating function identities for linked partition ideals in the setting of basic graph theory. Then our attention is turned to $q$-difference systems, which eventually lead to a factorization problem of a special type of column functional vectors involving $q$-multi-summations. Using a recurrence relation satisfied by certain $q$-multi-summations, we are able to provide non-computer-assisted proofs of some Andrews--Gordon type generating function identities. These proofs also have an interesting connection with binary trees. Further, we give illustrations of constructing a linked partition ideal, or more loosely, a set of integer partitions whose generating function corresponds to a given set of special $q$-multi-summations.