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Hi Everyone, After our run-off poll on meeting times, Thursday at 1 PM Eastern turns out to be the best choice. It was not vetoed by anyone, and it was the preferred choice of two people, so let's give it a try. If it turns out not to work, we'll do this again. The next best choice was Thursdays at 2 PM. All other timeslots on the run-off poll were vetoed by at least one person. So our next LQS meeting will be Thursday, Sept. 11, at 1 PM Eastern. Dial-in is the same as before: 510-665-5437, passcode 7336. This week we'll discuss http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.0151: > More Really is Different > Authors: Mile Gu, Christian Weedbrook, Alvaro Perales, Michael A. Nielsen > (Submitted on 31 Aug 2008) > > Abstract: In 1972, P.W.Anderson suggested that `More is Different', > meaning that complex physical systems may exhibit behavior that cannot be > understood only in terms of the laws governing their microscopic > constituents. We strengthen this claim by proving that many macroscopic > observable properties of a simple class of physical systems (the infinite > periodic Ising lattice) cannot in general be derived from a microscopic > description. This provides evidence that emergent behavior occurs in such > systems, and indicates that even if a `theory of everything' governing all > microscopic interactions were discovered, the understanding of macroscopic > order is likely to require additional insights. Thanks, --Ray