PierGianLuca Porta Mana

Student and post-doctoral researcher. Work address:

AOPP Clarendon Laboratory
Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PU
United Kingdom

(Personal page at the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics at the University of Oxford.)

Telephone: +44-(0)1865-2-82428. Fax: +44-(0)1865-272924.
Email: lucaZZ@magnaspesmeretrix.org (remove ZZ).

Personal page (an exercise in self-indulgence).

CVRRICVLVMVITAE and publication & seminar list.

Current research: various topics in natural philosophy, mainly:

• the relation between coarser-finer theory pairs, in particular:
  • statistical physics and thermomechanics, and the relation between their entropy functions,
  • statistical fluid mechanics at different space-time scales, with applications to ocean dynamics;
• relational axiomatizations of Galileian mechanics and general relativity;
• microscopic justification of the Clausius-Duhem inequality (the 'second law' of thermomechanics) as a restriction on constitutive equations;
• quantization of Julio Iglesias;
• modern continuum thermomechanics of materials with microstructure;
• reformulation of quantum mechanics as classical continuum mechanics of a microstructured medium;
• plausibility logic (`Bayesian probability theory');
• convex properties constraining the reformulation of non-classical physical models as classical ones;
• understanding of the physical meaning of `second quantization';
• de-metrisation of mechanical concepts through the use of straight and twisted differential forms, chains, cochains, currents;

More generally, I am interested in fundamental physics, i.e., classical statistical continuum electromagnetothermomechanics (see image at the bottom).

Here is a picture of the present situation in quantum theory:

Public-made work:

• P.G.L. Porta Mana, P. G. Lewis: On two recent conjectures in convex geometry (2011), http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.4641/.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Conjectures and questions in convex geometry: of interest for quantum theory and other physical statistical theories (2011), http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3238/.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Notes on affine and convex spaces (2011), http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.0032/.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: In favour of the time variable in classical thermodynamics (2010), http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.3091/.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: On the relation between plausibility logic and the maximum-entropy principle: a numerical study (2009), http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.2197/.

• G. Brodin, M. Marklund, J. Zamanian, Å. Ericsson, P.G.L. Mana: Effects of the g-factor in semi-classical kinetic plasma theory (2008), http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.2382/ (also published in Physical Review Letters).

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Studies in plausibility theory, with applications to physics (2007), PhD thesis. Available as a pdf file.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana, A. Månsson, G. Björk: The Laplace-Jaynes approach to induction (2007), http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0703126/, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00003338/.

• A. Månsson, P.G.L. Porta Mana, G. Björk: Numerical Bayesian state assignment for a quantum three-level system. II. Average-value data; constant, Gaussian-like, and Slater priors (2007), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0701087/.

• A. Månsson, P.G.L. Porta Mana, G. Björk: Numerical Bayesian state assignment for a three-level quantum system. I. Absolute-frequency data; constant and Gaussian-like priors (2006), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0612105/.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana, A. Månsson, G. Björk: `Plausibilities of plausibilities': an approach through circumstances (2006), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0607111/.

• P.G.L. Mana, A. Månsson, G. Björk: On distinguishability, orthogonality, and violations of the second law: contradictory assumptions, contrasting pieces of knowledge (2005), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0505229/.

• P.G.L. Mana, G. Björk: Uncertainty, information, and entropy: comparison of two definitions, invited talk at the Ninth International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations ICSSUR' 2005, Besançon, France (2005). Slides available as a pdf file and as a pps presentation file.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Distinguishability of non-orthogonal density matrices does not imply violations of the second law (2004), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0408193/.

• G. Björk, P.G.L. Mana: Schrödinger-cat states: size classification based on evolution or dissipation (2004), in Proceedings SPIE: Fluctuations and Noise in Photonics and Quantum Optics II, vol. 5478, pp. 335-343.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Probability tables (2004), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0403084/. Older version in A. Yu. Khrennikov, ed.: Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations - 2 (Växjö University Press, Växjö, Sweden, 2004), pp. 387-401.

• G. Björk, P.G.L. Mana: A size criterion for macroscopic superposition states (2003), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0310193/. (An older version was published in a `peer-reviewed' journal.)

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Why can states and measurement outcomes be represented as vectors? (2003), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0305117/.

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Consistency of the Shannon entropy in quantum experiments (2003), http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0302049/. (An older version was published in a `peer-reviewed' journal.)

• M. Cadoni and P.G.L. Mana: Hamiltonians for a general dilaton gravity theory on a spacetime with a non-orthogonal, timelike or spacelike outer boundary (2000), http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0011010/. (An older version was published in a `peer-reviewed' journal.)

• P.G.L. Porta Mana: Asymptotic symmetries of anti-de Sitter space in two and three dimensions (2000), Università di Cagliari, Italy. Available as a ps file.

Other notes, reports, and drafts are possibly available upon request.