At the interface of quantum information and condensed matter physics, the study of entanglement in quantum many-body systems requires a new toolset which combines concepts from each. This thesis introduces a set of computational methods to study phases and phase transitions in lattice models of quantum systems, using the Renyi entropies as a means of quantifying entanglement. The scaling of entanglement entropy can give valuable insight into the phase of a condensed matter system. It can be used to detect exotic types of phases, to pinpoint transitions between phases, and can give us universal information about a system. The first approach in this thesis is a technique to measure entanglement in finite size lattice systems using zero-temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The algorithm is developed, implemented, and used to explore anomalous entanglement scaling terms in the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. In the second part of this thesis, a new and complementary numerical technique is introduced to study entanglement not just in finite size systems, but as we approach the thermodynamic limit. This “numerical linked-cluster expansion” is used to study two different systems at their quantum critical points — continuous phase transitions occurring at zero temperature, at which these systems exhibit universal properties. Remarkably, these universal properties can be reflected in the scaling of entanglement. Entanglement offers a new perspective on condensed matter systems, one which takes us closer to genuinely understanding what goes on in these materials at the quantum mechanical level. This thesis demonstrates the first steps in developing an extensive list of computational tools that can be used to study entanglement over a wide range of interacting quantum many-body systems. With the ever increasing computational power available, it may be only a matter of time before these tools are used to create a comprehensive framework for the characterization of condensed matter phases and phase transitions.

The Metaphysics Experiment attempts to explicate a theory and history of universalism in modern physics, through an analysis of its conception of nature. Understood as an axiomatic and hegemonic metaphysical premise through four hundred years of scientific and political history, universalism is defined in terms of its general and persistent claim to nature or truth as an ahistorical reality. Thus, I argue that universalism is directly implicated in, not opposed to, the (Christian) monotheistic conception of God. Moreover, universalism constitutes the logic according to which nature is differentiated from history, culture, and politics. It thus constructs both sides of the same ostensible oppositions in the so-called science and culture wars that determine much of today’s politics of nature. The scientific and political dominance of universalism is demonstrated through a history in five acts. Using the current Large Hadron Collider experiment in Geneva as a principal case study in Act 1, and drawing on contemporary philosopher of science, Isabelle Stengers, I consider four pivotal historical moments in the history of physics and metaphysics that determine the universalist claims of this contemporary experiment. In Act 2, the mid-20th century development of Albert Einstein’s General Relativity framework and Big Bang Theory is read against Martin Heidegger’s critique of identity logic. In Act 3, the mid-17th century emergence of the mathematical universe in modern science and philosophy, through Galileo Galilei and René Descartes, is read against Benedict Spinoza’s univocal metaphysics. In Act 4, the late 19th century invention of particle or quantum physics is read against Henri Bergson’s idea of mind-matter dualism. Finally, in Act 5, considering the contemporary use of natural constants in physics, the insights of Michel Serres, Bruno Latour, Peter Sloterdijk, Heidegger, Stengers and Spinoza are drawn together to problematize the modern historical role of physics and its metaphysical constitution of nature. Beyond these historical event-scenes, I also offer a theoretical explication of five logics, demonstrated individually Act by Act, that comprise different dimensions of science in action. Thus, physics is considered historically both as theoretical and experimental practice and as a form of political mobilization.

The measurement of the ratio of the branching fractions of Υ (3S) decays into τ leptons over dimuons (R τ /μ = B(Υ (3S) → τ + τ − )/B(Υ (3S) → μ + μ − )) is a test of lepton universality. A violation of lepton universality would be evidence of new physics (and possibly of a light CP-odd Higgs boson). A sample of Υ (3S) decays (2.408 fb −1 ) collected with the B A B AR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory was used to determine that the ratio R τ /μ is R τ /μ = 1.0385 ± 0.034 ± 0.019. Using the remaining blinded data sample (corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 25.6 fb −1 ) the estimated statistical sensitivity will be 1.1 % and the estimated systematic uncertainty of R τ /μ is 1.9 %. Prior to this work, previous measurements of R τ /μ had an estimated total precision of 10 %. / Graduate

Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-04-11T20:02:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Marieze Torresseg.pdf: 1307389 bytes, checksum: d7d33f1b576fc9e82a85d9c01c36cbb8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-05-26T11:03:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Marieze Torresseg.pdf: 1307389 bytes, checksum: d7d33f1b576fc9e82a85d9c01c36cbb8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-26T11:03:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Marieze Torresseg.pdf: 1307389 bytes, checksum: d7d33f1b576fc9e82a85d9c01c36cbb8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / A presente tese examina a discussão teórica sobre emoções no âmbito da produção sociológica norte-americana recente, através de algumas posições e polarizações recorrentes, que demarcam as fronteiras entre escolas de pensamento de perspectivas distintas de análise das emoções de um ponto de vista sociológico. As polarizações são abordadas no âmbito dos debates travados entre as posições caracterizadas como “biossocial,” representada por Theodore Kemper e Jonathan Turner, e “construtivista” por Arlie Hochschild, Susan Shott e Steven Gordon. No debate, as divergências dizem respeito à própria definição de emoções e de seus elementos componentes ou causais. Trata-se de saber se as emoções são inatas e universais, pré-fixadas no organismo e distinguidas por certos hormônios, ou se as emoções são “culturais-específicas” e a sua definição um produto da interpretação do ator. Essas discordâncias, transpostas para as proposições de articulação dos níveis macro e micro de análise, contrastam a posição construcionista de que a vida social é organizada por “regras de sentimento” e “vocabulários de emoções”, com a posição biossocial que propõe os conceitos de poder e status como dimensões estruturantes, universais, fisiologicamente correlacionadas, de todas as relações sociais humanas. Considera-se que as divergências tornadas explícitas nesses debates, retomam e atualizam questões polemizadas pelos pragmatistas William James e John Dewey. Concluise que uma análise sociológica e integradora das emoções em seus nexos com o corpo ainda precisa ser buscada, embora já se configurem. / Salvador

The practice of diplomacy has changed dramatically in recent decades as a result of technological advancements and shifting geopolitical concerns. No longer confined to the cloaked and closed-door practices of elite state institutions, the diplomatic landscape has broadened, and been made visible, across space and scale. Amidst this rapidly changing environment, it is imperative to understand how states are adjusting their material diplomatic infrastructure and what that means for everyday diplomatic practices. While many countries have adjusted to twenty-first century diplomatic realities by adapting to a more mobile, maneuverable diplomatic corps and fewer facilities, the United States remains committed to a widespread diplomatic network, the largest in the world. This diplomatic footprint is the hallmark of universality, a sustained effort over time to acquire near total diplomatic coverage by dotting the world with embassies and consulates designed to look, work, and behave in a similar, if not, ageographic, manner. Attending to this understudied phenomenon means studying the historical and geographic conditions out of which this relatively even and uniform diplomatic apparatus materialized. It further means analyzing the contemporary pattern of U.S. diplomatic infrastructure against the shifting terrain of diplomatic norms and space. Drawing empirically on interviews with elite diplomatic practitioners, substantial archival material, and the researcher’s own experience working within the U.S. diplomatic assemblage, this study has sought to examine why the United States remains committed to universality and what embassies and consulates actually do to secure U.S. foreign policy goals. Specifically, the study—presented in this dissertation as three discrete original research articles—is framed by the following research questions: (1) What ideas and policies shaped the geographical footprint of U.S. diplomatic infrastructure over the course of the twentieth century? (2) How does the globe-girdling U.S. diplomatic assemblage reflect and influence geopolitical ideas and practices? (3) How does the grouping of diplomatic missions along regional lines reflect and influence U.S. foreign policy?

abstract: In mesoscopic physics, conductance fluctuations are a quantum interference phenomenon that comes from the phase interference of electron wave functions scattered by the impurity disorder. During the past few decades, conductance fluctuations have been studied in various materials including metals, semiconductors and graphene. Since the patterns of conductance fluctuations is related to the distributions and configurations of the impurity scatterers, each sample has its unique pattern of fluctuations, which is considered as a sample fingerprint. Thus, research on conductance fluctuations attracts attention worldwide for its importance in both fundamental physics and potential technical applications. Since early experimental measurements of conductance fluctuations showed that the amplitudes of the fluctuations are on order of a universal value (e2/h), theorists proposed the hypothesis of ergodicity, e.g. the amplitudes of the conductance fluctuations by varying impurity configurations is the same as that from varying the Fermi energy or varying the magnetic field. They also proposed the principle of universality; e.g., that the observed fluctuations would appear the same in all materials. Recently, transport experiments in graphene reveal a deviation of fluctuation amplitudes from those expected from ergodicity. Thus, in my thesis work, I have carried out numerical research on the conductance fluctuations in GaAs nanowires and graphene nanoribbons in order to examine whether or not the theoretical principles of universality and ergodicity hold. Finite difference methods are employed to study the conductance fluctuations in GaAs nanowires, but an atomic basis tight-binding model is used in calculations of graphene nanoribbons. Both short-range disorder and long-range disorder are considered in the simulations of graphene. A stabilized recursive scattering matrix technique is used to calculate the conductance. In particular, the dependence of the observed fluctuations on the amplitude of the disorder has been investigated. Finally, the root-mean-square values of the amplitude of conductance fluctuations are calculated as a basis with which to draw the appropriate conclusions. The results for Fermi energy sweeps and magnetic field sweeps are compared and effects of magnetic fields on the conductance fluctuations of Fermi energy sweeps are discussed for both GaAs nanowires and graphene nanoribbons. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2015

A universalidade do juízo de gosto não tem um princípio objetivo porque não pretende determinar nenhum objeto. Mas para assegurar sua necessidade e escapar da contingência da experiência, ela se ampara no princípio exemplar do senso comum (Gemeinsinn), ou seja, num princípio subjetivo que determina apenas por sentimento, e não por conceito, aquilo que apraz ou não apraz. No entanto, sob a pressuposição de um assentimento universal a respeito do que é belo, a necessidade neste juízo adquire uma representação objetiva baseada no fundamento de nosso sentimento. É na dedução deste fundamento do sensus communis que se concentra nosso esforço nesta dissertação, pois tentaremos mostrar que ela percorre toda a Crítica da Faculdade de Julgar Estética. / The universality of judgement of taste has none objective principle because does not intend to determine any object. Nevertheless, in order to assure its necessity and to escape from the experience\'s contingency, this universality supports itself in exemplary principle of common sense (Gemeinsinn), in other words, in a subjective principle which determines what is pleasure or not, only by feeling and not by concept. Although, under the presupposition of a universal agreement regarding what is beautiful, the necessity in this judgement acquires an objective representation based on our feeling\'s ground. It is in this deduction of this ground of sensus communis that concentrates our effort in this dissertation, because we will try to demonstrate that it courses through the entire Critique of Aesthetic Judgement.

Com o intuito de explicitar a relação entre metáfora e cultura, esta investigação aborda universalidade e variação na conceitualização metafórica e metonímica de felicidade. A análise é realizada a partir de dados coletados em entrevistas realizadas em Antônio Prado (RS) com 20 sujeitos ítalo-brasileiros e luso-brasileiros. Os resultados apontam tanto a universalidade quanto a variabilidade de conceitos metafóricos e metonímicos, revelando a forte ligação entre felicidade e aspectos culturais como família, trabalho e religião. A dimensão étnica não se mostrou significativa na variação, ficando encoberta pela dimensão social. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-13T19:34:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Morgana Rossetti.pdf: 926184 bytes, checksum: c1464d709c47c7fc1882da9f50b5f328 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-13T19:34:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Morgana Rossetti.pdf: 926184 bytes, checksum: c1464d709c47c7fc1882da9f50b5f328 (MD5) / Aiming at specifying the relation between metaphor and culture, this investigation approaches universality and variation in the metaphorical and metonymyal conceptualization of happiness. The analysis is made from data collected in interviews hold in Antônio Prado (RS), with 20 italian-brazilian and portuguese-brazilian people. The results point to both universality and variability of metaphorical and metonymyal concepts, revealing a strong connection between happiness and cultural aspects like family, work, and religion. The study shows that the ethnical dimension is not outstanding in variation, and is covered up by social dimension.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A compreensão dos direitos humanos considerados como universais variam ao longo da história, uma vez que as necessidades dos homens e os fatores político, econômico, social e cultural também mudam. O argumento da presente dissertação consiste em destacar a variabilidade da dimensão universal dos direitos dos homens por meio da teoria política, social e das relações internacionais, abordando questões tais como a construção do padrão dos direitos humanos na teoria política, sua institucionalização no plano internacional, a transformação dos tipos de direitos que são considerados como universais, para quem eles são estendidos e a quem seu acesso é restrito. O objetivo é discutir sobre a variabilidade do caráter universal dos direitos humanos como valores, focando na questão das reivindicações de direitos específicos a serem considerados no escopo dos direitos humanos. / The understanding of human rights considered as universal changes throughout history, once that the needs of men and the political, economic, social and cultural factors also change. The argument of this paper is to highlight the variability of the universal dimension of the human rights through the political and social theory and also the international relations, addressing questions such as the construction of the human rights standard in the political theory, your institutionalization at the international level, the transformation of the types of rights which are considered as been universals, for whom they are extended and for whom your access is restricted. The goal is to discuss about the variability of the universal character of the human rights as values, focusing on the issue of claims specific rights to be considered as human rights.

Com o intuito de explicitar a relação entre metáfora e cultura, esta investigação aborda universalidade e variação na conceitualização metafórica e metonímica de felicidade. A análise é realizada a partir de dados coletados em entrevistas realizadas em Antônio Prado (RS) com 20 sujeitos ítalo-brasileiros e luso-brasileiros. Os resultados apontam tanto a universalidade quanto a variabilidade de conceitos metafóricos e metonímicos, revelando a forte ligação entre felicidade e aspectos culturais como família, trabalho e religião. A dimensão étnica não se mostrou significativa na variação, ficando encoberta pela dimensão social. / Aiming at specifying the relation between metaphor and culture, this investigation approaches universality and variation in the metaphorical and metonymyal conceptualization of happiness. The analysis is made from data collected in interviews hold in Antônio Prado (RS), with 20 italian-brazilian and portuguese-brazilian people. The results point to both universality and variability of metaphorical and metonymyal concepts, revealing a strong connection between happiness and cultural aspects like family, work, and religion. The study shows that the ethnical dimension is not outstanding in variation, and is covered up by social dimension.