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Synchronization of finite spike sequences is the way two brain regions compare their content and extract the most suitable sequence. This is the core of the linguistic comparison between a word and a previous one retrieved by memory. Classifying the information content of neural spike trains, an uncertainty relation emerges between the bit size of a word and its duration. This uncertainty affects the task of synchronizing spike trains of different duration representing different words, entailing the occurrence of entangled sequences, so that word comparison amounts to a measurement based quantum computation. Entanglement explains the inverse Bayes inference that connects different words in a linguistic search. The behaviour here discussed provides an explanation for other reported evidences of quantum effects in human cognitive processes lacking a plausible framework, since either no assignment of an appropriate quantum constant had been associated, or speculating on microscopic processes dependent on Planck's constant resulted in unrealistic de-coherence times., Comment: 14 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1506.00610

A unidirectional optical oscillator is built by using a liquid crystal light-valve that couples a pump beam with the modes of a nearly spherical cavity. For sufficiently high pump intensity, the cavity field presents a complex spatio-temporal dynamics, accompanied by the emission of extreme waves and large deviations from the Gaussian statistics. We identify a mechanism of spatial symmetry breaking, due to a hypercycle-type amplification through the nonlocal coupling of the cavity field.

The Leggett and Garg Inequality (LGI) is a test of the classical behaviour of an observed system, in the case of a single measurement channel monitored at different times. Here we report LGI violation in cognitive tasks consisting in the identification of mutually incompatible words with negligible semantic content; the violation is maximal at an inter-measurement time {\tau}LG around 2 sec, close to, but consistently lower than, the characteristic times associated with other, semantically rich, linguistic endeavors. The LGI violation persists over a time window of 1 sec around {\tau}LG; outside this window LGI is recovered., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to a different interpretation of data

The well-known increase of the decoherence rate with the temperature, for a quantum system coupled to a linear thermal bath, holds no longer for a different bath dynamics. This is shown by means of a simple classical non-linear bath, as well as a quantum spin-boson model. The anomalous effect is due to the temperature dependence of the bath spectral profile. The decoherence reduction via the temperature increase can be relevant for the design of quantum computers.

We study how a coupled array of spiking chaotic systems synchronizes to an external driving in a short time. Synchronization means spike separation at adjacent sites much shorter than the average inter-spike interval; a local lack of synchronization is called a defect. The system displays sudden spontaneous defect disappearance at a critical coupling strength. Below critical coupling, the system reaches order at a definite amplitude of an external input; this order persists for a fixed time slot. Thus, the array behaves as an excitable system, even though the single element lacks such a property. The above features provide a dynamical explanation of feature binding in perceptual tasks., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We characterize the synchronization of an array of coupled chaotic elements as a phase transition where order parameters related to the joint probability at two sites obey power laws versus the mutual coupling strength; the phase transition corresponds to a change in the exponent of the power law. Since these studies are motivated by the behaviour of the cortical neurons in cognitive tasks, we account for the short time available to any brain decision by studying how the mutual coupling affects the transient behaviour of a synchronization transition over a fixed time interval. We present a novel feature, namely, the absence of decay of the initial defect density for small coupling., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We examine the mutual synchronization of a one dimensional chain of chaotic identical objects in the presence of a stimulus applied to the first site. We first describe the characteristics of the local elements, and then the process whereby a global nontrivial behaviour emerges. A propensity criterion for networking is introduced, consisting in the coexistence within the attractor of a localized chaotic region, which displays high sensitivity to external stimuli,and an island of stability, which provides a reliable coupling signal to the neighbors in the chain. Based on this criterion we compare homoclinic chaos, recently explored in lasers and conjectured to be typical of a single neuron, with Lorenz chaos., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

We investigate the response of an open chain of bidirectionally coupled chaotic homoclinic systems to external periodic stimuli. When one end of the chain is driven by a periodic signal, the system propagates a phase synchronization state in a certain range of coupling strengths and external frequencies. When two simultaneous forcings are applied at different points of the array, a rich phenomenology of stable competitive states is observed, including temporal alternation and spatial coexistence synchronization domains., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

We numerically investigate the dynamics of a closed chain of unidirectionally coupled oscillators in a regime of homoclinic chaos. The emerging synchronization regimes show analogies with the experimental behavior of a single chaotic laser subjected to a delayed feedback, Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRE

We consider a Bose-Einstein bicondensate (BEC) of $^{87}Rb$, trapped in two different internal levels, in a situation where the density undergoes a symmetry breaking in momentum space. This occurs for a suitable number of condensed atoms within a double well dispersion curve, obtained by Raman coupling two internal states with two tilted and detuned light fields. Evidence of bistability results from the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. By second quantization, we evaluate the tunneling rate between the two asymmetric states; the effects of losses on coherence are also considered., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We consider a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of $^7Li$ in a situation where the density undergoes a symmetry breaking in real space. This occurs for a suitable number of condensed atoms in a double well potential, obtained by adding a standing wave light field to the trap potential. Evidence of bistability results from the solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. By second quantization, we show that the classical bistable situation is in fact a Schr\"odinger cat (SC) and evaluate the tunneling rate between the two SC states. The oscillation between the two states is called MQC (macroscopic quantum coherence); we study the effects of losses on MQC., Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures. e-mail: almont@ino.it

In this work we describe a simple method of encoding information at real time in the inter-spike intervals of a homoclinic chaotic system. This has been experimentally tested by means of an instantaneous synchronization between the laser intensity of a CO2 laser with feedback in the regime of Sil'nikov chaos and an external pulsed signal of very low power. The information is previously encoded in the temporal intervals between consecutive pulses of the external signal. The value of the inter-pulse intervals is varied each time a new pulse is generated., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

The chaotic spike train of a homoclinic dynamical system is self-synchronized by re-inserting a small fraction of the delayed output. Due to the sensitive nature of the homoclinic chaos to external perturbations, stabilization of very long periodic orbits is possible. On these orbits, the dynamics appears chaotic over a finite time, but then it repeats with a recurrence time that is slightly longer than the delay time. The effect, called delayed self-synchronization (DSS), displays analogies with neurodynamic events which occur in the build-up of long term memories., Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 13 pages, 7 figures

A continuous train of irregularly spaced spikes, peculiar of homoclinic chaos, transforms into clusters of regularly spaced spikes, with quiescent periods in between (bursting regime), by feeding back a low frequency portion of the dynamical output. Such autonomous bursting results to be extremely robust against noise; we provide experimental evidence of it in a CO2 laser with feedback. The phenomen here presented display qualitative analogies with bursting phenomena in neurons., Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., 14 pages, 5 figures

We experimentally demonstrate the broad tunability of the main features of optical localized structures (LS) in a nonlinear interferometer. By discussing how a single LS depends on the system spatial frequency bandwidth, we show that a modification of its tail leads to the possibility of tuning the interactions between LS pairs, and thus the equilibrium distances at which LS bound states form. This is in agreement with a general theoretical model describing weak interactions of LS in nonlinear dissipative systems., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

As an atomic Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) is coupled to a source of uncondensed atoms at the same temperature and to a sink (extraction towards an atom laser) the idealized description in terms of a Gross-Pitaevsky equation (GP) no longer holds. Under suitable physical assumptions we show that the dissipative BEC obeys a Complex Ginzburg Landau equation (CGL) and for some parameter range it undergoes a space time patterning. As a consequence, the density of BEC atoms within the trap displays non trivial space time correlations, which can be detected by monitoring the density profile of the outgoing atom laser. The patterning condition requires a negative scattering length, as e.g. in $^7$Li. In such a case we expect a many domain collapsed regime, rather than a single one as reported for a closed BEC., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitt. to Optics Comm., 18th Aug. 99 (special issue Scully Festschrift)