Eigenstate Thermalization and Disorder Averaging in Gravity.

Naively, resolving the black hole information paradox requires microscopic details about quantum gravity. Recent work suggests that, instead, a unitary Page curve can be recovered by adding disorder-averaged replica instantons to the path integral, though their origin is unclear. In this Letter, we show how replica instantons and disorder averaging emerge naturally in an effective theory built from typical microscopic states. We relate replica instantons to a moment expansion of simple operators, and find a microcanonical description in terms of wormholes and Euclidean black holes.

Bayesian second law of thermodynamics.

We derive a generalization of the second law of thermodynamics that uses Bayesian updates to explicitly incorporate the effects of a measurement of a system at some point in its evolution. By allowing an experimenter's knowledge to be updated by the measurement process, this formulation resolves a tension between the fact that the entropy of a statistical system can sometimes fluctuate downward and the information-theoretic idea that knowledge of a stochastically evolving system degrades over time. The Bayesian second law can be written as ΔH(ρ_{m},ρ)+〈Q〉_{F|m}≥0, where ΔH(ρ_{m},ρ) is the change in the cross entropy between the original phase-space probability distribution ρ and the measurement-updated distribution ρ_{m} and 〈Q〉_{F|m} is the expectation value of a generalized heat flow out of the system. We also derive refined versions of the second law that bound the entropy increase from below by a non-negative number, as well as Bayesian versions of integral fluctuation theorems. We demonstrate the formalism using simple analytical and numerical examples.

The role of fetal breathing motions compared with gasping motions in pulmonary airway uptake of intra-amniotic iron dextran.

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that normal fetal breathing, not acute asphyxial gasping, results in the movement of iron dextran from the amniotic cavity into the fetal lungs. In addition, the amount of iron dextran moving into the fetal lungs is cumulative with time. STUDY DESIGN: Twelve pregnant New Zealand White rabbits at 25 days of gestation were sedated and underwent ultrasound-guided injections of iron dextran into the amniotic cavities of the rabbit fetuses in both horns of each pregnant doe. Oxygen saturation was maintained at >90% in the pregnant does. The 12 does were then equally assigned to four groups on the basis of the duration of fetal exposure to the dextran (0, 8, 16, and 24 hours). At the end of each time point, one half of the fetuses received an intracardiac injection of potassium chloride to induce gasping just before necropsy. Gasping was confirmed by ultrasound scanning. At necropsy, the fetal lungs were evaluated grossly and underwent histomorphometry for iron distribution and quantification in the fetal airways. RESULTS: In the animals that received iron dextran, there was no significant difference in iron accumulation at any time point between those animals that did and did not receive potassium chloride, which suggests that acute gasping does not increase the accumulation of amniotic fluid substances in the lungs. The amount of iron in the fetal airways increased significantly with progressive length of exposure. CONCLUSION: We conclude that normal fetal breathing, not acute asphyxial gasping, resulted in the movement of intra-amniotic iron dextran into the fetal lungs and that the amount of substances that move into the fetal lungs accumulated with time.