We present a systematic construction of the discrete KP hierarchy in terms of Sato–Wilson-type shift operators. Reductions of the equations in this hierarchy to 1+1-dimensional integrable lattice systems are considered, and the problems that arise with regard to the symmetry algebra underlying the reduced systems as well as the ultradiscretizability of these systems are discussed. A scheme for constructing ultradiscretizable reductions that give rise to Yang–Baxter maps is explained in two explicit examples.

In this paper we present a rigorous method for deciding whether a birational three point mapping that has the singularity confinement property is integrable or not, based only on the structure of its (confined) singularity patterns. We also explain how the exact value of the dynamical degree for such a mapping may be deduced from the singularity patterns.

Recently, several proposals have been made to test the quantum superposition principle in the mesoscopic regime. Most of these tests consist of a careful measurement of the loss of interference due to decoherence. Here we consider, instead, the spread in position of a freely falling nanosphere. We study in depth the dependence of this spread on self-gravity in the presence of decoherence (exotic and nonexotic). We show that the influence of self-gravity is robust in the presence of weak decoherence, and quantify this robustness by introducing a parameter, the critical decoherence, aimed at estimating the critical value above which self-gravity is overwhelmed by decoherence. We also emphasize the crucial role played by the spread of the initial wave packet for the sensitivity of free-fall experiments to decoherence.

The ‘deautonomization’ of an integrable mapping of the plane consists in treating the free parameters in the mapping as functions of the independent variable, the precise expressions of which are to be determined with the help of a suitable criterion for integrability. Standard practice is to use the singularity confinement criterion and to require that singularities be confined at the very first opportunity. An algebro-geometrical analysis will show that confinement at a later stage leads to a non-integrable deautonomized system, thus justifying the standard singularity confinement approach. In particular, it will be shown on some selected examples of discrete Painlevé equations, how their regularization through blow-up yields exactly the same conditions on the parameters in the mapping as the singularity confinement criterion. Moreover, for all these examples, it will be shown that the conditions on the parameters are in fact equivalent to a linear transformation on part of the Picard group, obtained from the blow-up.

Recently, the properties of bouncing oil droplets, also known as “walkers,” have attracted much attention because they are thought to offer a gateway to a better understanding of quantum behavior. They indeed constitute a macroscopic realization of wave-particle duality, in the sense that their trajectories are guided by a self-generated surrounding wave. The aim of this paper is to try to describe walker phenomenology in terms of de Broglie–Bohm dynamics and of a stochastic version thereof. In particular, we first study how a stochastic modification of the de Broglie pilot-wave theory, à la Nelson, affects the process of relaxation to quantum equilibrium, and we prove an H-theorem for the relaxation to quantum equilibrium under Nelson-type dynamics. We then compare the onset of equilibrium in the stochastic and the de Broglie–Bohm approaches and we propose some simple experiments by which one can test the applicability of our theory to the context of bouncing oil droplets. Finally, we compare our theory to actual observations of walker behavior in a 2D harmonic potential well.

We examine the notion of anticonfinement and the role it has to play in the singularity analysis of discrete systems. A singularity is said to be anticonfined if singular values continue to arise indefinitely for the forward and backward iterations of a mapping, with only a finite number of iterates taking regular values in between. We show through several concrete examples that the behaviour of some anticonfined singularities is strongly related to the integrability properties of the discrete mappings in which they arise, and we explain how to use this information to decide on the integrability or non-integrability of the mapping.