Naturalness

About: Naturalness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1305 publications have been published within this topic receiving 31737 citations.

Measurement and Modification of Speech Naturalness during Stuttering Therapy

Abstract: This paper describes two studies that illustrate the utility of listener ratings of speech naturalness for measuring and modifying speech naturalness during a stuttering therapy program. The progra...

Image quality semantics

Abstract: In this contribution we discuss image quality in the context of the visuo-cognitive system as an information-processing system. To this end, we subdivide the information-processing as performed by the visuo-cognitive system into three distinct processes: (1) the construction of visual representation of the image, (2) the interpretation of this representation by means of confrontation with memory, and (3) task-directed semantic processing of the interpreted scene to formulate a proper response. A successful completion of these processes can be ensured only when two main requirements are satisfied: (1) the visual representation of the image should be sufficiently precise, and (2) the degree of correspondence between the visual representation and knowledge of reality as stored in memory should be high. We then relate these requirements to the attributes usefulness and naturalness of the image and give a functional description of image quality in terms of naturalness and usefulness. To conclude, experimental results supporting this description of image quality will be discussed.

Heavy-Lifting of Gauge Theories By Cosmic Inflation

Abstract: Future measurements of primordial non-Gaussianity can reveal cosmologically produced particles with masses of order the inflationary Hubble scale and their interactions with the inflaton, giving us crucial insights into the structure of fundamental physics at extremely high energies. We study gauge-Higgs theories that may be accessible in this regime, carefully imposing the constraints of gauge symmetry and its (partial) Higgsing. We distinguish two types of Higgs mechanisms: (i) a standard one in which the Higgs scale is constant before and after inflation, where the particles observable in non-Gaussianities are far heavier than can be accessed by laboratory experiments, perhaps associated with gauge unification, and (ii) a "heavy-lifting" mechanism in which couplings to curvature can result in Higgs scales of order the Hubble scale during inflation while reducing to far lower scales in the current era, where they may now be accessible to collider and other laboratory experiments. In the heavy-lifting option, renormalization-group running of terrestrial measurements yield predictions for cosmological non-Gaussianities. If the heavy-lifted gauge theory suffers a hierarchy problem, such as does the Standard Model, confirming such predictions would demonstrate a striking violation of the Naturalness Principle. While observing gauge-Higgs sectors in non-Gaussianities will be challenging given the constraints of cosmic variance, we show that it may be possible with reasonable precision given favorable couplings to the inflationary dynamics.

Proton mass decomposition: Naturalness and interpretations

Abstract: I discuss the scope and naturalness of the proton mass decomposition (or sum rule) published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 1071 (1995) and answer a few criticisms that appeared recently in the literature, focusing particularly on its interpretation and the quantum anomalous energy contribution. I comment on the so-called frame-independent or invariant-mass decomposition from the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. I stress the importance of measuring the quantum anomalous energy through experiments. Finally, I point out a large discrepancy in the scalar radius of the nucleon extracted from vector-meson productions and lattice QCD calculations.

A naturalness bias in learning stress

Abstract: Recent research on the acquisition of natural vs. unnatural phonological processes provides some support for the idea that learning a natural process is easier than learning an unnatural one (Wilson 2003, 2006, Pycha et al.2003, Pater & Tessier 2005). This study extends those findings by comparing the acquisition of two stress patterns that are identical except in naturalness. Learners were native speakers of English, a language with variable stress, and French, a fixed stress language. Both English and French speakers learned the natural pattern significantly better than the unnatural. The artificial languages specifically neutralised the phonetic cues that might have given a perceptual advantage to the natural language. The findings suggest that a naturalness bias aids in the distinguishing and learning of a phonological pattern. To explain the results, I argue for an interaction between a general and a language-specific cognitive mechanism.