Logical chaos, at the focus of Quanta

The scientific magazine Quanta interviews Professor Eva Miranda and highlights her research in two articles: one in the Physics section and another in the "Fundamentals" column, focusing on her contributions to the study of the limits of predictability in physical systems.

Quanta Magazine, a global leader in the dissemination of cutting-edge discoveries in mathematics and physics, has recently published two articles that focus on the research of Professor Eva Miranda (UPC) on the phenomenon known as logical chaos or physical undecidability.

The article “Next-Level Chaos Traces the True Limit of Predictability”, written by Charlie Wood and published on March 7, 2025, in the Physics section, explores how certain physical systems —both quantum and classical— establish fundamental limits on the capacity for prediction, beyond traditional chaos. Unlike chaos sensitive to initial conditions, undecidability implies that, even with perfect knowledge of the present state, the future can be inherently unpredictable. As Professor Miranda states in the article: “it’s chaos of another level.”  

This concept is also developed in the column "Fundamentals", one of the most prominent weekly sections of Quanta Magazine. Each week, this column analyzes one of the most important ideas driving modern research. In this edition, published on March 31, 2025, and titled “How Chaos Theory Makes the Future Unpredictable,” Charlie Wood expands on the historical narrative of chaos. From Lorenz's climate simulations with early computers to the present day, the article shows how scientific thinking has evolved from the butterfly as a symbol of classical chaos to the rubber duck as a new metaphor for logical chaos. In certain fluids, not even with perfect knowledge of the initial conditions can one predict whether this duck will cross a specific area. This image powerfully illustrates what Eva Miranda calls 'next-level chaos'.