Nuove Metodologie per l’Accesso e il Recupero dell’Informazione
Research
Nuove Metodologie per l’Accesso e il Recupero dell’Informazione
con Applicazioni alle Digital Humanities
Responsabile scientifico: Sandro Sozzo
The project is situated within the framework of interdisciplinary research spanning computational linguistics, cognitive science, theoretical physics—particularly in its modeling aspects—and digital humanities. Its general aim is the study of the processes of organization, combination, and retrieval of semantic information contained in Italian-language texts and corpora, through the use of formal models inspired by quantum theory.
The project adopted both a theoretical and empirical approach, based on the analysis of literary texts, linguistic corpora, cognitive experiments, and advanced artificial intelligence systems (LLMs). Research activities were carried out in close collaboration with international research groups and were accompanied by an extensive program of scientific dissemination, contributing significantly to the Department’s positioning within the landscape of excellence research.
Objectives
Among the project’s specific objectives was, first and foremost, the experimental validation of the adequacy of quantum formal models for representing the semantic structures of the Italian language, as an alternative to classical Boolean-based models. In particular, the project aimed to identify forms of statistical dependence between words and concepts, interpretable in terms of entanglement and conceptual indistinguishability.
Further objectives included the study of conceptual combination mechanisms through information retrieval tests and the verification of violations of Bell inequalities in linguistic corpora. The project also sought to extend these analyses to human probabilistic judgments and to texts generated by large language models (LLMs), with the goal of identifying deep and potentially universal cognitive structures.
Results in the field of DH
The results achieved represent an innovative and significant contribution to the field of Digital Humanities. The application of quantum models has shown that literary texts and linguistic corpora exhibit complex semantic structures, characterized by deep correlations between words and concepts, which cannot be adequately described by purely classical approaches.
From a methodological perspective, the project introduces new formal tools for the computational analysis of meaning, opening up avenues for integration between digital humanities, philosophy of language, and cognitive sciences. The databases and procedures developed constitute a stable resource for further research, strengthening the role of Digital Humanities as a privileged domain for interdisciplinary experimentation.
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- D. Aerts, J. Aerts Arguëlles, L. Beltran, S. Geriente, R. Leporini, S. Sozzo (2025). Large Language Models Encode Quantum Cognitive Structures, ArXiv:2511.21731, Entropy, Impact Factor (IF) 2.2
- D. Aerts, M. Sassoli de Bianchi, S. Sozzo (2025). From Quantum Cognition to Conceptuality Interpretation I: Tracing the Brussels Group’s Intellectual Journey, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 382, 20240382. IF 4.019
- D. Aerts, M. Sassoli de Bianchi, S. Sozzo (2025). From Quantum Cognition to Conceptuality Interpretation II: Unraveling the Quantum Mysteries, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 383, 20240381. IF 4.019
- D. Aerts, J. Arguëlles, L. Beltran, M. Sassoli de Bianchi, S. Sozzo (2025). Identifying Quantum Mechanical Statistics in Italian Corpora, International Journal of Theoretical Physics 64, 136. IF 1.3
- D. Aerts, R. Leporini, S. Geriente, S. Sozzo (2025). Bell’s Inequalities and Entanglement in Corpora of Italian Language, Entropy 27, 656. IF 2.1
- D. Aerts, R. Leporini, S. Sozzo (2025). Turing Video-based Tests to Handle Entangled Concepts, Theoretical Computer Science 1051, 115398. IF 0.9
- D. Aerts, J. Arguëlles, L. Beltran, M. Sassoli de Bianchi, S. Sozzo (2025). The Separability Problem in Quantum Mechanics: Some Insights from Research on Axiomatics and Human Language, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 383, 20230284. IF 4.019
- D. Aerts, J. Arguëlles, L. Beltran, M. Sassoli de Bianchi, S. Sozzo (2025). The Origin of Quantum Mechanical Statistics: Some Insights from Research on Human Language, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 383, 20230285. IF 4.019
Monographs
- D. Aerts, M. Sassoli de Bianchi, S. Sozzo, Quantum Structures in Human Cognition: A Foundational Perspective, forthcoming.
Edited special issues in peer-reviewed journals
- S. Sozzo, M. Szopa (2026). Volume “Applications of Quantum Mechanics”, Encyclopedia (MDPI).
- D. Aerts, E. Haven, S. Smets, S. Sozzo (2025). Volume “Quantum Across Disciplinary Boundaries”, Quantum Economics and Finance (Sage).
- D. Aerts, E. Haven, S. Smets, S. Sozzo (2025). Volume “Novel Application of Quantum Structures Across Disciplinary Boundaries”, Theoretical Computer Science-C (Elsevier).
- D. Aerts, J. Harding, E. Haven, R. Leporini, S. Smets, S. Sozzo (2025). Quantum Structures. Brussels 2024, International Journal of Theoretical Physics.
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