Ontology

Ontology of Mathematics & Physics

Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is the de facto international standard (ISO/IEC 21838-2) being used in multiple civilian and military information systems, as a common high-level controlled vocabulary with logical definition designed to promote semantic interoperability. BFO was created, however, to deal with those kinds of data which relate to entities falling within the domain of normal human experience — for example biological and medical data, planning data, industrial engineering data. Thus BFO does not deal with data relating to mathematical entities, and it does not deal with the sorts of data generated by experiments relating, for example to processes involving high energy or high velocity. To fill these gaps, two further high-level ontologies have been created, the MathEO (Mathematical Entity Ontology) and the PhysO (Physics Ontology), where the latter will serve as the starting point for the QPhysO and QEngO ontologies outlined in the next chapter.

Quantum Physics & Quantum Engineering Ontologies

In order to keep track of the burgeoning amounts of data deriving from experiments in quantum physics and from experience with quantum devices at different phrases of development and testing, we have created the Quantum Physics (QPhysO) and Quantum Engineering (QEngO) Ontologies. Examples of application of these ontologies to specific cases are provided, together with an illustration of the ways in which by annotating engineering and product related data using QEngO, one can generate a synoptic overview of quantum engineering developments that can be useful to government authorities, manufacturers, military planners, and others.