Weak invariants are time-dependent observables with conserved expectation values. Their fluctuations, however, do not remain constant in time. On the assumption that time evolution of the state of an open quantum system is given in terms of a completely positive map, the fluctuations monotonically grow even if the map is not unital, in contrast to the fact that monotonic increases of both the von Neumann entropy and Rényi entropy require the map to be unital. In this way, the weak invariants describe temporal asymmetry in a manner different from the entropies. A formula is presented for time evolution of the covariance matrix associated with the weak invariants in cases where the system density matrix obeys the Gorini–Kossakowski–Lindblad–Sudarshan equation.

In order to automatically recognize different kinds of objects from their backgrounds, a self-adaptive segmentation algorithm that can effectively extract the targets from various surroundings is of great importance. Image thresholding is widely adopted in this field because of its simplicity and high efficiency. The entropy-based and variance-based algorithms are two main kinds of image thresholding methods, and have been independently developed for different kinds of images over the years. In this paper, their advantages are combined and a new algorithm is proposed to deal with a more general scope of images, including the long-range correlations among the pixels that can be determined by a nonextensive parameter. In comparison with the other famous entropy-based and variance-based image thresholding algorithms, the new algorithm performs better in terms of correctness and robustness, as quantitatively demonstrated by four quality indices, ME, RAE, MHD, and PSNR. Furthermore, the whole process of the new algorithm has potential application in self-adaptive object recognition.