Dr. Carlo Cafaro, SUNY Poly applied mathematics assistant professor, collaborated with Dr. Shannon Ray (Postdoctoral Researcher at the AFRL in Rome, NY), and Dr. Paul M. Alsing (Principal Research Physicist at the AFRL in Rome-NY) on a work published in the Physical Review E.  

Physical Review E is the premier American Physical Society (APS) journal in the interrelated areas of statistical, nonlinear, biological, and soft matter physics. 

The research paper, “Complexity and efficiency of minimum entropy production probability paths from quantum dynamical evolutions”, is a theoretical piece of work that combines elements of quantum physics, statistical physics, and information geometry. The authors propose two simple information geometric measures, one for the concept of “Complexity” and one for the notion of “Efficiency” of quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian evolutions in terms of their corresponding minimum entropy production probability paths.

The investigation represents a step-forward of relevance in the quantum information science community and aims to help reaching a deeper understanding of tradeoffs among speed, efficiency, and complexity of quantum evolutions. Speed being a linking factor between complexity and efficiency. Sometimes, less (complex) is more (efficient) and speed isn’t everything when entropic arguments are considered.

The team’s published research, featuring Dr. Cafaro as lead author, can be read here.