The main interest of our research group is Quantum Information and its relations with Thermodynamics, Relativity (both special and general) and Quantum Mechanics. Although we are a group of theoreticians, we also have interest in experimental physics, specially in quantum optics and nuclear magnetic resonance. Bellow we describe some of the areas that we have interest and our full publication list.
Quantum Information. Motivated by the possibility of improving the capacity of information processing using the laws of Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information Science raised approximately 30 years ago. It is based on the extension of Shannon's Information Theory to the quantum world. It was soon realized that developments in this field could help us to investigate a great variety of problems.
Quantum Information is a theoretical framework developed to study how the laws of quantum mechanics can be used to understand and maximize the efficiency in the acquisition, transmission and processing of information. These achievements had provide us with new ideas and technical tools whose generality and universality allowed then to be applied to many different areas of physics, such as condensed matter, quantum computation and high energy physics, just to name a few. Moreover, conceptual advances are boosting the raising of a new technological era, based on the quantum properties of matter, with a huge potential impact on our everyday life.
Our interest rests on the basis of this theory, particularly the so called Information Geometry, a theory employing the tools of differential geometry to study Quantum Information. Although our main research lines are the application of quantum information to physics, problems in the foundations of the theory are also considered.
Quantum Thermodynamics. Thermodynamics lies at the very basis of physics and the great social and technological improvement in human life brought by its development can hardly be quantified. Quantum Thermodynamics is a theoretical framework that tries to answer questions like how the thermodynamic phenomena emerge from the reversible laws of quantum mechanics. How can we extend, and until what level, the laws of macroscopic thermodynamics to the quantum world? Is that possible to apply thermodynamics to small, out-of-equilibrium quantum systems? It seems that Quantum Information holds the key to answer such deep questions.
Recently we have witnessed a huge interest in this field from both theoreticians and experimentalists. The application of the laws of Thermodynamics when quantum effects, like entanglement, correlations and quantum fluctuations come into play are changing the way we look at the very basis of these fundamental theories. Moreover, it became clear that the development of a consistent formalism for Quantum Thermodynamic is a key feature for the development of future quantum technologies.
Relativity. General relativity describes gravity as a four-dimensional geometric structure called space-time, in which the concepts of absolute space and time cease to exist. Gravity is therefore a geometric consequence of the curvature of space-time in the presence of mass and energy. Several theoretical predictions have been experimentally confirmed over the past decades. Despite all the achievements, the understanding of general relativity in length scales where quantum effects are relevant is still a challenge that requires theoretical and experimental efforts. The elucidation of the effects of gravitational interaction on quantum aspects of matter may trigger a new era of technology by exploiting quantum properties such as entanglement and coherence on global scales. In this sense, quantum field theory in curved space is the best theoretical formalism in predicting physical phenomena in the interface between quantum mechanics and relativity.
Quantum information theory and general relativity are not entirely unrelated fields. Ideas from both quantum information theory and quantum field theory has contributed significantly to the understanding of the structure of space-time at the quantum level. A vast number of papers dedicated to understand the properties of quantum systems in different situations in the relativistic context have appeared, namely entanglement in non-inertial reference frames, information processing and black holes, entanglement in expanding universes and the sensitivity of quantum correlations to the space-time topology, among many others.
We are interested in investigating quantum systems subject to relativistic effects from the point of view of information geometry, by exploring the link between the geometry of the state space and the variety of distinguishability quantifiers of quantum states. How to describe quantum systems under relativistic effects? How the behavior of quantum correlations is affected by relativity? Relativistic uncertainty relations and particle localization? On the other hand, we are also interested in the formulation of General Relativity in terms of information, a filed that is attracting great attention recently.