UA Physics Professor Named Associate Editor To Top National Research Journal

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Dr. Julio Gea-Banacloche was chosen for his expertise in one of the most rapidly growing fields in physics today to take over October 1 as an associate editor of the scientific journal Physical Review A.

Gea-Banacloche will be in charge of the section on quantum information, which covers quantum communications, cryptography, and computing. He is a professor of physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

"Basically, quantum information refers to information that is stored in or processed by purely quantum systems, or microscopic objects such as atoms, electrons, or photons," explained Gea-Banacloche.

Quantum objects can, paradoxically, exist in two different places at the same time. Researchers in quantum information are exploiting such bizarre properties to create radical new methods for handling the way information is processed.

"As traditional processing devices like computer chips keep becoming smaller and smaller, eventually they will reach a size in which "weird" quantum effects allow us to do things with information that seemed impossible in classical physics," said Gea-Banacloche. "For example, in quantum cryptography, this means being able to send coded messages that are completely impossible for an eavesdropper to detect. In computing, it means solving problems that are fundamentally intractable for today’s computers."

In computers, researchers are exploring how atoms and molecules can serve as basic operating components. Gea-Banacloche noted that on August 15, IBM announced it had successfully operated an experimental quantum computer consisting of just 5 atoms, representing the next step toward the lightning fast computers of the future. A quantum computer of several hundred atoms should be able to perform billions of calculations simultaneously.

"At the current rate of miniaturization, this is expected to happen around 2020," said Gea-Banacloche. "As experimental techniques have become increasingly more sophisticated, it has become possible to verify some theoretical predictions in the laboratory. Whenever this happens in a field dominated by theoretical research, it always generates a great deal of excitement."

These and other advances led Physical Review A to create the new position of Associate Editor, which Gea-Banacloche will take over to handle the rapidly increasing number of articles in quantum physics.

For over a century, the parent magazine Physical Review and its offshoot Physical Review Letters were the main research journals published by the American Physical Society, emerging as the world’s most read and quoted journals in physics.

A few decades ago, the publishers split the original Physical Review into five separate journals, A through E, to handle the growth of the many subfields and new discoveries in physics. Physical Review A is devoted to general as well as atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

Physics Department Chair Surendra Singh said that the appointment reflects the outstanding contributions of Gea-Banacloche to his field over the past 15 years. "His work is held in high regard in the scientific community. We are delighted with this appointment, which brings prestige and recognition to the department and its quantum optics program as well."

The toughest part of serving as associate editor, said Gea-Banacloche, will be finding other researchers to act as referees. "The field is growing so fast, with new developments taking place so quickly, that few people want to take the time away from their own research to review someone else’s papers, and those who do are swamped with requests."

A native of Spain, Gea-Banacloche has been a UA faculty member since 1990. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical quantum optics from the University of New Mexico in 1985. The author of over 50 papers, he has made pioneering contributions to the study of free electron lasers, squeezed states, and quantum computing. Said Dr. Singh, "His papers are among the most quoted from this campus. He has held visiting appointments at the Max-Planck Institut fur Quantenoptik in Munich, Miami University, Oxford, and the University of New Mexico. Professor Gea-Banacloche is also a fine teacher who has developed many computer simulations to illustrate difficult concepts of physics."