Carlo Cafaro

Research Areas

• Theoretical Physics
• Mathematical Physics
• Applied Mathematics

Degrees

• PhD in Physics, State University of New York at Albany, USA (2008)
• MS in Theoretical Physics, University of Pisa, Italy (2002)

PhD Graduate Students Awards

• C. Luther Andrews Teaching Assistant Award, Teaching Assistant of the Year, Department of Physics, SUNY at Albany, May 2005 (USA).
• Mr. and Mrs. Masood Alam Award, Outstanding Performance in the PhD Comprehensive Exam, Department of Physics, SUNY at Albany, May 2004 (USA).

Professional Teaching Background

• Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (2019-2023)
• Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (2015-2019)
• Instructor of Mathematics, Clarkson University (2014-2015)
• Instructor of Physics, University of Camerino (2010-2011)
• Adjunct Professor of Physics, Union College (2008)
• Lecturer in Physics, SUNY at Albany (2008)
• Instructor of Physics, Hudson Valley Community College (2008)

Professional Research Background

• Postdoctoral Researcher in Mathematics, Clarkson University, USA (2013-2015)
• Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics, Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen & Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany (2012-2013)
• Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics, University of Camerino, Italy (2009-2011)

Description of Research
Dr. Cafaro’s research focuses on the foundations of theoretical physics: information theory, quantum theory, and relativity. More specifically, Cafaro’s recent research efforts involve: quantifying complexity with information geometry and statistical inference; applying geometric Clifford algebra techniques to classical electrodynamics and quantum computing; combatting quantum decoherence with quantum error correction schemes; employing statistical physics methods in complex network science.

Editorial Appointments

• Associate Editor, International Journal of Theoretical Physics (Springer Nature), 2022-Present
• Editorial Board Member, Foundations (MDPI), 2021-Present
• Editorial Board Member, Quantum Reports (MDPI), 2018-Present
• Editorial Board Member, Entropy (MDPI), 2015-Present

Selected Research Awards
Fellowships in Quantum Computing Theory and Simulation:

• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2023.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2022.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2021.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2020.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2019.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2018.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2017.
• Research Fellow: United States Air Force Research Laboratory Summer Faculty Fellow, Rome, New York, Summer 2016.

Selected Teaching Awards

• Teaching Award: CNSE Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 2019-2020.
• Teaching Award: CNSE Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 2018-2019.
• Teaching Award: CNSE Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 2016-2017.

Courses Taught: Physics, Mathematics, Nanoscale Science & Engineering

• General Physics Lab I, phy106
• General Physics Lab II, phy108
• Matter in Motion, phy120
• Physics I: Mechanics, phy140
• Physics II: Electromagnetism, phy150
• Special Topics in Physics, phy490
• Calculus I, mat151
• Calculus II, mat152
• Topics in Mathematics, mat190
• Calculus III, mat253
• Elementary Differential Equations, ma232
• Ordinary Differential Equations and Series Solutions, mat260
• Linear Algebra, mat340
• Applied Probability, mat370
• Modern Algebra, mat381
• Complex Variables-Applications, mat420
• Vector and Tensor Calculus, mat423
• Real Analysis, mat425
• Advanced Linear Algebra, mat480
• Special Topics in Mathematics, mat490
• Topology, mat490
• Graduate Seminar in Applied Mathematics, ma725
• Nano Foundations I: Math Methods in Nano, nse506 
• Nano Foundations I: Practical Quantum, nse506

Selected Refereed Publications

• C. Cafaro, N. Bahreyni, L. Rossetti, From entanglement to universality: A multiparticle spacetime algebra approach to quantum computational gates revisited, Symmetry 16, 734 (2024).
• P. M. Alsing, C. Cafaro, and S. Mancini, Feynman's "Simulating Physics with Computers", Int. J. Theor. Phys. 63, 117 (2024).
• P. M. Alsing and C. Cafaro, From the classical Frenet-Serret apparatus to the curvature and torsion of quantum-mechanical evolutions. Part I. Stationary Hamiltonians, Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys. 21, 2450152 (2024).
• P. M. Alsing and C. Cafaro, From the classical Frenet-Serret apparatus to the curvature and torsion of quantum-mechanical evolutions. Part II. Nonstationary Hamiltonians, Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys. 21, 2450151 (2024).
• C. Cafaro, Ch. Corda, P. Cairns, and A. Bingolbali, Violation of Bell's inequality in the Clauser-Horne-Shimony Holt form with entangled quantum states revisited, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 63, 112 (2024).
• P. M. Alsing, C. Cafaro, D. Felice, and O. Luongo, Geometric aspects of mixed quantum states inside the Bloch sphere, Quantum Reports 6, 90 (2024).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Qubit geodesics on the Bloch sphere from optimal-speed Hamiltonian evolutions, Class. Quantum Grav. 40, 115005 (2023).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Bures and Sjöqvist metrics over thermal state manifolds for spin qubits and superconducting flux qubits, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 138, 655 (2023).
• P. M. Alsing, C. Cafaro, O. Luongo, C. Lupo, S. Mancini, and H. Quevedo, Comparing metrics for mixed quantum states: Sjöqvist and Bures, Phys. Rev. A107, 052411 (2023).
• S. Ray, P. M. Alsing, C. Cafaro, and S. Jacinto, A differential-geometric approach to quantum ignorance consistent with entropic properties of statistical mechanics, Entropy 25, 788 (2023).
• A. C. Alfano, C. Cafaro, S. Capozziello, and O. Luongo, Dark energy-matter equivalence by the evolution of cosmic equation of state, Phys. Dark Universe 42, 101298 (2023).
• O. M. Yildirim, A. Bingolbali, Z. Bozkurt, C. Cafaro, and M. O. Demirkol, Monte Carlo calculations of critical organ doses in radioembolization therapy of primary liver tumors via 90Y microsphere, Int. J. Radiation Research 21, 353 (2023).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Complexity of pure and mixed qubit geodesic paths on curved manifolds, Phys. Rev. D106, 096004 (2022).
• C. Cafaro, S. Ray, and P. M. Alsing, Optimal-speed unitary quantum time evolutions and propagation of light with maximal degree of coherence, Phys. Rev. A105, 052425 (2022).
• C. Cafaro, S. Ray, and P. M. Alsing, Complexity and efficiency of minimum entropy production probability paths from quantum dynamical evolutions, Phys. Rev. E105, 034143 (2022).
• C. Cafaro, Geometric graph-theoretic aspects of quantum stabilizer codes, Physica Scripta 97, 075105 (2022).
• D. Felice and C. Cafaro, Explicit information geometric calculations of the canonical divergence of a curve, Mathematics 10, 1452 (2022).
• C. Cafaro, O. Luongo, S. Mancini, and H. Quevedo, Thermodynamic length, geometric efficiency, and Legendre invariance, Physica A590, 126740 (2022).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Minimum time for the evolution to a nonorthogonal quantum state and upper bound of the geometric efficiency of quantum evolutions, Quantum Reports 3, 444 (2021).
• S. Gassner, C. Cafaro, S. A. Ali, and P. M. Alsing, Information geometric aspects of probability paths with minimum entropy production for quantum state evolution, Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phys. 18, 2150127 (2021).
• P. Pessoa and C. Cafaro, Information geometry for Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein quantum statistics, Physica A576, 126061 (2021).
• C. Cafaro and S. A. Ali, Information geometric measures of complexity with applications to classical and quantum physical settings, Foundations 1, 45 (2021).
• K. De Silva, C. Cafaro, and A. Giffin, Gradient profile estimation using exponential cubic spline smoothing in a Bayesian framework, Entropy 23, 674 (2021).
• C. Cafaro, S. Ray, and P. M. Alsing, Geometric aspects of analog quantum search evolutions, Phys. Rev. A102, 052607 (2020).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Information geometry aspects of minimum entropy production paths from quantum mechanical evolutions, Phys. Rev. E101, 022110 (2020).
• C. Cafaro, D. Felice, and P. M. Alsing, Quantum Groverian Geodesic Paths with Gravitational and Thermal Analogies, Eur. Phys. J. Plus 135, 900 (2020).
• C. Cafaro, S. Gassner, and P. M. Alsing, Information geometric perspective on off-resonance effects in driven two-level quantum systems, Quantum Reports 2, 166 (2020).
• S. Gassner, C. Cafaro, and S. Capozziello, Transition probabilities in generalized quantum search Hamiltonian evolutions, Int. Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics 17, 2050006 (2020).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Continuous-time quantum search and time-dependent two-level quantum systems, Int. J. Quantum Information 17, 1950025 (2019).
• S. Gassner and C. Cafaro, Information geometric complexity of entropic motion on curved statistical manifolds under different metrizations of probability spaces, Int. J. Geometric Methods in Modern Physics 16, 1950082 (2019).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Theoretical analysis of a nearly optimal analog quantum search, Physica Scripta 94, 085103 (2019).
• S. A. Ali, C. Cafaro, S. Gassner, and A. Giffin, An information geometric perspective on the complexity of macroscopic predictions arising from incomplete information, Adv. Math. Phys., Volume 2018, Article ID 2048521 (2018).
• C. Cafaro and P. M. Alsing, Decrease of Fisher information and the information geometry of evolution equations for quantum mechanical probability amplitudes, Phys. Rev. E97, 042110 (2018).
• D. Felice, C. Cafaro, and S. Mancini, Information geometric methods for complexity, CHAOS 28, 032101 (2018).
• S. A. Ali and C. Cafaro, Theoretical investigations of an information geometric approach to complexity, Rev. Math. Phys. 29, 1730002 (2017).
• C. Cafaro, Geometric algebra and information geometry for quantum computational software, Physica A470, 154 (2017).
• C. Cafaro and S. A. Ali, Maximum caliber inference and the stochastic Ising model, Phys. Rev. E94, 052145 (2016).
• C. Cafaro, S. A. Ali, and A. Giffin, On the violation of Bell's inequality for all non-product quantum states, Int. J. Quantum Inf. 14, 1630003 (2016).
• C. Cafaro, S. A. Ali, and A. Giffin, Thermodynamic aspects of information transfer in complex dynamical systems, Phys. Rev. E93, 022114 (2016).
• A. Giffin, C. Cafaro, and S. A. Ali, Application of the Maximum relative Entropy method to the physics of ferromagnetic materials, Physica A455, 11 (2016).
• C. Cafaro, W. M. Lord, J. Sun, and E. M. Bollt, Causation entropy from symbolic representations of dynamical systems, CHAOS 25, 043106 (2015).
• C. Cafaro and P. van Loock, Approximate quantum error correction for generalized amplitude-damping errors, Phys. Rev. A89, 022316 (2014).
• C. Cafaro and P. van Loock, An entropic analysis of approximate quantum error correction, Physica A404, 34 (2014).
• C. Cafaro, F. Maiolini, and S. Mancini, Quantum stabilizer codes embedding qubits into qudits, Phys. Rev. A86, 022308 (2012).
• C. Cafaro, S. Capozziello, and S. Mancini, On relativistic quantum information properties of entangled wave vectors of massive fermions, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 51, 2313 (2012).
• C. Cafaro, A. Giffin, C. Lupo, and S. Mancini, Softening the complexity of entropic motion on curved statistical manifolds, Open Systems & Information Dynamics 19, 1250001 (2012).
• C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, On Grover's search algorithm from a quantum information geometry viewpoint, Physica A391, 1610 (2012).
• C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, A geometric algebra perspective on quantum computational gates and universality in quantum computing, Advances in Applied Clifford Algebras 21, 493 (2011).
• C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, Quantifying the complexity of geodesic paths on curved statistical manifolds through information geometric entropies and Jacobi fields, Physica D240, 607 (2011).
• C. Cafaro and S. A. Ali, Analytical estimate of atmospheric Newtonian noise generated by acoustic and turbulent phenomena in laser-interferometric gravitational waves detectors, in the Collection Book The Big Challenge of Gravitational Waves: A New Window in the Universe, Chapter 4, pages 55-86, Nova Science Publishers (2011).
• L. Memarzadeh, C. Cafaro, and S. Mancini, Quantum information reclaiming after amplitude damping, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 44, 045304 (2011).
• C. Cafaro, A. Giffin, S. A. Ali, and D.-H. Kim, Reexamination of an information geometric construction of entropic indicators of complexity, Appl. Math. Comput. 217, 2944 (2010).
• C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, Quantum stabilizer codes for correlated and asymmetric depolarizing errors, Phys. Rev. A82, 012306 (2010).
• C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, Repetition versus noiseless quantum codes for correlated errors, Phys. Lett. A374, 2688 (2010).
• Ch. Corda, S. A. Ali, and C. Cafaro, Interferometer response to gravitational waves, Int. J. Mod. Phys. D19, 2095 (2010).
• C. Cafaro, Works on an information geometrodynamical approach to chaos, Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 41, 886 (2009).
• C. Cafaro and S. A. Ali, Can chaotic quantum energy levels statistics be characterized using information geometry and inference methods?, Physica A387, 6876 (2008).
• C. Cafaro, Information geometry, inference methods and chaotic energy levels statistics, Mod. Phys. Lett. B22, 1879 (2008).
• C. Cafaro and S. A. Ali, Jacobi fields on statistical manifolds of negative curvature, Physica D234, 70 (2007).
• C. Cafaro and S. A. Ali, The spacetime algebra approach to massive classical electrodynamics with magnetic monopoles, Advances in Applied Clifford Algebras 17, 23 (2007).

Selected Peer Reviewed Conference Proceedings

• C. Cafaro and P. van Loock, Towards an entropic analysis of quantum error correction with imperfections, in Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering, AIP Conf. Proc. 1553, 275 (2013).
• C. Cafaro and S. Mancini, Characterizing the depolarizing quantum channel in terms of Riemannian geometry, in Folding and Unfolding: Interactions from Geometry, Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phys. 9, 1260020 (2012).
• S. A. Ali, C. Cafaro, A. Giffin, C. Lupo, and S. Mancini, On a differential geometric viewpoint of Jaynes' MaxEnt method and its quantum extension, in Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering, AIP Conf. Proc. 1443, 120 (2012).
• A. Caticha and C. Cafaro, From information geometry to Newtonian dynamics, in Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods in Science and Engineering, AIP Conf. Proc. 954, 165 (2007).

Selected Editorial/Peer-Review Activities
Reviewer for multiple physics and mathematics journals:

Foundations of Physics, Nature, Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiments, Canadian Journal of Physics, Qeios, Results in Physics, Physical Review Applied, PRX Quantum, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review A, Physical Review B, Physical Review E, Physical Review X, Physical Review Research, Nature Communications, Physica A, AIP Conference Proceedings, Physics Letters A, Modern Physics Letters A, Modern Physics Letters B, Scientific Reports, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Progress in Electromagnetic Research, The Hadronic Journal, Journal of Bioinformatics, Central European Journal of Physics, EPJ Quantum Technology, Algorithms, Entropy, Symmetry, Information Sciences, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, International Journal of Quantum Information, Quantum Information Processing, Journal of Physics B, Quantum Information and Computation, CHAOS, Journal of Mathematical Physics, International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics, Mathematical Reviews (AMS), Advances in Mathematics, Mathematics, Advances in Applied Clifford Algebras, Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A, Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Selected Service Activities for SUNY

University at Albany:

• Hiring Committee (tenure-track faculty)
• Curriculum Development Committee (Advanced Quantum Certificate)
• Mentoring Committee (provide guidance to junior faculty as they navigate through the promotion and tenure process)
• SURP mentor (Ms. Emma Clements, Physics Department at UAlbany, USA)
• Supervisor of International Visiting Scholar at DNSE (Mr. Leonardo Rossetti, Physics Department, University of Camerino, Italy)
• Supervisor of Visiting Professor at DNSE (Dr. Paul Alsing, Principal Research Physicist at the United States Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome-NY, retired, USA)
• Reviewer of undergraduate and graduate students’ projects in the 2024 CNSE Showcase

SUNY Poly:

• Math Service Coordinator (May 2020 - January 2023)
• Member of Search Committees: Mathematics and Nanoscale Science
• Member of Peer Review Committees
• SUNY Poly External Committee Member in PhD thesis defenses:
• Applied Mathematics (3 theses, India and Italy)
• Nanobioscience (1 thesis, USA)
• Physics (5 theses, USA)
• Supervisor of SUNY Poly Visitors:
• Dr. Domenico Felice (PhD in Mathematics), Volunteer Visiting Scientist (from 1-31-2021 to 1-31-2025)
• Dr. Christian Corda (PhD in Physics), Volunteer Visiting Scientist (from 1-31-2023 to 1-31-2025)
• Dr. Orlando Luongo (PhD in Physics), Volunteer Assistant Professor (from 1-31-2023 to 1-31-2025).