UA Researchers Earn Honors at Quantum Thermodynamics Workshop
The University of Arizona was well represented at the recent Quantum Thermodynamics and Decoherence workshop in Rochester, NY, June 3–4, 2026.
Physics graduate student Aaron Bartleson (advised by Professor Kanu Sinha in Optical Sciences) and applied mathematics student Eric Sung (advised by Professor Charles Stafford in Physics) earned honors for their poster presentations, with Aaron receiving the Maxwell Demon Award and Eric receiving the Entropy Whisperer Award.
Aaron’s poster, “Decoherence of spatial superpositions along stationary worldlines,” explores how the Davies-Unruh effect predicts that an observer accelerating through flat spacetime will, paradoxically, perceive the vacuum of space as though it has a finite temperature. The project asks how the evolution of an accelerated particle, prepared in a quantum superposition of center-of-mass states, is influenced by the transformed vacuum field state seen along its trajectory. We find that the particle experiences decoherence in the position basis, due to both the thermal field of the Davies-Unruh effect and the relativistic time dilation over its wavefunction's spatial extent. View preprint
Eric’s poster, “Decoherence and the Reemergence of Coherence From a Superconducting ‘Horizon,’” presents a solid-state superconducting analogue of black hole horizon induced decoherence using a superconductor-normal metal Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. In this system, Andreev reflection plays a role analogous to Hawking radiation. We show that weak coupling to the superconductor suppresses quantum interference, analogous to decoherence from a black-hole horizon, while intermediate coupling can lead to a reemergence of coherence through resonant Andreev bound states. These results suggest that superconducting interferometers could provide an experimental platform for studying horizon-like decoherence in condensed matter systems, and may point toward an analogue mechanism for coherence restoration near horizons. View preprint
Charles Stafford, Professor of Physics at the University of Arizona, also delivered an invited talk, “Quantum Heat and the Emergence of the 2nd Law,” highlighting how quantum effects reshape our understanding of heat, entropy, and fundamental thermodynamic laws.
