college station affectionately called the quantum cowboy marlan scully rides herd on experiments at the frontiers of physics bringing to life knowledge to spur applications in optics computing and quantum mechanics talk to scully about his top gun physicist status and he responds with the kind of aw-shucks modesty typical of the western hero pressed to talk about himself all scully wants to do is praise his research team here in the college of science and electrical engineering department at texas a&m university weve assembled a world-class quantum optics group said scully distinguished professor of physics holder of the hershel e burgess chair in physics and a proud texas cattleman weve been able to recruit the most wonderful people from all over the world – the united states germany russia pakistan china – and in turn our doctoral students join the faculties of top universities like harvard and become lead industrial scientists at for example intel scully is so beloved by his texas a&m co-workers and colleagues at other institutions that for his 60th birthday two years ago they produced a 600-page book celebrating his most significant scientific achievements the work is titled ode to a quantum physicist: a festschrift in honor of marlan o scully edited by wolfgang p schleich of the abteilung fur quantenphysik at the universitate ulm ulm germany; herbert walther of the max-planck-institut fur quantenoptik at ludwig-maximilians-universitat munich germany; and willis lamb of the optical sciences center at the university of arizona here in college station were not only thinking about physics problems were doing cutting- edge quantum engineering research scully continues we look at problems that span the gamut of quantum physics and engineering ranging from the age-old question of the duality in matter and light (waves vs particles) and challenging the conventional interpretation of the uncertainty relation on the one hand to stopping light and designing the components for quantum computation on the other as an example of his latest research hot exhaust from internal combustion engines could power the lasers of the future if the texas physicist has anything to say about it in an article published in physical review letters scully explains the theory of how a quantum afterburner could induce laser action in such waste gases the process would involve the internal quantum states of the gases working molecules along with the techniques of cavity quantum electrodynamics scully said what goes in are normally useless waste gases and what comes out is coherent laser light which can be viewed as increased horsepower scullys paper deals with the operation of the so-called ideal heat engine using the otto engine a one-cylinder four-stroke heat engine developed in 1876 he performed mathematical simulations using this engine to demonstrate that quantum methods could theoretically increase horsepower which could then be used to drive a laser this thought experiment ala einstein involves an engine hooked to two combustion reservoirs as hot gas expands in one reservoir it lifts an attached weight and heat is extracted at a constant volume by a heat exchanger two cavities one for a laser and one for a maser (a laser which emits microwaves rather than light) are then added to the engines exhaust pipe and energy is extracted from the exhaust gas molecules themselves by cycling gas from left to right back to left through the laser-maser system the process is repeated and finally the lasers radiation focuses coherent – or useful – energy from the gas molecules improving the engines overall efficiency by recycling waste heat and turning it into laser light the maser drains entropy from the exhaust gases; this allows the laser to extract the remainder turning it into a useful work scully explained normally all the heat released in exhaust gases is just wasted we are presently building such a laser/internal combustion engine where all this will lead is anybodys guess; but its great fun! scullys teams most recent accomplishments cover the fields of quantum optics quantum computation teleportation and the slowing down of the speed of light and quantum thermodynamics in addition to his rank of distinguished professor of physics he also holds joint appointments as a professor in the department of electrical engineering and a distinguished research chair with the texas engineering experiment station he also serves as director of the center for theoretical physics and the institute for quantum studies and is a member of the faculty of germanys max planck institute scully has been elected to the national academy of sciences and to the academia europaea an international association of scientists and scholars based in london the academia europaea promotes appreciation of european scholarship and research makes recommendations to national governments and international agencies about science and scholarship in europe and encourages interdisciplinary and international research in all areas of learning scully joined the faculty at texas a&m in 1992 as professor of physics he earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics at the university of wyoming in 1962 and his masters and doctoral degrees in physics at yale university in 1963 and 1966 nobel prize winner bill phillips once said he would like to thank god for giving us such an interesting universe to study scully observed and i in turn would like to thank god for the ‘texas atomic and molecular university which keeps the four ‘fs in focus: family friends freedom and physics he quipped contact: judith white 979-845-4664 jw@univreltamuedu; marlon o scully 979-862-2333 scully@tamuedu aggiedaily office of university relations texas a&m university (979) 845-4641 the post texas quantum cowboy explores questions at the frontiers of physics appeared first on texas a&m college of science