Research Interests

Theoretical physics: Quantum information, condensed matter; Applied mathematics: Nonlinear integrable systems, inverse problems, numerical
analysis; Mathematics: Special functions, analytic number theory.

Professor Coffey is investigating aspects of quantum information and entropy as applied to selected areas of signal and image processing. Dr. Coffey’s over one hundred publications span areas as applied and different as signal processing, numerical analysis, and the analysis of superconductivity data, to completely integrable systems, inverse problems, quantum entropy, and more recently, portions of analytic number theory. He is not a believer in allowing traditional academic or other institutional boundaries to prevent research progress. His work in quantum information, for example, cuts across mathematics, computer science, and physics. Indeed, recent work in diverse fields such as quantum information science and analytic number theory argues for a multi-disciplinary approach. As an example, developments in these same areas suggest possibilities to combine a probabilistic setting for the zeta function with an inverse spectral theory, leading to close connections between quantum dynamics and stochastic processes.

 Last Modified: October 13, 2006
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