Juan Gancio, PhD student in our group, identifies and anticipates changes in complex lasers

Juan Gancio is a pre-doctoral researcher in our group, the Nonlinear Dynamics, Nonlinear Optics and Lasers (DNOLL). Thanks to experiments carried out at the Université Côte d'Azur in Nice, he has found a way to predict changes in the behavior of laser light. The work was recently published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. 

The key tool is Permutation Entropy (PE), a statistical indicator that quantifies the complexity of a signal. Gancio has demonstrated that PE can be used to anticipate and identify the threshold of complex laser systems.

Therefore, if it is possible to predict changes in the behavior of light, his method could also be used to foresee changes in the behavior of signals in any complex system — for instance, the evolution of infection numbers during a pandemic, or abrupt changes in the frequency or intensity of violent atmospheric phenomena in the context of current climate change.

Different medias have echoed about the new discovers such as: Canal Terrassa, Diari de Terrassa or Món Terrassa, as the university website. 

The work can be read in the arvix or Physical Review Letters.