William Dalrymple (historian)

Bikas K. Chakrabarti
Born	(1952-12-14) 14 December 1952 (age 72) Calcutta, India
Alma mater	Calcutta University
Known for	Quantum annealing Econophysics Kinetic exchange models of markets
Awards	Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
Scientific career
Fields	Physics, Economics
Institutions	Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata

Bikas Kanta Chakrabarti (born 14 December 1952 in Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) is an Indian physicist.^[1] At present he is INSA Scientist (Physics) at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics & Visiting Professor (Economics) at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India.

Chakrabarti received his Ph.D. degree from Calcutta University in 1979. Following post-doctoral work at the University of Oxford and the University of Cologne, he joined the faculty of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) in 1983. He is S. S. Bhatnagar Prize awardee (1997) and former J. C. Bose National Fellow (2011-2020). He is a former director of SINP. At present he is INSA Scientist at SINP (2021-) and also Honorary Visiting Professor of economics (2007-) at the Indian Statistical Institute. Emeritus Professor of SINP and of S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences. Much of Chakrabarti's research has centered around statistical condensed matter physics (including Quantum annealing; see also Timeline of quantum computing) and applications to social sciences (see e.g., Econophysics).

• Young Scientist Award of Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (1984)^[2]
• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (1997)
• Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1997-)
• Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (2003-)
• Honorary Visiting Professor of Economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (2007- )
• Outstanding Referee Award of the American Physical Society (2010)
• J. C. Bose National Fellow, Department of Science and Technology (India) (2011-2020)

• "Idea of quantum annealing” due to "tunnelling through infinitely high classical barriers separating infinitely many metastable states was indeed put forward even earlier, in Ray, Charabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B (1989), ..." (4th para, Introduction),^[3] Journal of Physics A Topical Review by Erio Tosatti et al. (2006)

• In "Quantum Glasses", "where barriers to relaxation are tall and narrow, quantum mechanics can enhance the ability to traverse the free energy surface [Ray, Charabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B (1989)]” (3rd sentence),^[4] Physical Review Letters by Gabriel Aeppli, Thomas Felix Rosenbaum et al. (2008)

• "The phenomenon of quantum tunneling suggests that it can be more efficient to explore the state space quantum mechanically in a quantum annealer [Ray, Chakrabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Re. B (1989); ...]" (2nd para, 1st sentence),^[5] Nature Physics by Sergio Boixo, Daniel Lidar, John M. Martinis, Matthias Troyer, et al. (Open Access, 2014)

• "Quantum annealing [Ray, Chakrabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B (1989); ...; Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys. (2008)] uses quantum tunneling instead of thermal excitations to escape from local minima ..." [see 2nd para],^[6] write Matthias Troyer et al., Science (Open Access; 2015)

• "Quantum annealing ... is a technique inspired by classical simulated annealing [Ray, Chakrabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B (1989)] that aims to take advantage of quantum tunnelling." (1st sentence),^[7] Nature Communications by Sergio Boixo, Hartmut Neven et al. (Open Access, 2016)

• "Quantum annealing aims at finding low-energy configurations ... by a controlled quantum adiabatic evolution ... to escape local minima through multiple tunneling events [Ray, Charabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B (1989); ...; Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys. (2008)]" (1st sentence) ... It can “lead to extremely powerful alternative computational devices”(3rd sentence),^[8] PNAS by Riccardo Zecchina (ICTP) et al. (Open Access, 2018)

• “Earliest work in laying foundation of quantum annealing was done in 1989 [Ray, Chakrabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B], showing that quantum fluctuations can increase the ergodicity in a spin-glass model, by tunneling between 'trapping' minima, separated by narrow potential barriers. ... Das & Chakrabarti [Rev. Mod. Phys., 2008] gives clear picture of fundamental physical properties and mechanism” (Introduction),^[9] Journal of Physics B by Helmut Ritsch et al. (Open Access, 2022)

• "At present enormous effort is focused on quantum computers that must maintain quantum coherence until decoherence or measurement achieves a solution, ... [and] then computation stops [Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys. (2008)]. We suggest a new alternative. [Brain] Cells do not stop. There is abundant evidence ..." (first para of 'Trans-Turing Systems'),^[10] Biological Journal of the Linnean Society by Stuart Kauffman et al. (Open Access, 2023)

• “Adiabatic quantum computation [Farhi et al., Science, 2001; Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys., 2008]” (Abstract) ...“has attracted intense interest [Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys., 2008; Farhi et al., Science, 2001] owing to its potential speedup over classical algorithms” (Introduction),^[11] PNAS by Frank Wilczek et al. (Open Access, 2023)

• "Quantum annealing and other inspired methods have garnered increasing interest because of their quantum attributes that could offer potential solutions to the challenges inherent in combinatorial optimization problems [Ray, Chakrabarti & Chakrabarti, Phys. Rev. B (1989); ...] ... D-wave systems ... utilize superconducting quantum interferometers [...; Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys, (2008)] to execute quantum annealing ..." (Introduction, 1st & 2nd para),^[12] write Yoshihisa Yamamoto (scientist) et al., in their IEEE Access (Open Access, 2024)

• "Quantum Annealer [Advantage] built by D-Wave,... is currently the largest quantum computer in the world,... groundbreaking system ...for solving highly complex problems."(Abstract) ... "The concept of integrating a model of quantum annealing into a heuristic optimization framework has been independently proposed by several researchers, including Apolloni, Carvalho & de Falco [Stoch. Proc. Appl. (Dec. 1989)]; Ray, Chakrabarti & Chakrabarti [Phys. Rev B (Jun. 1989)]; Kadowaki & Nishimori [Phys. Rev. E (Nov. 1998)]" (Introduction), ... [See also] "Ghosh & Mukherjee [arXiv:1310.1339 (Sc. & Cult. 2013)]" (D-Wave Quantum Machines),^[13] write Hadi Salloum et al. (Innopolis Univ.) in their IEEE Access (Open Access, 2025)

• "Analog quantum algorithms replace the sequence of gates by an explicitly time-dependent Hamiltonian. This describes computing by quantum annealing and protocols for quantum simulation [Das & Chakrabarti, Rev. Mod. Phys. (2008)]." (sec. 2.3),^[14] write Luis García-Pintos et al. (LANL; Univ. Oxford; Harvard Univ.; NASA Ames; ...) in their Reports on Progress in Physics (Open Access, 2025)

• “Influential” & “Elegant” papers from “Kolkata School” (pp. 1705, 1711) on “Statistical mechanics of money, wealth & income”,^[15] Reviews of Modern Physics by Physicist Victor Yakovenko (Univ. Maryland) & Economist J. Barkley Rosser Jr. (2009)

• “Father of Econophysics" (p. 15),^[16] Thesis by Christophe Schinckus, Dept. History and Philosophy of Science, Univ. Cambridge (Open Access, 2018)

• "Historic conference in Kolkata (India, 1995)": One of the six major events in the last hundred and twenty years of physics applications "in economics and finance ... [since] appearance of the doctoral dissertation by Louis Bachelier in 1900" (Fig. 2 & caption),^[17] Entropy (journal) Econophysics spl. issue editorial by H. Eugene Stanley et al. (Open Access, 2022)

• "Foundational paper [Chakraborti & Chakrabarti, Euro. Phys. J. B, 2000]” (Abstract & throughout),^[18] European Physical Journal B Topical Review on ‘Twenty-five years of Kinetic exchange models of markets’ by Max Greenberg (Dept. Economics, Univ. Massachusetts Amherst) & H. Oliver Gao (Dept. Systems Engineering, Cornell Univ.) (Open Access, 2024)

• "The efficacy of the proposed [AI algorithm] is assessed here by employing both Kolkata Paise Restaurant Game [Chakrabarti et al., Physica A (2009)] algorithm (referred to as Kolkata algorithm) ... and Gale-Shapley algorithm (p. 676),^[19] write Romano Fantacci (IEEE Fellow) et al. (Univ. Florence), in their Journal of Communications and Networks (Open Access, 2024)

• “Econophysics: An Introduction [Sinha, Chatterjee, Chakraborti & Chakrabarti, Wiley, 2010]” has been the only suggested Textbook for the Econophysics course,^[20] offered (Teacher: Diego Garlaschelli) for last one & half a decade by the Leiden University physics dept. (where the inaugural-year [1969] economics Nobel Laureate Jan Tinbergen did undergrad and Ph. D. in statistical physics of economy under Paul Ehrenfest) (course began 2012-2013 & is continued: 2024-2025; All Prospectuses available online)

• Quantum Ising Phases and Transitions in Transverse Ising Models, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Amit Dutta and Parongama Sen, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (1996) [2nd Ed., with Sei Suzuki & Jun-ichi Inoue (2013)]
• Statistical Physics of Fracture and Breakdown in Disordered Solids, Bikas K. Chakrabarti and L. Gilles Benguigui, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1997)
• Econophysics: An Introduction, Sitabhra Sinha, Arnab Chatterjee, Anirban Chakraborti and Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Wiley-VCH, Berlin (2011)
• Econophysics of Income & Wealth Distributions, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Anirban Chakraborti, Satya R. Chakravarty and Arnab Chatterjee, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2013)
• Sociophysics: An Introduction, Parongama Sen and Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Oxford University Press, Oxford (2014)
• Quantum Phase Transitions in Transverse Field Spin Models: From Statistical Physics to Quantum Information, Amit Dutta, Gabriel Aeppli, Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Uma Divakaran, Thomas Felix Rosenbaum & Diptiman Sen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2015)
• Quantum Spin Glasses, Annealing and Computation, Shu Tanaka, Ryo Tamura & Bikas K. Chakrabarti, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2017)

• B. K. Chakrabarti and M. Acharyya, Dynamic Transitions and Hysteresis, Rev. Mod. Phys. 71, 847 (1999)
• A. Das and B. K. Chakrabarti, Quantum Annealing and Analog Quantum Computations, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1061 (2008)
• S. Pradhan, A. Hansen, and B. K. Chakrabarti, Failure Processes in Elastic Fiber Bundles, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 499 (2010).
• H. Kawamura, T. Hatano, N. Kato, S. Biswas, and B. K. Chakrabarti, Statistical Physics of Fracture, Friction, and Earthquakes, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 839 (2012).
• A. Rajak, S. Suzuki, A. Dutta and B. K. Chakrabarti, Quantum Annealing: An Overview, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A, 381, 20210417 (2023).

Quantum Annealing (QA):

• Idea of QA due to tunneling
• Fast relaxation in Quantum Glasses
• Quantum tunneling in QA
• QA uses Quantum Tunneling
• Multiqubit tunnelling in QA
• QA through tunneling
• Earliest work in laying foundation of QA
• Quantum Mind & Consciousness
• Speed up in quantum computing
• QA as quantum interferometry
• Three Groups independently proposed QA
• Computing by QA

Econophysics:

• Influential papers from Kolkata School
• Father of Econophysics
• Historic conference in Kolkata
• Foundational paper
• Kolkata Algorithm
• Leiden Univ. Econophysics Prospectus (2012-2013)-Leiden Univ. Econophysics Prospectus (2024-2025)

Miscellaneous:

• CUP book Macro-Econophysics by Aoyama et al., Foreword: pp. xxv-xxvi (2017)(Google Access)
• Kolkata stories on: a) Economics (2006) b) Fracture-Earthquake Statphysics (2017) b) Econophysics (2021)(all Open Access)
• Kolkata Paise Restaurant Problem and a) TSP, Kastampolidou et al., Games (2022), b) Dining Clubs, Harlalka & Griffin, J. Phys. Complex. (2025), c) New benchmark to evaluate AI, Santos-Lang & Homan, arXiv (2025)(all Open Access)
• Kolkata Index for inequality in a) CC model, Cui et al., EPL (2023), b) Wright Capitalism model, Borba et al., Physica A (2025), c) Extn'd CC model, Lin & Cui, arXiv (2025)(Open Access)
• Quantum Annealers can, what remain out of reach for Classical Computers; King et al., Science (2025)(Open Access)