The arrangement of the top layer of atoms on a solid – and the resulting electronic and chemical properties – affect and sometimes even dominate its functionality. In the talk, I will showcase how we can use basic physical phenomena – tunneling, diffraction, and change in resonance frequencies – to measure surface properties in an atom-by-atom fashion. By investigating well-defined samples...
I will discuss how the first image of a black hole was obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope-EHT collaboration. In particular, I will describe the theoretical aspects that have allowed us to model the dynamics of the plasma accreting onto the black hole and how such dynamics was used to generate synthetic black-hole images. I will also illustrate how the comparison between the theoretical...
I will give an overview of the state of the art of quantum random number generation (QRNG) and quantum key distribution (QKD) and I will present recent developments to improve the performance of these technologies. So-called self-testing QRNGs allow to certify the generated entropy in real time, which is a real benefit, knowing that a statistical analysis of the random bit string is...
As agreed at the COP 21 2015 in Paris the countries of the world promised to take immediate measures to keep the worldwide temperature rise below 2°C and therefore prevent further climate change consequences. The transformation of the energy system and utilities as its main actor are critical in this endeavor. Utilities not only drive the change to a renewable energy generation but also enable...
Symmetry and symmetry breaking play essential roles in a wide range of physical phenomena and have numerous applications, ranging from labelling energy eigenstates of atoms and molecules to effectively describing quantum phase transitions and topological classification of quantum matter. An intriguing example is the discovery of materials with crystallographically forbidden rotational...
Free electron lasers (FEL) are tuneable powerful lasers ranging from the infrared to the X-ray, serving for the exploration of matter. They use a simple and elegant gain medium, where coherent radiation is generated using free electrons in a periodic permanent magnetic field generated by a so-called undulator. The light–electron interaction in the undulator leads to a bunching process, setting...
Particle physics research has a long tradition of making scientific advancement through large-scale collaborative efforts. With the unprecedented scale of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider came a real need for extensive efforts in communication, education, and outreach. The International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) was formed in 1997 as a European initiative (then EPPOG) to become an...
Throughout the centuries, the relation between science and its publics has undergone significant transformations. The talk will trace some of these transformations for the case of physics. It begins with 17th century England and the importance of gentlemen for the conduct of experiments. The 19th century, by contrast, witnesses scientific institutions develop a clear separation from the lay...
The Future Circular Collider (FCC) program, proposed at CERN, consists of a luminosity-frontier electron-positron collider (FCC-ee) as first stage, followed by an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh) as second stage, and promises the most far-reaching physics program for the post-LHC era. FCC-ee is a precision instrument to study the Z, W, Higgs and top particles, and offers unprecedented...
Neural-Network quantum states (NQS) have been recently proposed as a method to solve challenging interacting quantum problems. During this talk, I will discuss the application of NQS to a variety of problems. First, we consider how NQS can be used to obtain excited states as well ground states within a symmetry sector. Next, building on the tools developed, we apply the NQS approach to...
Van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure attracted wide attention by the research community in the past decade. Their functionality depends predominantly on two dimensional (2D) materials. However, there are other vdW heterostructure building blocks besides 2D sheets, as molecular crystals.
This talk will focus on vdW heterostructures combining organic crystallites and 2D materials. By epitaxially...
Isotopic ratios of radioactive releases into the environment are useful signatures for contamination source identification. The atomic 233U / 236U ratio analysed in representative environmental samples by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry showed ratios of (0.1-3.7)·10-2. The ratios detected in compartments of the environment affected by releases of nuclear power production or by weapons fallout...
Over the last few years, several discrepancies with respect to Standard Model predictions have arisen in charged- and neutral-current semileptonic B meson decays. These measurements include indications of lepton universality violation, which if confirmed would be a clear signature of physics beyond the Standard Model. I will review the experimental status of these anomalies at LHCb, as well as...
The albedo of a celestial body is the fraction of incident starlight reflected by it. The study of the albedos of Solar System objects is at least a century old, at least in the Western world. As examples: Bond (1861) speculated on the near-unity albedo of Jupiter, while Russell (1916) observed the opposition surge of the Moon near and at full phase. The light of a planet or moon varying with...
Timelines from first idea to reimbursed product / therapy / indication, during which translational research from bench to bedside has to be performed, are typically long in the field of sensorineural active implants. The most widespread of these implants is the Cochlear Implant (CI) which restores hearing in deaf people of all ages through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve....
