The motion of swimming microbes has shown to be a good representation of their behavior, which in turn is unique for a given strain of cells. We want to understand how single-cell behavior relates to collective behavior of microbes. For instance, two mutants from the same species may exhibit distinct single-cell swimming behaviors. Does their collective behavior also differ? And if so, are...
Current laser injection in particle in cell (PIC) codes is based on paraxial solutions to Maxwell's Equation. Up until now, there have been little to no problem in using these methods. However, as the use of ultra short or ultra tightly focused laser pulses gains popularity and applications, a new method needs to be developed to account for this extreme regimes while injecting electromagnetic...
The Higgs particle was predicted in 1964 and discovered at CERN on July 2012, earning Higgs and Englert the 2013 Physics Nobel Prize. This is a spin-zero particle (scalar), necessary to give masses to all the other massive particles in the Standard Model of Electroweak interactions. But, there is no fundamental reason why there should be only one such scalar. In this project, we consider...
Quantum communication promises to revolutionize telecommunications, upgrading it to a new standard of security, grounded on the laws of Physics. A plethora of implementations for quantum communication have been proposed, but a general principle is that photons are useful for long distance communication, while matter is convenient for storage of quantum information and to generate photonic...
The theory of general relativity successfully describes a huge variety of phenomena at large scales. This study is focused on one of the most interesting structures allowed by this theory: black holes.
To understand the relation between the geometry of a spacetime and the physics of its black holes, it is important to study the orbits of test particles. This work was previously performed for...
Type Ia supernovae are among the brightest objects in the sky, and the estimation of their distances to Earth have been used as proof that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. They are the result of the explosion of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf, in a binary system with another star, whose nature is still unknown.
In this project, Machine Learning tools such as Gaussian Processes...
This project aims on fully understanding the ion channels' role in the transmission of electric signals along axons and on developing a physically and mathematically consistent model that describes the evolution of the neurones' membrane potential - the key mechanism for signal propagation. Being the Hodgkin-Huxley’s theory our starting point, we will look at the limitations and...
In future nuclear-fusion reactors, the energy of the alpha particles produced is expected to ignite and keep the fuel plasma burning. Yet, resonant interaction with Alfvén eigenmodes may transport these alphas away from the fusing core and towards the reactor structure. Research about such resonant interactions has focused mainly on waves from the shear (or incompressible) branch of the Alfvén...
The study of the Quark-Gluon Plasma, the deconfined phase of QCD matter, is a very active and fast-developing field of research. The QGP is the phase matter of the Universe in its first microsecond of existence and can be formed in collisions of ultra-relativistic Heavy Ions. One of the key ways the internal properties of QGP have been studied is by looking at how it affects the behavior of...
Nuclear fusion has one of the most promising and exciting end goals of any field. It has the potential of sustaining humanity’s ever-growing energy demand. The first approach to fusion was magnetic confinement and it is also the easiest to scale up, with two designs standing above the rest: the stellarator and the tokamak. Although in the early stages, stellarators were plagued by large...
Optimization of magnetoresistive sensors, tackling noise mitigation for known high sensitivity multi-stack compositions. Development of strategies that enable detection in the picoTesla range at room temperature with a good signal-to-noise ratio, essential for applications such as in the Biomedical imaging field. These strategies address both the TMR sensor fabrication process and design. 3D...
The study of how information spreads throughout social systems has long been studied by a wide variety of fields. In that context, recent empirical evidence indicates that complex contagion (a situation where individuals revise their behaviour by taking into consideration those of their friends, which, jointly with the complexity of the diffusing information, define the likelihood of an...
In this paper, we present a novel approach to studying General Relativity and Gravitational Waves using emerging deep learning techniques. We begin by providing a brief introduction to the basics of General Relativity and Gravitational Waves, highlighting their importance in understanding the universe. We then introduce the concept of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) and demonstrate...
Plasma technologies for in situ resource utilization on Mars have been proposed recently, in particular to decompose CO$_2$ from the Martian atmosphere and extract the oxygen for life-support, fuels and agriculture. However, the underlying plasma chemistry is very complex and efficient prediction of the plasma properties is mandatory. Moreover, some of the reaction constants of the plasma...
This thesis aims to investigate the potential use of quantum algorithms in the field of High Energy Physics. Specifically, the focus is on the application of quantum algorithms to track reconstruction and calorimeter reconstruction in the High Granularity Calorimeter of CMS. The study will examine the use of existing quantum algorithms such as k-means and affinity propagation, and explore any...
The objective of this thesis is to develop a model that enables to test the management of energy communities by a municipality. the objective is to find the best organizational framework, concerning business model, management algorithms and technological features, that optimizes the gains of the communities, both in environmental and economic terms. The model will be applied to the case study...
The first observation of a fluid-like light with characteristics similar to a superfluid was performed by M. Brambilla, who studied a coherent electromagnetic field in a laser cavity and reformulated the temporal evolution in terms of hydrodynamic equations similar to the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, initiating a new discussion about the relationship between hydrodynamic turbulence and optical...
The need for accurate positioning sensors with small dimensions has grown exponentially in recent years, leading to the development of various technologies for this purpose. The primary focus of these technologies is to provide reliable outputs with high resolution, while also minimizing the cost of fabrication. An example of such a technology is Anisotropic Magnetoresistive (AMR) Sensors,...
The de Sitter spacetime, first found by Willem de Sitter in 1917, is a solution to the Einstein field equations without matter and with a positive cosmological constant. Current observations suggest that our universe has a small positive cosmological constant, Λ, and that it is asymptotically de Sitter, demonstrating the important role of positive Λ solutions and in particular of the de Sitter...
The ATLAS detector is one of the two multi-purpose experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. Its main goals are to search for signs of physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and to make precise measurements of the Standard Model itself. In order to analyse the data recorded by the detector, one of the most complex operations is to reconstruct the tracks left by electrically...
Quantum computers, while still being in their infancy, have become a reality since many years. Increasing resources are being devoted to their development, within academic research as well as by many industries, including some of the largest computer companies. So far, all the efforts have been concentrated towards achieving increasingly better time performances, through improving qubit...
Space radiation has a large impact on planetary space weather and electronic instruments, both on the ground and in space. For this reason, comprehending the space radiation environment in our solar system, is fundamental for modern society and space exploration.
BepiColombo is the first European mission to Mercury, succeeding NASA’s Mariner 10 and MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space...
The Higgs particle was predicted in 1964 and discovered at CERN on July 2012, earning Higgs and Englert the 2013 Physics Nobel Prize. This is a spin zero particle (scalar), necessary to give masses to all the other massive particles in the Standard Model of Electroweak interactions. But, there is no fundamental reason why there should be only one such scalar. Thus, as one achieves a more...
The asymptotic properties of spacetimes play a central role in many aspects of General Relativity (GR). One of the crucial concepts introduced for the realisation of the latter, was the use of conformal compactifications introduced in General Relativity by Roger Penrose [Nobel Prize 2020] to describe in a geometric way the notion of infinity. The formulation that takes Penrose’s idea of...
