As humanity is faced with the urgency of the climate crisis, already suffering from its consequences such as rising temperatures and severe weather events, one of the century's great challenges is to reduce emissions and find new, renewable energy sources.
The conversion of $CO_2$, the biggest polluter, into oxygen and carbon monoxide, a valuable fuel, through the innovative use of...
As humanity is faced with the urgency of the climate crisis, already suffering from its consequences such as rising temperatures and severe weather events, one of the century's great challenges is to reduce emissions and find new, renewable energy sources.
The conversion of CO2, the biggest polluter, into oxygen and carbon monoxide, a valuable fuel, through the innovative use of non-thermal...
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has been increasing since the beginning of the industrial revolution mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels. This makes it very important to find alternative energy sources in which CO2 is not emitted and ways to remove it artificially from the atmosphere. One solution for both this problems is the Fischer–Tropsch cycle, but that requires the dissociation...
Low-temperature plasmas are characterized by a strong non-equilibrium nature which can be used to favour certain chemical processes thus making these plasmas suitable for a wide range of applications in materials processing, plasma medicine, biology and agriculture, among others. In these systems, the dominant energy transfer mechanisms are collisions between electrons and neutrals. However,...
Nuclear fusion is a promising solution to the world energy problems, but it requires a mixture of deuterium and tritium to be heated to temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius. Regimes with improved confinement, such as the H-mode, are being considered for a future fusion reactor. The existence of a strong shear (gradient) in the plasma flow is thought to be fundamental for the...
This work explores the possibility of synthesis of NH3 through plasma processes induced by an electrical discharge in a gas. The two-term approximation for the Boltzmann equation and the rate-balance system of equations are used as a self-consistent theoretical model for the study of this system, solved with a computational implementation which couples both with convergence cycles. Exploring...
Two-dimensional (2D) materials stand out as promising candidates for electronic and sensor applications, owing to their exceptional characteristics including flexibility, transparency, high carrier mobility, and tuneable bandgap. Despite significant progress in 2D material growth, the use of incompatible substrates requires a transfer process, during which the material is contaminated by...
Plasma exists over a wide range of both temporal and spatial scales, going from the fusion reactors to the huge, and far away, galaxies. A better understanding of plasma physics is needed both for our fundamental understanding of the universe, but also to enable the development of new technologies.However, plasma modelling can be very challenging,due to its multi-scale nature.
Machine...
Under the presence of strong electromagnetic fields, the electromagnetic radiation emmited by an accelerated charged particle will have a significant impact on its own trajectory. In these cases, it becomes crucial to include a radiation reaction force into the equations of motion to accurately describe the dynamics of charged particles.
In this work, we study how radiation reaction will...
The amplification of intense laser pulses is a complex process, as they can easily damage the optical components they pass through. Not only that, but the creation of intense ultrashort pulses in the Mid-Infrareds has always been limited by the inexistent of good gain materials. Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) is a technique that combines OPA and CPA, solving both of...
In this work, we present Time-Resolved InfraRed (TRIR) absorption spectroscopy as a tool to study ultrafast molecular dynamics, and the process to develop an ultra-fast material study workstation. This research emphasises the critical role of ultra-fast lasers in capturing the transient states of molecules, essential for understanding their dynamic behaviour. The focus is on the design,...
With the increase in demand for ultra-short high-powered pulses, the understanding of Spatio Temporal Couplings (STCs) is now more important than ever. Interaction with certain optical instruments (prisms, gratings, etc…) means very short pulses can no longer be reasonably predicted using the simple Gaussian equation. We must therefore take the changes that occur in a pulse into account, by...
The generation of ocean energy by waves is currently still in the research and development phase. This is partly because the technology is not yet mature, and partly because large-scale initiatives are not economically viable. The economic feasibility of the energy conversion system can be increased by integrating wave energy converters into breakwaters. By pooling the costs of construction,...
The second phase of the LHC will collect an unprecedented amount of proton-proton data at the highest centre-of-mass energies ever achieved. The machine is expected to provide an average of 140 simultaneous collisions each bunch crossing at a luminosity of around 5x10³⁴ cm⁻² s-¹. This poses a challenge to the detectors which will have to cope with a harsh radiation environment and will be...
Human biases influence behavior and society, sometimes leading to discrimination and poor judgment. While algorithms were initially thought to be free from human biases, it's now understood that they can amplify existing biases, especially when trained on human-generated data. To address this, methods for identifying and mitigating biases in machine learning (ML) algorithms have been...
Muon tomography uses the natural flux of muons created by cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere to image large structures, being sensitive to their shape and density. The LouMu team operates an RPC-based muon telescope at an underground gallery at the Lousal mine, testing muography as a new geophysical survey technique. A first target was a known regional geological fault crossing the gallery,...
Muon tomography takes advantage of the natural flux of muons created by the interaction of cosmic rays with the Earth’s atmosphere to image large structures, being sensitive to their shape and density. Being a non-invasive method, muography comes forth as a prime candidate to use in urban settings, giving us an unprecedented upwards look into the hidden spaces beneath our cities. This work...
Despite some results indicating that factorization survives in most phenomenological relevant scenarios, the underlying assumptions may be too restrictive and erase most of the relevant dynamics. Motivated by the ongoing effort to verify the factorizability of successive in-medium emissions, this work aims to obtain the matrix elements for the emission of two gluons by an energetic quark in...
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is a rich area of Particle Physics with much still to be understood. Namely, analytical derivations from first principles of the emergent phenomena of hadronisation and associated colour confinement have yet to be found. This drives a search for inputs from the experimental exploration of QCD, such as the heavy ion collisions performed at RHIC and the LHC.
In...
In ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, it is possible to reach extreme conditions of temperature and density that allow to recreate the primordial state of the Universe where the fundamental degrees of freedom of Quantum Chromodynamics (quarks and gluons), are deconfined: the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The study of this hot and dense medium is at the forefront of the physics research at...
Anomaly Detection has recently emerged as a novel path to explore the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC) data in the search for phenomena beyond the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics. Technically, it relies on machine learning algorithms with the ability to model the SM background expectation and detect potential New Physics events that differ from that background. This approach complements...
The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics is notably descriptive and predicted new particles well in advance. Still, there is paramount evidence for the need of New Physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), Conventionally, searches are driven by specific signals and theory assumptions, preventing a complete exclusion of new phenomena. A new paradigm is to use Anomaly Detection techniques in...
There are many observed phenomena in Nature which the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM), despite its successes, is not able to describe. One of the major questions left unaddressed by the SM is the observed asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe. Violation of charge-parity (CP) symmetry in the Higgs boson sector is a well motivated way to address the discrepancy between...
A big open question in our understanding of the universe comes from there being more matter than antimatter in the universe today, while the theory predicts the Big Bang produced the same amount of each. A condition for this difference to exist is a violation of Charge and Parity symmetry. According to some new theories, this violation could originate in interactions with the Higgs boson that...
The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics describes three of the four fundamental forces in nature: electromagnetic (EM), weak, and strong interaction. Besides its theoretical elegance, the SM provides a unified framework to explain a plethora of natural phenomena, leading to predictions that stand up to rigorous experimental testing. Nonetheless, some questions remain unanswered within this...
Phase transitions in the early universe are critical events that played a crucial role in shaping the structure and properties of the cosmos.
Understanding these transitions is essential for constructing a comprehensive picture of the early universe's evolution.
In this work, we present a detailed description of the symmetry breaking dynamics of a beyond the Standard Model extension. This...
Gallium oxide is an ultrawide bandgap semiconductor that has shown great promise in recent years due to its distinctive properties and wide range of potential opto-electronic applications. Ga₂O₃ thin films, which can be used in Deep-UV photodetectors, oxygen sensors or Resistive RAMs, for example, are inexpensive and easy to produce, benefit from commercial microfabrication techniques and can...
The space-time picture of hadron formation in high-energy collisions with nuclear targets is still poorly known. The tests of hadron formation was suggested for the first stage of SPD running. They will require measuring charged pion and proton spectra with the precision better than $10\%$. A research has been carried out to check feasibility of such studies at SPD. In this work,...
Plasma exists over a wide range of both temporal and spatial scales, going from the fusion reactors to the huge, and far away, galaxies. A better understanding of plasma physics is needed both for our fundamental understanding of the universe, but also to enable the development of new technologies.However, plasma modelling can be very challenging,due to its multi-scale nature.
Machine...
The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics is notably descriptive and predicted new particles well in advance. Still, there is paramount evidence for the need of New Physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), Conventionally, searches are driven by specific signals and theory assumptions, preventing a complete exclusion of new phenomena. A new paradigm is to use Anomaly Detection techniques in...
The second phase of the LHC will collect an unprecedented amount of proton-proton data at the highest centre-of-mass energies ever achieved. The machine is expected to provide an average of 140 simultaneous collisions each bunch crossing at a luminosity of around 5x10³⁴ cm⁻² s-¹. This poses a challenge to the detectors which will have to cope with a harsh radiation environment and will be...
Gallium oxide is an ultrawide bandgap semiconductor that has shown great promise in recent years due to its distinctive properties and wide range of potential opto-electronic applications. Ga₂O₃ thin films, which can be used in Deep-UV photodetectors, oxygen sensors or Resistive RAMs, for example, are inexpensive and easy to produce, benefit from commercial microfabrication techniques and can...
Anomaly Detection has recently emerged as a novel path to explore the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC) data in the search for phenomena beyond the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics. Technically, it relies on machine learning algorithms with the ability to model the SM background expectation and detect potential New Physics events that differ from that background. This approach complements...
A big open question in our understanding of the universe comes from there being more matter than antimatter in the universe today, while the theory predicts the Big Bang produced the same amount of each. A condition for this difference to exist is a violation of Charge and Parity symmetry. According to some new theories, this violation could originate in interactions with the Higgs boson that...
There are many observed phenomena in Nature which the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM), despite its successes, is not able to describe. One of the major questions left unaddressed by the SM is the observed asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the Universe. Violation of charge-parity (CP) symmetry in the Higgs boson sector is a well motivated way to address the discrepancy between...
