Research News

Fish schools are regulated by selection on social interactions and speed-induced leadership

Physics department researchers contribute to a study on the behavior of schools of fish published as a cover story in the journal PNAS

High-velocity particles thermally transform from quantum to classical ones crossing the anomaly temperature

A thermal fading of the quantum behavior in the large-momenta and short-distance correlations is predicted for temperatures above the anomaly threshold, by unveiling the connection between excitations, thermodynamics, and correlations in many-body systems. A general analytic expression for the high-momentum tail of the particle momentum distribution, which is valid for an arbitrary interaction strength and temperature and smoothly connects the quantum and classical limits, is proposed.

Study of the structural dynamics in metallic materials in the vitreous state

Candidate Yajuan Duan defended the thesis on March 13, 2024. The thesis, co-supervised by Drs. Jichao Qiao (Northwestern Polythecnic University, Xi'an) and Eloi Pineda (UPC), shows how the structural dynamics and atomic mobility of metallic materials with non-crystalline structure evolves during thermal and mechanical treatments. This study allows improving the pre-processing of these materials to modify and improve their mechanical properties.

Synergy of Interferometric SAR and Machine/Deep Learning to Assess Natural Hazards

S. Mohammad Mirmazloumi defended his thesis co-supervised by Michele Crosetto and Oriol Monserrat on January 30, 2024 at the Baix Llobregat Campus in the Telecommunications Technology Center of Catalonia (CTTC). The thesis is entitled "Advanced Modeling of InSAR Time Series for Ground Displacement Hazard Assessment".

The weather during the retreat of the Republicans in 1939

A study carried out by Jordi Mazón and David Pino from the Department of Physics together with Lluís Bassaganya, Jordi Mercader and Jordi Moré asks what kind of weather the republican exiles suffered in the Camprodon valley.

Geometric structures that model dissipative dynamics, integrable systems and geometric quantization

Pau Mir Garcia defended his thesis co-supervised by Eva Miranda on January 16 at the FME. Entitled "Singularities and symmetries on the crossroads of geometry and physics", the thesis presents the study of several mathematical objects that are essential for formulating and modeling physical systems. Through tools provided by differential geometry, this thesis develops and analyzes different mathematical structures that are used in three physical contexts: dissipative dynamics, integrable systems and geometric quantization. To do this, we mainly use the framework of b-symplectic geometry, a natural extension of symplectic geometry especially suitable for bounded manifolds, based on the concept of differential b-forms.

Photonics and artificial intelligence for the diagnosis of diseases

An international consortium of universities, hospitals and companies, led by the UPC, is developing new technologies based on photonics and artificial intelligence to improve the diagnosis of various diseases.