Research News

Raúl Sáez García defended his thesis directed by Xavier Prats i Menéndez on October 1, 2021 at the Baix Llobregat Campus. Titled "Traffic Synchronization with Controlled Time of Arrival for Cost-Efficient Trajectories in High-Density Terminal Airspace", the thesis proposes a series of methods and concepts of operations with the aim of improving the efficiency of air operations in airspace terminal.

Researchers from the Group of Characterization of Materials at the Department of Physics of the UPC along with international collaborators have discovered a spin-crossover compound that undergoes a giant thermal response driven by pressure. This work, published in Advanced Materials, open routes to exploit this type of compounds in future solid-state refrigeration technologies as alternative to current methods that use harmful fluids

Albert Falqués and Francesca Ribas, from the group of Nonlinear fluid dynamics of the Physics Department, together with two other researchers from the UPC, have discovered a new morphodynamic instability mechanism that can explain the formation of alongshore-rhythmic systems of transverse finger bars that often develop at beaches with an abundant supply of sand, like those at El Trabucador beach, in the Ebro delta

Arjuna Castrillon defended her thesis, co-directed by DFIS professors Jordi José and Domingo García-Senz on May 12, 2021 by teleconference. The thesis, entitled "Study of the physical properties of collided regions in planetary nebulae", presents an analysis of the morphology of microstructures present in planetary nebulae, as well as simulations of the motions of a star in the protoplanetary nebula phase.

Viktor Cikojević defended his thesis co-directed by Leandra Vranješ Markić and Jordi Boronat on April 20th 2021 at Campus Diagonal Nord, titled "Ab-initio Quantum Monte Carlo study of ultracold atomic mixtures". The thesis presents a systematic study of self-bound quantum droplets in a Bose-Bose mixture, employing techniques of Quantum Monte Carlo and Density Functional Theory.