2023

When the densest stars in the universe (neutron star or neutron star-black hole pairs) orbit each other, they get closer due to emitted gravitational radiation. Neutron stars have a solid exterior crust that may shatter in this extreme encounters. In this project, you will explore whether the star can shatter like a glass does when a singer hits its resonant note. This depends on the properties of dense matter and, in particular, on the symmetry energy parameter that is predicted from nuclear physics.

The LHCb detector is one of the main experiments at the LHC at CERN, specialized on the study of CP breaking and rare decays of b hadrons. Semileptonic transitions of a b quark to an s quark and two leptons (b -> sll) have been intensively studied during the last decade, with some hints of potential new physics effects. The analogous transitions with a d quark in the final state (b -> dll) are more suppressed in the Standard Model and thus highly sensitive to potential new physics effects, at even higher scales.

Transient sources in the high energy (HE, GeV) and very-high energy (VHE, TeV) gamma-ray domain have turned out to be excellent laboratories to test particle acceleration, emission, and absorption processes under extreme conditions, thanks to the multiple discoveries of transient phenomena at GeV and TeV energies reported during the last decade [1].

A leading candidate to explain the existence of dark matter in the Universe is the axion, which is detectable in experiments that use resonant cavities embedded in a strong magnetic field to turn an ambient axion of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way into a resonant photon. Superconducting qubits can be used to detect these photons without absorbing them, allowing for multiple detections of the same photon with minimal noise at mK temperatures, as demonstrated by Dixit et al. 2019.

GMV offers the possibility to participate on a remunerated project for the final master work (TFM). The number of satellites being launched into orbit has grown exponentially in the last years [1]. Even though they provide valuable information, they also create important challenges and concerns regarding their possible impact on the sky quality, their effect on astronomical observations or the space traffic management (see, e.g., [2] and [3]).

After the discovery of gravitational waves (GWs, Abbott et al. 2016), the LIGO-Virgo gravitational wave (GW) interferometers have detected 90 compact object coalescences of which the vast majority are binary black holes (BBH). A popular scenario for their origin is that these BBH form in dynamical interactions in dense stellar systems, such as globular clusters (GCs, e.g. Antonini et al. 2023). 
 

The solution of quantum field theories is one of the most challenging topics in modern theoretical physics. Recently, promising advances have relied on the use of variational approaches that exploit machine learning techniques [1]. These approaches encode the gauge symmetries in the architecture of neural networks [2], which provides advantages with respect to other sampling techniques [3]. Variational solutions to quantum field theories can be then exploited to find numerical solutions to these problems [4].  

The VLA Orion A Large Survey (VOLS) large project will perform the deepest survey at subarcsecond resolution of the Orion A molecular cloud with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (PI: G. Busquet, see  https://vols.fqa.ub.edu).  The superb sensitivity of the VLA combined with the large field of view of VOLS (~1 deg x 0.5 deg) requires a new strategy to identify regions of line emission. The VOLS project includes the emission lines of OH and CH3OH masers, 18 Hydrogen Radio Recombination lines and the line thermal emission of HC5N and SO molecules.

cOrion A is the nearest star-forming complex containing a broad range of environments populated by protostars and Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) with different masses and evolutionary stages, representing a testbed for star formation theories. The VLA Orion A Large Survey (VOLS, PI: G. Busquet; see https://vols.fqa.ub.edu) large project has been granted with 306 hours of observing time with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array to perform the deepest survey at subarcsecond resolution of the Orion A molecular cloud.