Author archives: DIPC

Tensor networks everywhere

Tensor networks everywhere

Condensed matterQuantum physics

By DIPC

Originally developed in the context of condensed-matter physics and based on renormalization group ideas, tensor networks have been revived thanks to quantum information theory and the progress in understanding the role of entanglement in quantum many-body systems . Ikerbasque Research Professor Román Orús, one of the world foremost authorities in the field, has just published […]

Topology as a parameter: an artificial electronic high-order topological insulator

Topology as a parameter: an artificial electronic high-order topological insulator

MaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

Quantum simulators—systems that can be engineered and manipulated at will—are useful platforms for verifying model Hamiltonians and understanding more complex or elusive quantum systems. The ability to trap and control particles with the help of well-controlled electromagnetic fields has led to revolutionary advances in the fields of biology, condensed- matter physics, high-precision spectroscopy, and quantum […]

Controlling visually guided behavior with holographic optogenetics

Controlling visually guided behavior with holographic optogenetics

NeurobiologyNeuroscience

By DIPC

Cortical neurons often fire together as a group, rather than independently, and these coactive groups, also known as neuronal ensembles (or chains, assemblies, attractors, clicks, motifs, songs, bumps, etc.), could constitute emergent functional units of the brain, as modular building blocks of memories, thoughts, motor programs, computations, or perceptual or mental states. In order to […]

Using an optical antenna to launch phonon polaritons in a low-dimensional van der Waals crystal

Using an optical antenna to launch phonon polaritons in a low-dimensional van der Waals crystal

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyQuantum physics

By DIPC

The so-called van der Waals materials consist of two-dimensional layers bound by weak van der Waals forces. After the isolation of graphene, the field of two-dimensional van der Waals materials has experienced an explosive growth and new families of two-dimensional systems and block-layered bulk materials have been created. This growth has been fueled mainly by […]

The extreme nanophotonics of the plasmonic nanopatch

The extreme nanophotonics of the plasmonic nanopatch

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyQuantum physics

By DIPC

For centuries, metals were employed in optical applications only as mirrors and gratings. New vistas opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic oscillations at the surface of metals) resonances for sensing. In a simplified picture and in […]

First direct visualization by photoemision of how the Luttinger theorem works for Kondo lattices

First direct visualization by photoemision of how the Luttinger theorem works for Kondo lattices

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

Elements with 4f or 5f electrons in unfilled electron bands and their componuds , which have ions carrying magnetic moments but do not magnetically order, or only do so at very low temperatures, are generally known as heavy-fermion or heavy electron systems because the scattering of the conduction electrons with the magnetic ions results in […]