FEN
OMEN
NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
Recent publications
Biomedicine
Fighting malaria in
silico
To find a cure for malaria, scientists
must first learn to cultivate effectively the
parasite that causes it, Plasmodium falcipa-
rum. However, this has proven to be a
difficult task. Researchers from our de-
partment have developed a simulation
tool, named INDividual DIscrete SIMula-
tion protocol (INDISIM), that qualitative
reproduces the behavior of
erythrocites infected with
the parasite, and will thus
help in the design of new
drugs. The work has been
performed by the group of
Antoni Giró in collaboration with re-
searchers from GlaxoSmithKlein, and was
published in the Journal of Theoretical Biol-
ogy on June 2, 2007.
Materials Science
The fragility
of metallic alloys
Bulk-metallic-glass alloys have many
interesting structural applications. How-
ever, their production via melt casting is
strongly limited by their glass-forming
ability. One of the principal factors affect-
ing this ability is the nature of the corre-
sponding supercooled liquid. In collabora-
tion with colleagues from the University
of Cambridge, Eloi Pineda has found that
the liquid fragility of the Ca-Mg-Cu alloy
is correlated with its elastic properties,
similarly to what happens in general
glasses. This observation could lead to a
powerful criterion to choose candidate
compositions for new bulk metallic
glasses. It was published in the Journal of
Alloys and Compounds on May 31, 2007.
Meteorology
The tailwind
of butterflies
The group of Marta Alarcón, in col-
laboration with researchers from CREAF,
has studied the migration patterns of the
painted lady butterfly,
Vanessa Cardui, on its trip
to north-eastern Spain,
finding that this migra-
tion is aided by African
wind currents. The
work was published in the Journal of Animal
Ecology in September 2007.
Materials Science
Understanding the
glass transition
Several features in the transition of
materials to the glassy state are still a mis-
tery. One of them is the Johari-Goldstein β
relaxation, a secondary spectral peak in the
material’s susceptibility. Luis Carlos Pardo,
together with colleagues from the Univer-
sity of Augsburg, has thoroughly character-
ized this feature in benzophenone by
means of broadband dielectric spectros-
copy. The results were published in the
Physical Review E on September 28, 2007.
Nonlinear Dynamics
Silencing oscillators
Coupled nonlinear oscillators usually
synchronize their rhythms, as Christian
Huygens discovered in 1665. However,
under certain conditions the oscillations are
killed by coupling. Ekkehard Ullner and
Jordi Garcia Ojalvo, in collaboration with
scientists from Moscow and Essex, have
found a route towards oscillation silencing
that relies of phase-repulsive coupling. The
work appeared in Physical Review Letters on
October 2, 2007.
DEPARTAMENT DE
F
ÍSICA I
E
NGINYERIA
N
UCLEAR
NÚM. 3, TARDOR 2007
UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE CATALUNYA
www.fen.upc.edu
NEWS
2007 FEN POSTDOCTORAL
FELLOWSHIPS
The Research Commission of the
Department has granted financial
support for two postdoctoral fel-
lows. The recipients this year are
Drs. Ioannis Skarmoutsos and M.
Dolores Ruiz. Dr. Skarmoutsos will
work at the group of Computer
Simulation in Condensed Matter
on the determination of structural
and dynamic properties of molecu-
lar systems in condensed phases.
Dr. Ruiz will study the dynamics of
orientationally disordered phases
by means of neutron spectroscopy,
at the group of Characterization of
Materials.
OPEN POSITIONS
• PhD fellowships on the security
of nuclear fusion and fission
(javier.dies@upc.edu)
• Postdoctoral contract to work
on the systems biology of multi-
ple sclerosis
(jordi.g.ojalvo@upc.edu)
UPCOMING EVENTS
• The annual Research Retreat of
the department will take place
on February 8, 2008 in the Insti-
tut d’Estudis Catalans, Carrer del
Carme, 47. For more informa-
tion,
http://www.fen.upc.edu
• "Third Rio de la Plata Workshop
on Noise, Chaos and Complexi-
ty in Lasers and Nonlinear Op-
tics", Maldonado, Uruguay, De-
cember 3-7, 2007. Organized by
Cristina Masoller.
http://www.fisica.edu.uy/~cris/wo
rkshop.html
Highly cited papers
Jordi José and Margarita Hernanz
“Nucleosynthesis in classical no-
vae: CO vs. ONe white dwarfs”,
The Astrophysical Journal
494,
680-690 (1998), 118 citations
“This paper presents 14 hydrodynamic
simulations of classical nova explosions
and their nucleosynthesis. The study
emphasizes the expected contribution of
novae to the Galactic chemical abun-
dance pattern as well as a thorough
analysis of the synthesis of radioactive
species of interest for gamma-ray as-
tronomy (such as
7
Li,
22
Na, or
26
Al). The
multidisciplinarity of this work has
raised significant interest in different
areas, including cosmochemistry (origin
of presolar meteoritic grains), galactic
chemical evolution, experimental nu-
clear physics, observational astronomy
(nova light curves and optical spectra),
or high-energy astrophysics, among
others. This study is quoted in the re-
view paper "Astrophysics in 1998", by V.
Trimble (Univ. California at Irvine).”
Jordi José, associate professor at FEN
Meteorology Award
This year’s International Award of Meteorol-
ogy Eduard Fontseré has been bestowed on
Carina Serra and Xavier Lana, together with
colleagues from the Applied Physics Depart-
ment of the UPC and the University of Bar-
celona, by the Catalan Association of Mete-
orology (ACAM). The Award has recognised
the work entitled "Statistical Distributions of
the Daily Rainfall Regime in Catalonia
(Northeastern Spain) for the years 1950-
2000", published in 2005 on the International
Journal of Climatology of the
Royal Meteoro-
logical Society of Great Britain (vol. 25, pages
1381-1403).
FEN at ITER
The Nuclear Engineering Research Group,
led by Javier Dies, is responsible of two pro-
jects associated with the safety of the ITER
reactor that is being built in Cadarache,
France. The projects are:
• Loss of plasma control event evaluations
related to the Generic Site Safety Report.
• ITER safety studies: passive plasma termi-
nation for Berylium evaporation in LOCA
transients.
Side Note
Characterizing art
with synchroton ra-
diation
The group of Trinitat Pradell has ap-
plied synchrotron radiation for the
characterization of romanesque wall
paintings. The small size of the radia-
tion beam provides detailed composi-
tional profiles from the different chro-
matic and preparation layers of the
paintings. The results obtained indi-
cate a clear connection between the
paintings found in the Occitanian
church of of Saint Eulàlia d’Unha in
the Vall d’Aran (central Pyrenees) and
the Catalan Romanesque paintings
from the south bound of the Pyrenees.
The article was published online in
Applied Physics A on August 28, 2007.
DEPARTAMENT DE
F
ÍSICA I
E
NGINYERIA
N
UCLEAR
NÚM. 3, TARDOR 2007
UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE CATALUNYA
www.fen.upc.edu
NEW DOCTORAL
STUDENTS
• Anna Calvo: “Security of nuclear fu-
sion Broader approach”
• David Camacho: “Ultrafast optics and
coherent quantum control”
• Jordi Casanova: "Multidimensional
studies of stellar explosions"
• Lorena Espinar: “Optical control of
gene regulation”
• Rafael Levit: “High-pressure properties
of orientationally disordered phases”
• Julio C. Martinez: “Homogeneity and
heterogenety in the supercooled and
glass state”
• Manel Martinez Cid: “Assessment of
economic and technical risks in nu-
clear plants”
• Oleg Osychenko: “Path integral Monte
Carlo methods for fermions”
• Jose Carlos Rivas: “Security of the
nuclear fusion reactor ITER”
• Vito Roppo: “Linear and nonlinear
effects in photonic crystals”
• Riccardo Rota: “Ground-state path
integral Monte Carlo with higher-
order actions”
• Muriel Rovira: “Short-range order in
orientationally disordered phases”
• Jonàs Sala: “Confinement effects in the
structure and dynamical properties of
water via molecular dynamics studies”
NEW MEC RESEARCH
PROJECTS
In its latest call, the Ministerio de Educa-
ción y Ciencia granted the following
research projects:
• “Multidimensional Modeling of Stellar
Explosions: Novae, X-Ray Bursts, and
Thermonuclear Supernovae” (resp:
Jordi José), ref. AYA2007-66256
• “Procesos dinámicos en sistemas fisi-
cos auto-ensamblados” (resp: Romu-
aldo Pastor-Satorras), ref. FIS2007-
66485-C02-01
• “Individual-based Modelling (IbM) de
sistemas microbiológicos para el de-
sarrollo sostenible: medio ambiente,
seguridad alimentaria y salud” (resp:
Antoni Giró), ref. CGL2007-65142/
BOS
• “Estudio de convertidores de energía
de baja tensión para reducción de
costes y mejora de fiabilidad de siste-
mas de generación eólica” (inv. FEN:
Carme Hervada), ref. ENE2007-67033-
C03-00
Edited by
Dept. de Física i Eng. Nuclear
2a planta Edifici B5
Campus Nord UPC
C. Jordi Girona Salgado, 1-3
08034 Barcelona
Tel: 93 401 6973
Fax: 93 401 7100