Tailored light excitation and nonlinear control of lattice vibrations have emerged as powerful strategies to manipulate the properties of quantum materials out of equilibrium. Generalizing the use of coherent phonon-phonon interactions to nonlinear couplings among other types of collective modes would open unprecedented opportunities in the design of novel dynamic functionalities in solids. For example, the collective excitations of magnetic order –magnons– can carry quantum information with little energy dissipation, and their coherent and nonlinear control would provide an attractive route to achieve collective-mode-based information processing and storage in forthcoming spintronics and quantum information science.

In this talk, I will show that intense terahertz (THz) fields can initiate processes of magnon up-conversion and magnon mixing mediated by an intermediate magnetic resonance. By using a suite of advanced spectroscopic tools, including a newly demonstrated two-dimensional THz polarimetry technique, we unveil these anharmonic magnon coupling phenomena in a canted antiferromagnet. These results demonstrate a route to inducing desirable energy transfer pathways between coherent magnons in solids and pave the way for a new era in the development of ultrafast control of magnetism.

Understanding how complex ecological communities function, persist, and adapt is one of the grand challenges of contemporary science. Ecosystems involve interactions among countless organisms, each responding to a constantly changing environment. Yet, despite this apparent complexity, ecological systems often display strikingly regular, robust, and universal patterns.
This talk discusses how tools from statistical physics, complex systems theory, and effective modelling enable us to uncover the emergent properties of ecological communities and to bridge the gap between microscopic dynamics and macroscopic phenomena. The aim of the talk is to convey how a physics perspective can provide unifying principles for ecology, and how theoretical insights, when combined with data, can deepen our understanding on diversity and dynamics of ecological systems.

We will speculate on the novel concept of mereological quantum phase transition (m-QPTs). Our framework is based on generalized tensor product structures (g-TPS), a parameter-dependent Hamiltonian, and a quantum scrambling functional. By minimizing the scrambling functional, one selects a g-TPS, enabling a pullback of the natural information-geometric metric on the g-TPS manifold to the parameter space. The singularities of this induced metric in the thermodynamic limit characterize the m-QPTs. We will illustrate this framework through analytical examples involving quantum coherence and operator entanglement Ref: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06389 <https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06389>

The intersection between Nuclear and Particle Physics and Medical Diagnosis and Therapy represents one of the most significant areas of innovation in applied science. While often unseen by the patient, technology based on nuclear phenomena is a crucial component of modern medicine.
This seminar will explore the essential and dynamic role of nuclear physics within the hospital environment. We will address fundamental questions that connect basic research to clinical applications: In what ways do radiations emitted by unstable nuclei facilitate the diagnosis of complex pathologies? What is the function of antimatter in modern imaging methods (such as PET)? How can nuclear decays and the use of heavy ion beams (hadron therapy) be engineered for the targeted treatment of tumors, improving therapeutic efficacy while reducing damage to healthy tissues?
The colloquium aims to unveil this scientific connection, often overlooked, between the world of fundamental physics research and the clinical infrastructure, tracing a path from the accelerator laboratory to the delivery of advanced therapies in oncological treatment centres.

No experiment today provides evidence that gravity requires a quantum description. The growing ability to achieve quantum optical control over massive solid-state objects may change that situation -- by enabling experiments that directly probe the phenomenology of quantum states of gravitational source masses.
This can lead to experimental outcomes that are inconsistent with the predictions of a purely classical field theory of gravity. Such “quantum Cavendish” experiments require to explore extreme regimes of both quantum and gravity phenomena, specifically: delocalised motional quantum states of sufficiently massive objects, as well as gravity experiments on the microscopic scale. This seminar reviews the current status in the lab and the challenges to be overcome for future experiments.