Integrated Calendar

The eternal inflation scenario predicts that our observable universe resides inside a single bubble embedded in a vast inflating multiverse. Collisions between bubble universes imprinted in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky provide a powerful observational test of this idea. I will describe a robust algorithm for non-Gaussian source detection in massive datasets, and present its application to the search for bubble collision signatures in CMB data from WMAP.

Optical nanoantennas are canonical building blocks that host and participate in a variety of complex physical phenomena in the nanoscale such as in non-linear effects, quantum tunneling, plasmon dynamics, or photoemission, to cite a few. We will present a number of examples where the properties of a conductive nano-contact between the two metallic arms (nanoparticles) of a gap-antenna allows for (i) effective control of the near-field oscillations in a loaded nanoantenna, (ii) establishing a relationship between optical and transport properties through metallic cavities, or (iii) producing ultrafast switching based on an all-optical photoconductive manipulation of the gap in a hybrid metal-semiconductor system. These are just examples of the versatility of plasmonic systems to set the basis of complex optical processes. To conclude I will also address some aspects of the interaction between plasmons and electrons that opens a variety of possibilities for nanoscale optoelectronics.