ERC Consolidator Grant for Frederico Fiúza
Frederico Fiúza, former IPFN PhD student who is currently at Stanford University, USA, has been awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council for his Project XPACE: Extreme Particle Acceleration in Shocks: from the laboratory to astrophysics. In the scope of this project, Frederico will move back to Portugal and carry out his research at IST. The grant will provide 1.8 million euros funding for a period of five years.
Astrophysical shocks, generated by violent interactions of supersonic plasmas, are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the Universe. Over the past decade, discoveries linked to plasmas outside of our own solar system have excited scientists and the public alike. We have been able to observe extraordinary phenomena such as cosmic-ray acceleration in the remnants of supernovae, gravitational waves and their electromagnetic counterparts from neutron star mergers, and jets coming from supermassive black holes. However, the underlying physics of particle acceleration in astrophysical shocks is not yet well understood, nor fully explored in the laboratory.
But this is about to change. Advances in computational power and fully-kinetic plasma simulations are making it possible to conduct new research. New machine learning tools are enabling the development of models that can capture the interplay between the plasma microphysics and the global dynamics of these distant systems. Such advances are complemented by developments in high-power lasers, intense particle beams, and plasma diagnostics. Using his ERC Consolidator Grant, Frederico Fiuza will take advantage of the opportunities these new developments provide to probe plasma physics processes and particle acceleration mechanisms in well-controlled laboratory experiments.
His team ultimately aims to solve central questions of extreme plasma phenomena and open new avenues between theory, computation, laboratory experiments, and astrophysical observations. This research has the potential to completely transform the understanding of particle acceleration in shocks, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of some of the most extraordinary phenomena in the Universe.
After obtaining his PhD in plasma physics at Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, Frederico Fiúza moved to the USA first as a Lawrence Fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and later as a Senior Staff Scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University. He is now looking forward to returning to Portugal to conduct this new project.
Congratulations Frederico!
