May 2022 - news - Mailing lists@ IFISC

IFISC News - Conference on Complex Systems CCS 2022
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 31 May '22

31 May '22

Conference on Complex Systems CCS 2022 After suffering several delays due to the global health situation, IFISC will organize in Mallorca the Conference on Complex Systems, CCS 2022. The conference will take place next October, 17-21 at the Palma Auditorium. The CCS is the largest and most important annual meeting of the international complex systems community and it comes under the auspices of the Complex Systems Society. This edition, organized by IFISC (UIB-CSIC), takes place after previous events held in Lyon, Online, Singapore, Thessaloniki and Cancun. Keynote speakers (more TBA):Elsa Arcaute, University College London UCL, UKJean-Philippe Bouchaud, CFM & Académie des Sciences, FranceJesús Gómez Gardeñes, Universidad de Zaragoza, SpainPaula Hidalgo, UN Pulse, USA-UgandaMarton Karsai, Central European University, AustriaFilippo Menczer, Indiana University, USAAnxo Sanchez, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain.Wolf Singer, FIAS, FrankfurtAnna Traveset, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Spain The call for abstracts will be open until May 31 on the conference website: https://www.ccs2022.org/index.php/calls/call-for-abstracts For further information, please visit: https://ccs2022.org/ http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/conference-complex-systems-ccs-2022/

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IFISC News - Physics to understand the Ukrainian conflict
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 25 May '22

25 May '22

Physics to understand the Ukrainian conflict Two researchers from IFISC (UIB-CSIC) have analyzed the existence of "the two Ukranias" using statistical physics tools: the data-based evidence does not support this hypothesis.Massimiliano Zanin and Johann Martinez, researchers at IFISC (UIB-CSIC), have analyzed the Ukrainian conflict from the perspective of statistical physics. In the article, published in Chaos (AIP Publishing), the authors analyzed a dataset of violent events occurring inside Ukraine between January 2021 and before the armed conflict of February 24, 2022.The "two-Ukraine theory" asserts the existence of clearly defined pro-Western and pro-Russian regions within the country. This hypothesis, however, does not seem to be aligned with the united response of Ukrainians against the Russian invasion. To analyze this problem, they used tools from statistical physics and complex systems. Thanks to the growing number of open intelligence communities, such as the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), more relevant data are available to address studies focused on real conflicts that support or reject these theories.In the case of the "two Ukrainias", the researchers used two techniques of statistical physics to analyze whether the occurrence of violent events is a consequence of the existence of these two distinct regions within the country itself. They developed this idea on two axes: time and space. In the temporal dimension, they calculated the entropy of the sequence of violent events in the country, which makes it possible to see if the events are random (each event is independent of the others), or on the other hand if there is a regular structure in the events reported in the data.This makes it possible to determine whether a violent event is correlated with a previous one. On the other hand, in the spatial dimension they reconstructed functional complex networks, where each node represents a region of Ukraine, and pairs of them are connected when they detect that events in one region potentially depend on events occurring in the other. Both analyses, applied to the same data set, allow determining how independent an event is from the rest, both spatially and temporally.The results obtained do not provide evidence of the existence of the "two Ukranias", nor that the eastern part is being exploited by the western half. According to the authors, this result should be taken into account for a possible resolution of the conflict, as the data suggest that any proposal involving the division of the country would be artificial and would possibly not guarantee long-term stability and peace.The authors conclude that, with the data used and the techniques employed, the two-Ukraine theory is not supported. While there are internal conflicts within the country, they lack defined geographical boundaries: these conflicts form a complex web of interactions hardly reducible to differences between East and West. Although the article results in a first approximation of the concept, a deeper and more detailed analysis with a larger volume of data is necessary to confirm the result.M. Zanin and J. H. Martínez. Analyzing international events through the lens of statistical physics: The case of Ukraine, Chaos 32, 051103 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0091628Yahoo! EspañaRepúblicaLa Vanguardiahttps://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20220524/8290642/fisica-estadis… http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/physics-understand-ukrainian-conflict/

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IFISC News - IFISC publishes its annual report 2021
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 17 May '22

17 May '22

IFISC publishes its annual report 2021 IFISC (UIB-CSIC) publishes its annual report. This document summarizes in detail all the activity carried out by IFISC researchers inside and outside the centre during the year 2021. In addition to a complete list of published articles, the report highlights some of the most representative results of the year for the different lines of research of the IFISC. Other metrics that appear in the report are changes in staff, new research projects and funding, number of conferences and seminars held by IFISC staff, media appearances, outreach activities organized, etc. The 2021 Annual Report can be found, alongside past reports, on the Annual Reports website. http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/ifisc-publishes-its-annual-report-2021/

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IFISC News - IFISC Master's Degree in Physics of Complex Systems renews its program
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 16 May '22

16 May '22

IFISC Master's Degree in Physics of Complex Systems renews its program In the academic year 2022/23 the Master's Degree in Physics of Complex Systems that IFISC (UIB-CSIC) offers at the University of the Balearic Islands will offer a completely renewed curriculum. The Master's Degree in Physics of Complex Systems was created in 2012 with unique characteristics based on interdisciplinarity, modernity and rigor. More than one hundred students have since been trained in its classrooms, achieving high levels of excellence and satisfaction. Our postgraduate training is backed by the teaching and research experience of IFISC faculty members (half of them is UIB staff while the other half works for CSIC) and provides students with the necessary tools to tackle complex problems in a wide range of disciplines, built on a solid mathematical basis. Last year the IFISC Faculty Council decided to renew the Master’s contents and competences. The next academic year will strengthen, within the block of core subjects, Data Science, Machine Learning and Information Theory, since these fields are consolidating within Complex Systems research and are increasingly important for complex science practitioners. On the other hand, the number of elective courses are increased, allowing students to specialize in the branch of Complex Systems science of their interest. The new program syllabus includes optional courses in Econophysics, Climate Dynamics or Ecology, disciplines that have recently gained much relevance, as shown by the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics. The pre-registration period for the Master's degree began on May 2 and will run until July 8 through the postgraduate portal of the University of the Balearic Islands. IFISC also offers mobility grants, one of which is sponsored by the Sicomoro Foundation. More information about the Master's degree, as well as pre-enrollment deadlines, can be found on this web page. http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/ifisc-masters-degree-physics-complex-syste…

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IFISC News - IFISC will host the X GEFENOL Summer School on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems and the II Summer School on Complex Socio-Technical Systems
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 10 May '22

10 May '22

IFISC will host the X GEFENOL Summer School on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems and the II Summer School on Complex Socio-Technical Systems IFISC (Institute of Interdisciplinary Physics and Complex Systems, UIB-CSIC) will host two summer schools this year: the X GEFENOL Summer Schoolon Statistical Physics of Complex Systems and the II Summer School on Complex Socio-Technical Systems. First, promoted by the Specialized Group in Statistical and Nonlinear Physics (GEFENOL) of the Real Sociedad Española de Física (RSEF), IFISC will organize the X GEFENOL Summer School, focused on statistical physics applied to complex systems, from August 29 to September 2. This will be followed by the II Summer School on Complex Socio-TechnicalSystems, from September 5 to 9. Organized by IFISC (UIB-CSIC) together with the Asociación para el estudio de Sistemas Complejos Sociotecnológicos (COMSOTEC), the school will focus on four main blocks within socio-technical systems: Experimental economics, urban systems, epidemic modeling and computational social sciences. Both schools are aimed at doctoral and postdocs students from all over the world who will learn new tools for a week that will allow them to face new problems in the context of complex systems from the perspective of statistical physics and socio-technical systems. Interested students can apply to either school or to both at a discounted registration fee. The number of participants is limited. Applications received by May 31 will be given priority. The call for applications will remain open until July 18 subject to availability. http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/ifisc-will-host-x-gefenol-summer-school-st…

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IFISC News - Boosting the efficiency of quantum heat engines
by ifisc＠ifisc.uib-csic.es 06 May '22

06 May '22

Boosting the efficiency of quantum heat engines A team of researchers from IFISC (UIB-CSIC) has demonstrated that a quantum chiral conductor driven by an alternating current voltage can operate with efficiencies much higher than the hitherto insurmountable Carnot limit. In the paper, published in Nature Communications, the authors propose a general class of quantum devices driven periodically by alternating current (AC), which can convert heat into electricity with an increased performance. One of the implications of the second law of thermodynamics is that the power generated by an ideal thermal machine cannot exceed the Carnot efficiency limit in the classical regime. However, this upper limit can in principle be exceeded if we assume that quantum coherence is also a resource for entropy production. Therefore, understanding how the entropy resource can be controlled in different scenarios is key to achieving higher efficiency in quantum engines and refrigerators. To do so, the team considered a pumped quantum engine consisting of an arbitrary energy-dependent transmission tunneling scatterer coupled to hot and cold electronic reservoirs in the presence of an external AC bias voltage. A crucial point to understand is that most AC voltage sources inject net energy into the motor, thus reducing the power developed. The main finding of the study is to show how to cancel this detrimental effect using chiral conductors. These conductors are characterized by a spatial separation of the electronic motion, such as those created with topological matter. Then, the proposed device selectively applies an AC field to the electrons depending on their direction. This boosts the quantum engine efficiency beyond the Carnot bound. The paper discusses two necessary ingredients to observe this effect: on the one hand, an irreversible production of entropy by the photo-assisted excitation processes induced by the AC field and, on the other hand, the absence of net energy injection thanks to chirality. The device also extracts work from baths held at the same temperature, thus seemingly violating the Kelvin-Planck law. However, this does not mean that the second law of thermodynamics is not satisfied, since with a proper definition entropy production is always positive. These results are relevant within modern developments of quantum thermodynamics that aim at understanding the role of nonequilibrium effects in quantum machines.Ryu, S., López, R., Serra, L. et al. Beating Carnot efficiency with periodically driven chiral conductors. Nat Commun 13, 2512 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30039-7Behind the Paper http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/en/news/boosting-efficiency-quantum-heat-engines/

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