People
Sergio Rica
Sergio Rica
PhD 1993, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France.
Department of Physics
University of Chile
Blanco Encalada 2008
Santiago, Chile
ph. +56 2 978 4339
fax +56 2 696 7359
Email:
Research interests
My research concerns the study of the behaviors of matter out of equilibrium, like foam, sand, elastic surfaces or rods, suspensions, etc. Because of the complexity involved in those phenomena it is useful to treat them from the experimental, theoretical and numerical simulation points of view simultaneously.
I have contributed to a large variety of problems in nonlinear physics: from the interaction of defects, pattern formation, models of superfluidity to the kinetics and thermodynamics of BoseāEinstein condensation, granular material, suspensions, foams, elasticity, nonlinear waves. My most significant contributions are on Superflow models (namely the non-linear Schrödinger equation): vortex nucleation, rotons and supersolids. We showed a very striking phenomenon: the flow around an obstacle creates a drag force beyond a well-defined threshold velocity, linked to the emission of vortices from the perimeter of the obstacle. This phenomenon of vortex nucleation has been studied in detail over the years by myself and collaborators, and was observed experimentally in 1999 by W. Ketterle and collaborators at MIT.
More recently, I have worked on the kinetics and thermodynamics of a BEC and nonlinear PDE's. Finally, in Santiago I started an experimental laboratory dedicated to the study of behaviors of nonequilibrium matter. The main subjects that I study currently are: avalanches in granular materials, pattern of fluidized beds, from centimeter to few micrometers patterns in evaporating suspensions, kinetics of nonlinear waves, Kolmogorov spectra and turbulence of elastic waves.
Keywords:
nonequilibrium matter granular materials superfluids |
nonlinear physics pattern formation Bose-Einstein condensation |
