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Faculty of Physics

Welcome to the website of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw

The Faculty of Physics is a large research and teaching center. It consists of The Institutes of Theoretical Physics, Experimental Physics, Geophysics, The Astronomical Observatory and The Department of Mathematical Methods in Physics.

The Faculty is regarded as one of the best in the country, recognized internationally for the high quality of research and education.

News

A new class of cosmic X-ray sources discovered

An international team of astronomers, led by researchers from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw, have identified a new class of cosmic X-ray sources. The findings have been published in „Astrophysical Journal Letters”. | More

Korean delegation visited our Faculty

On 14 November 2024, a Korean KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School (KINGS) delegation visited the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw. The talks focused on further teaching and research cooperation within the Nuclear Collaboration Center (NCC), which operates at our Faculty. Earlier, guests from South Korea and representatives of the University of Warsaw jointly participated in the 2nd V4-ROK University Presidents Forum on Empowering the Next Generation Nuclear Energy, held at the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic. | More

A representative of the US NRC visited our Faculty

David A. Wright commissioner of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and his colleagues visited the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw. Visitors from the USA met with representatives of the University's authorities, dean authorities and faculty researchers, and David A. Wright gave a lecture as part of the ‘Ask a Physicist’ series. | More

From branches to loops. The physics of transport networks in nature.

An international team of researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, and the Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans described how loops, crucial for the stability of such networks, occur in transport networks found in nature. The researchers observed that when one branch of the network reaches the system's boundary, the interactions between the branches change drastically. Previously repelling branches, begin to attract each other, leading to the sudden formation of loops. The findings were published in the prestigious journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”. The process described appears in a surprisingly large number of systems - from electrical discharge networks to instabilities in fluid mechanics, to biological transport networks like the canal system in the jellyfish Aurelia aurita. | More

Super-precise spectrometer enabled by latent information carried by photons

Two researchers at the University of Warsaw developed a quantum-inspired super-resolving spectrometer for short pulses of light. The device designed in the Quantum Optical Devices Lab at the Centre for Quantum Optical Technologies, Centre of New Technologies and Faculty of Physics UW offers over a two-fold improvement in resolution compared to standard approaches. In the future, it can be miniaturized on a photonic chip and applied in optical and quantum networks as well as in spectroscopic studies of matter. The research has been published in the “Optica” journal. | More

Innovative perovskite waveguides with edge lasing effect

Integrated photonic circuits operating at room temperature combined with optical nonlinear effects could revolutionize both classical and quantum signal processing. Scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, in collaboration* with other institutions from Poland as well as Italy, Iceland, and Australia, have demonstrated the creation of perovskite crystals with predefined shapes that can serve in nonlinear photonics as waveguides, couplers, splitters, and modulators. The research results, published in the prestigious journal Nature Materials, describe the fabrication of these innovative structures and the edge lasing effect. In particular, this effect is associated with the formation of the condensate of exciton-polaritons, which are quasiparticles behaving partly like light and partly like matter. | More

Tachyons “enfant terrible” of modern physics

Tachyons are hypothetical particles that travel at speeds greater than the speed of light. These superluminal particles, are the “enfant terrible” of modern physics. Until recently, they were generally regarded as entities that did not fit into the special theory of relativity. However, a paper just published in “Physical Review D” by physicists from the University of Warsaw and the University of Oxford has shown that many of these prejudices were unfounded. Tachyons are not only not ruled out by the theory, but allow us to understand its causal structure better. | More

Fluctuations shape looping networks?

Understanding how transport networks, such as river systems, form and evolve is crucial to optimizing their stability and resilience. It turns out that networks are not all alike. Tree-like structures are adequate for transport, while networks containing loops are more damage-resistant. What conditions favour the formation of loops? Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw and the University of Arkansas sought to answer this question. The findings, published in “Physical Review Letters,” show that networks tend to form stable loop structures when flow fluctuations are appropriately tuned. This finding will allow us to understand the structure of dynamic transport networks better. | More

Is dark matter made of black holes?

Gravitational wave detectors, LIGO and Virgo, have detected a population of massive black holes whose origin is one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. According to one hypothesis, these objects may have formed in the very early Universe and may compose dark matter, a mysterious substance filling the Universe. A team of scientists from the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) survey from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw have announced the results of nearly 20-year-long observations indicating that such massive black holes may comprise at most a few percent of dark matter. Another explanation, therefore, is needed for gravitational wave sources. The results of the study were published in two articles, in Nature and the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. | More

Warsaw University and Heidelberg University Professors Honored with the 2024 Copernicus Award

Professors Andrzej Udalski from Warsaw University and Joachim Wambsganss from Heidelberg University have become the laureats of the prestigious 2024 Copernicus Award, granted by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), for their groundbreaking contributions to astrophysics through their collaborative research on gravitational microlensing and the discovery of exoplanets. | More

The discovery of a record-breaking Cepheid in the Milky Way

Astronomers from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw involved in the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) project have discovered a classical Cepheid with the longest pulsation period in our Galaxy. The new, record-braking star was identified by Professor Igor Soszyński, the world leader in the variable star field. The Cepheid was designated as OGLE-GD-CEP-1884 and pulsates with a period of 78.14 days, nearly 10 days longer than the pulsation period of the previous record-holding Cepheid, S Vulpeculae. | More

Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes

Scientists from CNR Nanotec in Lecce and the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw used a new generation of semiconductor photonic gratings to optically tailor complexes of quantum droplets of light that became bound together into macroscopic coherent states. The research underpins a new method to simulate and explore interactions between artificial atoms in a highly reconfigurable manner, using optics. The results have been published in the prestigious journal “Nature Physics”. | More

Quick links

Safety matters at the University

European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers

Welcome Point - practical information for incoming students

Equality university website

Prevention of sexual harassment. Guidebook (in Polish)

The University’s Integrated Development Programme (ZIP)

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Initiative of Excellence – Research University

Research Highlights

Quantifying the Hydration-Dependent Dynamics of Cu Migration and Activity in Zeolite Omega for the Partial Oxidation of Methane
J. Wieser, D. Wardecki, J. W. A. Fischer, M. A. Newton, C. Dejoie, A. J. Knorpp, T. C. Hansen, G. Jeschke, P. Rzepka, J. A. van Bokhoven
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202407395
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202407395
Nonclassical Correlations between Photons and Phonons of Center-of-Mass Motion of a Mechanical Oscillator
Ivan Galinskiy, Georg Enzian, Michał Parniak, and Eugene S. Polzik
Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 173605 (2024)
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.173605
Spaceborne high-spectral-resolution lidar ACDL/DQ-1 measurements of the particulate backscatter coefficient in the global ocean
Yang Y., Zhou Y., Stachlewska I.S., Hu Y., Lu X., Chen W., Liu J., Sun W., Yang S., Tao Y., Lin L., Lv W., Jiang L., Wu L., Liu C., Liu D.
Remote Sensing of Environment 2024, vol. 315, art. 114444
DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2024.114444
Persistent mixed-phase states in adiabatic cloud parcels under idealised conditions
Abade G.C., Albuquerque D.G.
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 2024, vol. 150 (763), pp. 3450-3474
DOI: 10.1002/qj.4775
Free-form optical fiber with a square mode and top-hat
Kasztelanic R., Nguyen H.T., Pysz D., Thienpont H., Omatsu T., Buczynski R.
Advanced Science 11(33), 2024, art. 2402886
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202402886
More ...

Job offers

2024-12-24 :: Assistant professor, research

2024-12-24 :: Assistant professor, research

2024-12-23 :: Research scholarship for PhD students as part of the NCN project OPUS

2024-12-06 :: Senior assistant lecturer

2024-12-06 :: Assistant professor, research

2024-12-06 :: Assistant professor, research

2024-11-21 :: Research scholarship for PhD student as part of the NCN MAESTRO project

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