
News
outreach activity
IFAE joins CCCB for “Radical Science”: A Cultural Project Exploring 21st-Century Scientific Frontiers
January 15, 2025
The High Energy Physics Institute (IFAE) is one of four research centres that collaborate with the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCB) in a series of events called “Radical Science”, a cultural initiative that showcases how cutting-edge scientific research is transforming our world.
Publication
Direct Observation of Spontaneous Photon Down-Conversion in a Superconducting Quantum Circuit
January 15, 2025
Researchers from the Quantum Computing and Technologies (QCT) group at the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) have published a new result in Physical Review Letters reporting the direct observation of spontaneous photon down-conversion in a superconducting quantum circuit. The work demonstrates that a single microwave photon can decay into three lower-energy photons at a Josephson junction, revealing a new regime of light–matter interaction relevant for quantum optics and superconducting qubit technologies.
New Publication
IFAE COVID-19 Group Publishes Final Study on Catalonia’s Pandemic Response in Scientific Reports
January 7, 2025
The IFAE COVID-19 group has published the final results of an I+D+I project funded under the AGAUR PANDÈMIES-2020 programme, which developed a powerful stochastic simulation framework to assess the impact of COVID-19 in Catalonia. Using detailed demographic and mobility information together with extensive health datasets, the study published in Nature Scientific Reports quantifies the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination, providing an evidence-based framework to evaluate pandemic response strategies.
