Departament de Física

Pietro Massignan

Associate professor
Campus Nord (UPC), Edifici B4-B5, Despatx B4-211
Jordi Girona, 1-3
08034 Barcelona

Telèfon: +34 934011837
E-Mail: pietro.massignanupc.edu
Web del grup de recerca: https://bqmc.upc.edu/
Web personal: http://www.fen.upc.edu/users/pietro/

I am a theoretical condensed matter physicist dealing with problems at the intersection of atomic physics, quantum optics, photonics, solid state physics and bio-physics.

My main field of interest is the theory of ultracold quantum gases, where I work at understanding and engineering novel states of matter. My current research aims at studying static and out-of-equilibrium properties of magnetic, superfluid, topological, and strongly-interacting phases. To address this challenging physics, I attack problems from both the few-body and the many-body sides, using mostly diagrammatic techniques and variational Ansätze.

Most recently, I focused specifically on models with non-trivial topological features implemented in ultracold atoms, as well as in photonic, polaritonic and other condensed matter setups. I am also actively investigating quasiparticle physics, superfluid vortex dynamics, together with intriguing effects generated by periodic-driving, strong losses and disorder. 


1- Superfluid fraction of interacting bosonic gases
Pérez, D.; Astrakharchik, G.; Massignan, P.
Physical review, A 111, L011302 (2025)

2- Exact results for heavy unitary Bose polarons
Yegovtsev, N.; Astrakharchik, G.; Massignan, P.; Gurarie, V.
Physical review, A 110, 2, article 023310 (2024)

3- Conformal maps and superfluid vortex dynamics on curved and bounded surfaces: the case of an elliptical boundary
Caldara, M.; Richaud, A.; Massignan, P.; Fetter, A.
SciPost physic 17, 2, article 039 (2024)

4- Suppression of the superfluid Kelvin-Helmholtz instability due to massive vortex cores, friction and confinement
Caldara, M.; Richaud, A.; Capone, M.; Massignan, P.
SciPost physic 17, article 076 (2024)

5- Ultra-long quantum walks via spin–orbit photonics
Di Colandrea, F.; Babazadeh, A.; Dauphin, A.; Massignan, P.; Marrucci, L.; Cardano, F.
Optica 10, 324-331 (2023)

6- Massive superfluid vortices and vortex necklaces on a planar annulus
Caldara, M.; Richaud, A.; Capone, M.; Massignan, P.
Scipost physics 15, 2, article 057 (2023)

7- Mediated interactions between Fermi polarons and the role of impurity quantum statistics
Baroni, C.; Huang, B.; Fritsche, I.; Dobler, E.; Anich, G.; Kirilov, E.; Grimm, R.; Bastarrachea, M.; Massignan, P.; Bruun, G. M.
Nature physics 20, 68-73 (2023)

8- Strongly interacting impurities in a dilute Bose condensate
Yegovtsev, N.; Massignan, P.; Gurarie, V.
Physical Review A 106, 033305 (2022)

9- Dynamics of a massive superfluid vortex in rk confining potentials
Richaud, A.; Massignan, P.; Penna, V.; Fetter, A.
Physical Review A 106, 063307 (2022)

10- Superfluid vortex dynamics on an ellipsoid and other surfaces of revolution
Caracanhas, M.; Massignan, P.; Fetter, A.
Physical Review A 105, 023307 (2022)

11- Mobile impurity in a Bose-Einstein condensate and the orthogonality catastrophe
N.-E. Guenther, R. Schmidt, G. M. Bruun, V. Gurarie, and P. Massignan
Physical Review A 103, 013317 (2021)

12- Measuring topological invariants in polaritonic graphene
P. St-Jean, A. Dauphin, P. Massignan, B. Real, O. Jamadi, M. Mili?evi?, A. Lemaître, A. Harouri, L. Le Gratiet, I. Sagnes, S. Ravets, J. Bloch, and A. Amo
Physical Review Letters 126, 127403 (2021)

13- Universal aspects of a strongly interacting impurity in a dilute Bose condensate
P. Massignan, N. Yegovtsev, and V. Gurarie
Physical Review Letters 126, 123403 (2021)

14- Thermal instability, evaporation, and thermodynamics of one-dimensional liquids in weakly interacting Bose-Bose mixtures
De Rosi, G.; Astrakharchik, G. and Massignan, P.
Physical Review A 103, 043316 (2021)

15- Renormalization-group study of Bose polarons
Isaule, F.; Morera, I.; Massignan, P. and Julia, B.
Physical Review A 104, 023317 (2021)

16- Bloch-Landau-Zener dynamics induced by a synthetic field in a photonic quantum walk
A. D'Errico, R. Barboza, R. Tudor, A. Dauphin, P. Massignan, L. Marrucci, and F. Cardano
APL Photonics 6, 020802 (2021)

17- Topological transport of mobile impurities
D. Pimenov, A. Camacho-Guardian, N. Goldman, P. Massignan, G. M. Bruun, M. Goldstein
Physical Review B 103, 245106 (2021)

18- Stability and breakdown of Fermi polarons in a strongly interacting Fermi-Bose mixture
I. Fritsche, C. Baroni, E. Dobler, E. Kirilov, B. Huang, R. Grimm, G. M. Bruun, and P. Massignan
Physical Review A 103, 053314 (2021)

19- Bulk detection of time-dependent topological transitions in quenched chiral models
D'Errico, A. and Barboza, R. and Dauphin, A. and Lewenstein, M. and Massignan, P. and Marrucci, L. and Cardano, F. and Di Colandrea, F.
Physical Review Research 2, 023119:1-023119:6 (2020)

20- Superfluid vortex dynamics on a torus and other toroidal surfaces of revolution
Guenther, N. and Massignan, P. and Fetter, A.
Physical Review A 101, 053606 (2020)

21- Two-dimensional topological quantum walks in the momentum space of structured light
Massignan, P.; DErrico, A.; Cardano, F.; Maffei, M.; Dauphin, A.; Esposito, C.; Piccirillo, B.; Marrucci, L.; Lewenstein, M. and Barboza, R.
Optica 7, 108-114 (2020)

22- Detecting topology through dynamics in interacting fermionic wires
Haller, A.; Massignan, P. and Rizzi, M.
Physical Review Research 2, 033200 (2020)

23- Dropping an impurity into a Chern insulator: A polaron view on topological matter
Camacho-Guardián, A. ; Goldman, N. ; Massignan, P. ; Bruun, G. M.
Physical Review B 99, 119903 (2019)

24- From quantum quasiparticles to a classical gas
Massignan, P.
Physics 12, 25 (2019)

25- Superfluid vortex dynamics on planar sectors and cones
Massignan, P. ; Fetter, A.
Physical Review A 99, 063602 (2019)

26- Beyond-Luttinger-liquid thermodynamics of a one-dimensional Bose gas with repulsive contact interactions
De Rosi, G. ; Massignan, P. ; Lewenstein, M. ; Astrakharchik, G.
Physical Review Research 1, 033083 (2019)

27- Topological characterization of chiral models through their long time dynamics
Maffei, M. ; Dauphin, A. ; Cardano, F. ; Lewenstein, M. ; Massignan, P.
New Journal of Physics 20, 013023 (2018)

28- Bose polarons at finite temperature and strong coupling
Guenther, N. ; Massignan, P. ; Lewenstein, M. ; Bruun, G. M.
Physical Review Letters 120, 068303 (2018)

29- Observation of the topological Anderson insulator in disordered atomic wires
Meier, E. ; An, F. ; Dauphin, A. ; Maffei, M. ; Massignan, P. ; Hughes, T. ; Gadway, B.
Science 362, 929-933 (2018)

30- Quantized superfluid vortex dynamics on cylindrical surfaces and planar annuli
Guenther, N. ; Massignan, P. ; Fetter, A.
Physical Review A 96, 063608 (2017)

31- Detection of Zak phases and topological invariants in a chiral quantum walk of twisted photons
F. Cardano, A. D'Errico, A. Dauphin, M. Maffei, B. Piccirillo, C. de Lisio, G. De Filippis, V. Cataudella, E. Santamato, L. Marrucci, M. Lewenstein, and P. Massignan
Nature Communications 8, 15516 (2017)

32- Universality of the unitary Fermi gas: A few-body perspective
Levinsen, J. ; Massignan, P. ; Endo, S. ; Parish, M.
Journal of Physics B. Atomic molecular and optical physics 50, 072001 (2017)

33- Vortex dynamics in coherently coupled Bose-Einstein condensates
Calderaro, L. ; Fetter, A. ; Massignan, P. ; Wittek, P.
Physical Review A 95, 023605 (2017)

34- Repulsive Fermi polarons in a resonant mixture of ultracold 6Li atoms
Scazza, F. ; Valtolina, G. ; Massignan, P. ; Recati, A. ; Amico, A. ; Burchianti, A. ; Fort, C. ; Inguscio, M. ; Zaccanti, M. ; Roati, G.
Physical Review Letters 118, 083602 (2017)

35- Measuring Chern numbers in Hofstadter strips
Mugel, S. ; dauphin, A. ; Massignan, P. ; Tarruell, L. ; Lewenstein, M. ; Lobo, C. ; Celi, A.
SciPost Physics 3, 012 (2017)