Title: Topological Transport and Nonlinear Dynamics in Light–Matter and Mechanical Systems
When: Friday, April 24, 2026, 12:00
Place: Department of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Module 5, Seminar Room (5th Floor)
Speaker: Javier del Pino – Ramón y Cajal Fellow
Artificial resonator networks based on photonic, phononic, and optomechanical platforms provide a powerful playground to revisit condensed-matter ideas in highly controllable settings. In the linear regime, they can emulate single-particle physics familiar from electronic systems, including artificial gauge fields, nontrivial band topology, and chiral transport akin to the integer quantum Hall effect. Beyond this so-called Hermitian topological phenomena, the bosonic nature of these networks, together with time-dependent modulation, gain and loss, opens the door to non-Hermitian physics and phenomena with no direct counterpart in electrons.
In this talk, I will focus on two experimental settings. In optomechanical resonators, I will show how modulated light fields can engineer one-way transport and topological effects for mechanical vibrations in the linear regime. I will then turn to micromechanical devices with time-dependent capacitive driving, where nonlinear dynamics lead to multiple steady states and self-oscillation, and where topology can be encoded in the global flow of trajectories in phase space. I will also discuss recent extensions of these ideas to limit cycles and quantum dynamics, and conclude with prospects for nonlinear multimode bosonic lattices such as superconducting circuits and polaritonic platforms.
