Research Activities

My research work lies within the scope of statistical physics and is devoted in particular to the study of non-equilibrium systems.

A word on the problematic…

Although the statistical properties of systems at thermal equilibrium are generally well understood theoretically, it is far from being the case out-of-equilibrium. This is all the more deceptive than equilibrium is rather the exception than the rule in nature. The theoretical understanding of non-equilibrium systems and in particular of non-equilibrium critical phenomena appears as a one of the major challenges of statistical mechanics nowadays. Making progress requires the development of new theoretical tools. In this respect, the framework of field theory, and more specifically non-perturbative renormalization group methods (initially developed in the nineties for high-energy physics) stand as promising candidates to investigate the rich physics of non-equilibrium systems and they are part of my field of expertise.

My main research interests:

• Reaction-diffusion processes:
  through different models such as directed percolation or branching and annihilating random walks, diffusive epidemic process…

• Interface growth and roughening transition
  through the study of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation, and its extensions, in the presence of anisotropy, spatial or temporal correlations in the microscopic noise…

• Fully developed isotropic and homogeneous turbulence
  through the study of the stochastic Navier-Stokes equation for an incompressible flow, in two or three dimensions, calculation of the statistical properties of the turbulent fluid.

• KPZ physics in exciton-polariton condensates
  study of the emergence of KPZ universal behavior in the long-distance properties of the phase of the condensate wave-function, whose dynamics can be described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, generalized to account for the driven-dissipative conditions.

• Theoretical studies of the non-perturbative renormalisation group
  in particular for applications to non-equilibrium systems (causality, time reversal symmetries …)

Publications

link to ORCID

link to HAL

Mini Curriculum Vitae

• 2025 : Prize Anuita Winter-Klein of the French Academy of Sciences
• 2019- : Professor at the University Grenoble Alpes
• 2019-2024 : Member of the Institut Universitaire de France
• 2018 : Bronze medal of CNRS
• 2016 : Habilitation thesis of the University Grenoble Alpes
• 2006-2019 : Assistant professor at the University Joseph Fourier / Grenoble Alpes
• 2006 : Post-doc at SPEC – SPhT (CEA Saclay) with G. Biroli, J.-P. Bouchaud and H. Chaté
• 2004-2005 : Post-doc at the University of Manchester (UK) with Prof. M.A. Moore
• 2001-2004 : PhD at LPTHE (Paris) with B. Delamotte
• 2000-2001 : Master ’Fields, particles and matter’ at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay

PhD thesis

Titre : Processus de réaction-diffusion : une approche par le groupe de renormalisation non-perturbatif.
Direction : B. Delamotte
defended on September, the 17th 2004 at the Université Paris VII- Denis Diderot.
thesis avalaible here (access provided by ccsd).

Habilitation thesis

Title: From interface growth to turbulence
defended on June, the 1st 2016 at the Université Grenoble Alpes.
thesis available upon request.

Organised conferences and workshops

• workshop CorrQuS26 “Correlations in Quantum Systems”  corrqus26.sciencesconf.org/
• workshop NEQFluids2024 “Non-equilibrium Classical and Quantum Fluids”  neqfluids24.sciencesconf.org/
• Les Houches doctoral school KPZ 2024 “Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation: new trends and experiments” https://kpz-houches.sciencesconf.org/
• workshop “Turbulence et polaritons”  Turbulence et polaritons
• Conference NEQFluids2016 “Classical and Quantum Fluids out-of-equilibrium” neqfluids2016.sciencesconf.org/
• workshop “mathematical and theoretical physics approaches to the KPZ equation” workshop KPZ equation

 

Students

PhD students:

• Riccardo Ferrini (2025-2028) — co-supervisor, supervisor Anna Minguzzi
  Continuous matter wave sources for quantum sensing
• Gregorio Tibone (2025-2028) — co-supervisor, supervisor Giorgio Krstulovic
  Theoretical approach to wave turbulence using the functional renormalisation group.
• Liuba Gosteva (2024-2027) — supervisor
  Study of classical and quantum turbulence using the functional renormalisation group
• Félix Helluin (2022-2025) — co-supervisor, supervisor Anna Minguzzi, co-supervisor Michele Filipone
  Out-of-equilibrium exciton-polariton condensates: Statistical properties and universal regimes in one and two dimensions
  thesis manuscript
  Zenodo
• Martina Zündel (2022-2025) — supervisor, co-supervisor Anna Minguzzi
  Functional Renormalisation group approach of open quantum systems
• Francesco Vercesi (2021-2024) — supervisor, co-supervisors Maxime Richard and Anna Minguzzi
  Non-equilibrium criticality in one dimension: from the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation to exction-polariton systems.
  thesis manuscript
  Springer award for outstanding thesis
  GitHub
• Côme Fontaine (2020-2023) — supervisor
  A study of two simplified models of fluid turbulence with the functional renormalisation group: the Burgers equation and the Sabra shell model
  thesis manuscript
  GitLab
• Konstantinos Deligiannis (2019-2022) — supervisor, co-supervisor Anna Minguzzi
  Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality in the phase of a condensate of exciton polaritons : from the scaling of correlation functions to advanced statistics of the phase in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions
  thesis manuscript
  GitHub
• Anastasiia Gorbunova (2018-2021) — co-supervisor, supervisor Vincent Rossetto, co-supervisor Guillaume Balarac
  Correlation functions in turbulence: direct numerical simulations and comparaison with functional renormalisation group analysis
  thesis manuscript
• Davide Squizzato (2016-2019) — supervisor, co-supervisor Anna Minguzzi
  Exploring Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class: from the dynamics of exciton-polariton condensates to stochastic interface growth with temporally correlated noise
  thesis manuscript
• Malo Tarpin (2015-2018) — supervisor
  Non-perturbative renormalisation group approaches to non-equilibrium systems: diffusive epidemic process and fully developed turbulence
  thesis manuscript
  Springer award for outstanding thesis

post-docs:

• Carlo Pagani (2019-2021)
  Intermittence for passive scalars advected by a turbulent flow
• Steven Mathey (2015-2016)
  Influence of short-range spatial correlations in the microscopic noise of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation
• Thomas Kloss (2010-2013)
  Study of the strong-coupling phases of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation and some of its extensions.