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Pablo J. Bilbao

@pablojbilbao.com
47 followers 86 following 27 posts

PhD in plasma physics @oxfordphysics.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk Alumnus: @golp-ist.bsky.social @istecnico.bsky.social @lancasteruni.bsky.social pablojbilbao.com

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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 11/06/2026
The Fireball-IV experiment is taking place right now at @cern.bsky.social! More pair beam plasma instabilities to come? @oxfordphysics.bsky.social
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 11/06/2026
Very interesting results from @diogodcarvalho.bsky.social How can ML methods help us extract actual physics, such as collision operators? See below!
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
featuring J. Joaquim on radiative cooling in neutron star magnetospheres 🧲 ⭐️ , showing how general‑relativistic effects 💪 strengthen plasma instabilities and support coherent emission ⚡️ Discussion continued over coffee ☕️ #Astrophysics #NeutronStars #golp #ipfn
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 26/03/2026
Thank you so much,truly honoured and excited! Very grateful to all the amazing people I’ve had the chance to work with along the way. This recognition is really a reflection of that shared effort and the environment that shaped the work.
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 18/02/2026
I had the pleasure to speak at the Saturday Morning of Theoretical Physics on extreme plasma physics, exploring radiation and collective dynamics in ultra-intense regimes, and how simulations are helping us navigate them. youtu.be/Rs6VhI5uzec
youtu.be
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Also look up the companion paper by @diogodcarvalho.bsky.social et al. with the generalization for time varying operators and integro-differential collision operators, also on arXiv arxiv.org/abs/2601.13377
arxiv.org
Learning time-dependent and integro-differential collision operators from plasma phase space data using differentiable simulators
Collisional and stochastic wave-particle dynamics in plasmas far from equilibrium are complex, temporally evolving, stochastic processes which are challenging to model. In this work, we extend previou...
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 21/01/2026
New work by @diogodcarvalho.bsky.social, W. Mori, @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social & E.P. Alves! Can you learn collision operators directly from plasma simulation data? This method extracts them from differentiable-simulations! A step forward to data-driven plasma physics. arxiv.org/pdf/2601.10885
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Four new MSc graduates @golp-ist.bsky.social #eppteam: Francisco A (radiation reaction in non ideal fields, top left), João J (RR & GR, bottom right), Manuel R (theory/sim fireball instabilities, bottom left), Margarida P (ML with PIC data, top right). Congratulations to all! 🎉🎊
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Our most recent paper is out on PNAS (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... ) in the Oxford led collaboration where @golp-ist.bsky.social @istecnico.bsky.social plays a role on theory and simulations (with @pablojbilbao.com and Filipe C)
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 08/11/2025
New in PNAS: we recreated blazar pair cascades in the lab. Using CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron, we produced dense electron–positron beams and sent them through plasma to test whether beam instabilities can disrupt them, they can’t. @ox.ac.uk @cern.bsky.social @golp-ist.bsky.social
pnas.org
Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades | PNAS
The generation of dense electron–positron pair beams in the laboratory can enable direct tests of theoretical models of γ-ray bursts and active gal...
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
And thesis successfully defended with distinctions! Congratulations 🎉 @istecnico.bsky.social
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 12/09/2025
Officially Dr. Pablo! Immensely grateful to everyone at @golp-ist.bsky.social and to all the colleagues I’ve had the chance to work with over these past years. This journey wouldn’t have been the same without you. I’m sad to leave GoLP, but excited for what’s next, more coming soon, stay tuned!!
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Last week, a part of GoLP went to Vilnius (Lithuania 🇱🇹) for the 51st EPS Conference on Plasma Physics (🔗 epsplasma2025.com ), chaired by GoLP member Marija Vranic. 🔗 to know more: golp.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/.../golp-mem...
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diogodcarvalho.bsky.social @diogodcarvalho.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
1/n Back in Lisbon after 1 year at UCLA! Want to start by thanking Fulbright, FCT, IIE, and UCLA for making this research visit possible and for all the support during the program.
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
In Science Advances, @pablojbilbao.com , @thales-silva.bsky.social , and @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social show that radiatively cooled relativistic plasmas can spontaneously emit coherent, polarized radiation via the maser instability. 🔗 epp.ist.utl.pt?p=1530682 @istecnico.bsky.social
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
A recent cover article in PNAS by researchers from the University of @ox.ac.uk (Robert J E, Michael L N, Alexander A S) and GoLP/IPFN @istecnico.bsky.social (Pablo B, Thales S, Luís OS) revealed how collisionless plasmas reach equilibrium through turbulence. 🔗 tinyurl.com/y4xwx6cm
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Plasmas on the cover of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from a @oxfordphysics.bsky.social - @istecnico.bsky.social paper 🎉 with @thales-silva.bsky.social @pablojbilbao.com @golp-ist.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 21/04/2025
Our research is featured in Público, Portugal's national newspaper! The article discusses how our latest study provides insights into the origin of coherent radio bursts from neutron stars, such as pulsars and magnetars. www.publico.pt/2025/04/21/c...
publico.pt
Cientistas do Técnico dão explicação para as rajadas de rádio em estrelas de neutrões
Resultados do estudo ajudam a compreender a emissão de luz, incluindo as ondas de rádio, a partir de estrelas de neutrões com campos magnéticos extremos.
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 21/04/2025
💥 New paper out in Science Advances! We show that radiatively cooled relativistic plasmas can spontaneously emit coherent, polarized radiation via a maser instability. Work with @thales-silva.bsky.social and @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social . 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Radiative cooling induced coherent maser emission in relativistic plasmas
Strongly magnetized relativistic plasmas spontaneously amplify coherent radiation, offering insights into astronomical signatures.
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Can plasma physics help constrain models for dark electromagnetism? Yes, it can. Letter in PhysRev D (Editor’s Suggestion) and a very nice feature in @physicsmagazine.bsky.social physics.aps.org/articles/v18... @golp-ist.bsky.social with Nitin S and Kevin S
physics.aps.org
Intergalactic Collision Constrains Dark Electromagnetism
The distribution of dark matter around a pair of colliding galaxy clusters appears unaffected by a putative dark-sector version of electromagnetism.
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
GoLP secures over 80 million CPU hours in national computing time. To know more about the projects👇 🔗 golp.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/wp/golp-secu... @istecnico.bsky.social Image: phase space of the maser instability. 🍭
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Danielle Beckman @daniellebeckman.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
I spend my days in the microscope quantifying things like the images below. These photos show neurons 🔵 and microglia 🟣 (brain immune cells). Each #SARSCoV2 infected cell entering the brain generates this response in our Covid monkey model. #FluorescenceSaturday #NeuroCovid
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
EXCLUSIVE: NSF starts vetting all grants to comply with Trump’s orders | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
EXCLUSIVE: NSF starts vetting all grants to comply with Trump’s orders
Grantee accounts remain frozen, while union accuses NSF of ignoring rules governing peer review
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Happy Holidays from everyone @golp-ist.bsky.social !
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Thales @thales-silva.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Here is an illustration of the setup in our latest pre-print [arxiv.org/abs/2412.06783]. For more details, @pablojbilbao.com did an excellent post about it (check the thread: bsky.app/profile/pabl...). @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social @golp-ist.bsky.social @istecnico.bsky.social
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 06/07/2024
Well this is grim
weird interaction with a student this week. they kept coming up with weird "facts" ("greek is actually a combination of four other languages") that left me baffled. i said let's look this stuff up together, and they said ok, i'll open a search bar, and they opened... ch*tgptand i was like "this is not a search bar" and they were like "yes it is, you can search for anything in here"

the thing that made me feel crazy is like. every kid that's using this as a browser is getting new BESPOKE false "facts." this isn't "a widespread misconception about X that stems from how it's taught in schools." each individual kid is now hooked into a Nonsense Machine

with the "widespread misconception about X" you can start at a baseline. like, ok, in tenth grade we all talk about X thing from history, and that leaves us with some misguided concepts about X, but we can correct that as students get broader understandings of the world

but with this, each child is getting UNIQUE wrong facts they are SURE are correct... because they did what we told them to do! they "looked it up"! they got it from somewhere! it's not a kid making up a belief on hearsay and assumption... it's something they think they LEARNEDthis kid was extremely combative with me, and i understood why. i was sitting in front of him and telling him that the internet, a computer, technology, all these supposedly authoritative things... were wrong. and that i, one person, was right. he basically *couldn't* believe me.

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stillorangecrushed @stilloranged. 7h

he decided that i was simply a teacher who'd made a mistake. he could check it, after all! he could look it up! he could find the REAL facts. i obviously hadn't done that, i was just an adult who'd decided i was smarter than him. hence the defensiveness. like i said: i understood

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stillorangecrushed @stilloranged. 7h

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it was so fucking rough. i did my best, but i am one person trying to work against a campaign of misinformation so vast that it fucking terrifies me. this kid is being set up for a life lived entirely inside the hall of mirrors
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Pablo J. Bilbao @pablojbilbao.com · 10/12/2024
1/ Latest pre-print by @thales-silva.bsky.social & @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social is out! 📝 Check out the full paper: arxiv.org/abs/2412.06783
arxiv.org
The electron cyclotron maser instability in laser-ionized plasmas
We show that circularly polarized lasers create plasmas with long-lasting ring-shaped weakly relativistic momentum distributions which, in the presence of an ambient magnetic field, are prone to the e...
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
New @golp-ist.bsky.social preprint is out, by @thales-silva.bsky.social @pablojbilbao.com - tailoring distribution functions with lasers and exploring, in the lab, astro relevant plasma instabilities 👇 arxiv.org/abs/2412.06783
arxiv.org
The electron cyclotron maser instability in laser-ionized plasmas
We show that circularly polarized lasers create plasmas with long-lasting ring-shaped weakly relativistic momentum distributions which, in the presence of an ambient magnetic field, are prone to the e...
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Starting the GoLP Raising the Bar day 2024 with breakfast in the beautiful building of Academia das ciências followed by a presentation and an open discussion. @istecnico.bsky.social
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Instituto Superior Técnico @istecnico.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Marija Vranic, professor at Técnico, and PhD student Óscar Amaro are part of the team that published (and earned cover honors) a recent study in Nature Photonics that show, for the 1st time, observations of non-linear Compton scattering.☄️ 🔗Full article: tinyurl.com/4h4yuzf4 #TécnicoLisboa #ULisboa
tinyurl.com
Nature Photonics: Cientistas do Técnico colaboram na primeira observação de novo efeito físico
Resultados publicados confirmam fenómeno físico conhecido como dispersão de Compton não linear e têm um grande potencial para aplicações em estudos de física nuclear, produção de antimatéria, e até em...
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Lucas Iñigo @linigoga.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
We have also submitted a preprint on applying Quantum variational algorithms to Strong Field QED. We demonstrate that we can use VarQITE to evolve the Fokker-Planck equation to simulate Quantum Radiation Reaction. arxiv.org/abs/2411.175...
arxiv.org
Variational Quantum Simulation of the Fokker-Planck Equation applied to Quantum Radiation Reaction
Near-future experiments with Petawatt class lasers are expected to produce a high flux of gamma-ray photons and electron-positron pairs through Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamical processes. Simulat...
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Lucas Iñigo @linigoga.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Today's an exciting day! We have submitted two papers to ArXiV, one of which is my positron acceleration work using Direct Laser Acceleration. Here, we use methods to improve positron creation and retention and a semi-analytical model to predict laser depletion. arxiv.org/abs/2411.174...
arxiv.org
Improved Bethe-Heitler positron creation and retention by combining direct laser acceleration and solid target interaction within a gas jet
The next generation of Petawatt-class lasers presents the opportunity to study positron production and acceleration experimentally, in an all-optical setting. Several configurations were proposed to p...
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Luís Oliveira e Silva @luisoliveiraesilva.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
A new podcast @istecnico.bsky.social will be out next monday - a special thank you to our guests, the team of DFM @pablojbilbao.com @thales-silva.bsky.social Diogo Carvalho and Filipe Cruz that also produced the episodes, and the amazing students of Physics Engineering @istecnico.bsky.social
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
GoLP researchers secure 30 million core hours on Marenostrum 5 thanks to the project "Realistic Simulations of Relativistic Plasmas in Astrophysical and Laboratory Environments", led by @thales-silva.bsky.social and @pablojbilbao.com Congrats🥳🎉 @istecnico.bsky.social 🔗 tinyurl.com/nn5kurt4
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Now at @istecnico.bsky.social Bernardo M is ready to defend his PhD thesis. Good Luck 🍀
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GoLP @golp-ist.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Now in Abreu Faro (@istecnico.bsky.social) we are having a mini-workshop which will precede the defence of our PhD student Bernardo M tomorrow
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