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General Information

Full Name Álvaro Parra López
Pronouns he/him/his
Email alvarop@uio.no

Academic Positions

  • 10/2025 – present
    Postdoctoral Fellow – Ramón Areces Postdoctoral Fellowship
    University of Oslo, Norway
    • Postdoctoral advisor: Prof. Torsten Bringmann
  • 03/2025 – 09/2025
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    Institute of Theoretical Physics UAM/CSIC, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
    • Postdoctoral advisor: Prof. Alejandro Bermúdez Carballo
  • 12/2024 – 03/2025
    Postdoctoral Fellow – Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU)
    Department of Theoretical Physics and IPARCOS, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
    • Postdoctoral advisor: Prof. José A. R. Cembranos and Prof. Luis J. Garay

Education

  • 2021 – 2024
    PhD in Physics
    Department of Theoretical Physics and IPARCOS, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
    • PhD Thesis: 'Cosmological production of dark matter in the Universe and in the laboratory'
    • Supervisors: Prof. José A. R. Cembranos and Prof. Luis J. Garay
    • Defense date: 13/12/2024
    • Cum Laude (With Honors)
  • 2019 – 2021
    Master of Science in Physics
    Heidelberg University, Germany
    • Master’s Thesis: 'A universe on top of a Bose–Einstein condensate'
    • Supervisor: Prof. Stefan Flörchinger
    • Overall mark obtained: 1.0 (maximum grade in scale from 5.0 to 1.0)
  • 2018 – 2019
    ERASMUS+ Exchange Student
    University of Oslo, Norway
    • Courses from Master’s in Physics, specialization in Theoretical Physics
  • 2015 – 2019
    Bachelor of Science in Physics
    University of Murcia, Spain
    • Bachelor’s Thesis: 'Synchronization in quantum systems'
    • Supervisors: Prof. Miguel Ortuño Ortín and Prof. Joakim Bergli (UiO)
    • Overall mark obtained: 9.11 (scale from 0 to 10)
    • Award for the Outstanding Graduate of the Year (21/11/2019)

Research Stays

  • 09/2023 – 11/2023
    Doctoral International Mobility Stay (3 months)
    Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics, Louisiana State University, USA
    • Study of entanglement in cosmologically produced pairs
    • Supervisor: Prof. Iván Agulló

Funding and Grants

  • 2025
    Ramón Areces Postdoctoral Fellowship (1+1 years)
    Ramón Areces Foundation
    • Private funding for developing a research project in Prof. Torsten Bringmann’s group at the University of Oslo
  • 2023
    FPU Fellowship Mobility Grant
    Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU)
    • Grant for financing the stay in Prof. Agulló's group at Louisiana State University
  • 2021
    Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU) Predoctoral Fellowship
    Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU)

Awards and Achievements

  • 2023
    • Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year 2023 for 'Nature' study — Physics World
  • 2019
    • Award for the Outstanding Graduate of the Year — University of Murcia
  • 2018
    • Erasmus+ Fellowship — European Commission

Invited Seminars

  • 2025
    • Analogue expanding universes in BECs: Towards the observation of entangled pairs — University of Sheffield, UK (18/03/2025)
    • Materia oscura, o cómo la expansión del universo es capaz de crear partículas — Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, Madrid, Spain (20/02/2025)
  • 2023
    • Simulating gravitational production of Dark Matter in the lab — GRAPPA Institute, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (02/03/2023)

Oral Contributions to Conferences

  • 2025
    • From Analogue Spacetimes to Relativistic Quantum Information — When Quantum Field Theory Meets Quantum Information, Madrid, Spain (12/2025)
    • Bose–Einstein condensates as Relativistic Quantum Information simulators — QTYR 2025, Madrid, Spain (07/2025)
    • Analog Spacetimes and Relativistic Quantum Information in Bose–Einstein Condensates — QuIST IX, Madrid, Spain (07/2025)
  • 2024
    • Cosmological production of dark matter in the Universe and in the laboratory — III IPARCOS Workshop, Madrid, Spain (12/2024)
    • Towards probing entangled pairs in BEC analogue expanding universes — JUGAR II Workshop, IEM-CSIC, Madrid, Spain (12/2024)
    • Spacetime dynamics as a dark matter production mechanism — XVI CPAN Days, Madrid, Spain (11/2024)
    • Influence of spatial curvature in particle production during the early universe — EREP 2024, Coimbra, Portugal (07/2024)
  • 2023
    • How Measurement Realizes Quantum Vacuum Ambiguities — Analog Gravity in 2023, Benasque, Spain (06/2023)
    • Scalar and vector dark matter production during inflation and reheating — QFT in Curved Spacetime Workshop, IAA-CSIC, Granada, Spain (05/2023)
  • 2022
    • Oscillations and vacuum choice in slow-roll sourced particle production — Madrid Winter Workshop 2022 (12/2022)
    • Gravitational particle production in the laboratory — XXXVIII Biennial of Physics, RSEF, Murcia, Spain (07/2022)
    • Shedding light on Dark Matter using BECs — 19th MultiDark Consolider Workshop, Miraflores de la Sierra, Spain (05/2022)

Poster Contributions

  • 2025
    • Road to observing entangled pairs in BEC analog cosmological expansion — QSimFP Workshop, University of Nottingham, UK (03/2025)
  • 2024
    • Switch-on and -off effects in particle production — Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany (02/2024)

Other Talks

  • 2022
    • Miniature Universes — PhD Days, Faculty of Physical Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid (12/2022)

Teaching Experience

  • 2024 – 2025
    • Cosmology (24 hours) — Laboratory and problem sessions, Bachelor’s in Physics, Complutense University of Madrid
  • 2023 – 2024
    • Cosmology (48 hours) — Laboratory and problem sessions, Bachelor’s in Physics, Complutense University of Madrid
    • General Physics (24 hours) — Laboratory sessions, Bachelor’s in Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid
  • 2022 – 2023
    • Cosmology (18 hours) — Laboratory sessions, Bachelor’s in Physics, Complutense University of Madrid

Student Supervision

  • Master's Theses
    • 2025-2027 — Edvard Aasen (ongoing), University of Oslo. Thesis: 'Cosmological gravitational particle production of dark matter'
    • 2025-2027 — Sander Svartbekk Sandvik (ongoing), University of Oslo. Thesis: Gravitational Particle Production during Inflation
    • 2025-2026 — Elena Sánchez Barrero (ongoing), Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis: 'Perturbative and Non-Perturbative Approaches to Dark Matter Production During Inflation' (co-supervised with Profs. Cembranos and Garay)
    • 2024–2025 — Guillermo Gutiérrez Baquero, Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis: 'Gravitational particle production in cosmological scenarios' (co-supervised with Profs. Cembranos and Garay)
    • 2023–2024 — Javier Ortega del Río, Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis: 'Gravitational production of dark matter' (co-supervised with Profs. Cembranos and Garay)
  • Bachelor's Theses
    • 2024–2025 — Paula Gregori Motto, Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis: 'Quantum fields in curved spacetimes' (co-supervised with Prof. Garay and Dr. de Rivera)
    • 2024–2025 — Saúl Baltasar Jiménez, Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis: 'Vacuum Entanglement in Quantum Field Theory' (co-supervised with Profs. Garay and Martín-Benito)
    • 2023–2024 — Lucía Velez Tartajo, Complutense University of Madrid. Thesis: 'Quantum fields in curved spacetimes' (co-supervised with Prof. Garay)

Committees

  • 2024
    • Local Organising Committee — XVI CPAN Days, Faculty of Physical Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid (19/11/2024 - 21/11/2024)
  • 2022
    • Local Organising Committee — Madrid Winter Workshop 2022, Faculty of Physical Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid (12/12/2022 - 15/12/2022)

Referee Activities

  • Journal of High Energy Physics