The planetary interiors are some of the most fascinating places in the Universe. We will probably never go there, but we can always dream about them. And try to understand them. The research in my computational mineral physics group aims to shed light on the functioning of the planets, from their surfaces to their innermost depths, from their formation to their cataclysmic deaths. We use fundamental physics to model numerically the behavior of matter at the extreme conditions spanned by the planetary environments. We work on the minerals forming the telluric planets (oxides, silicates and Fe-based alloys) and on the planetary ices forming the small satellites (water ice and salts) or the giant worlds (ice and other molecular compounds). We cover a broad range of pressures and temperatures from the hot and dense supercritical state of the protolunar disk to the core-mantle boundary conditions inside the Earth and going all the way up to the interior of giant planets.

Our research follows several main lines:

• protolunar disk – the IMPACT project (ERC funded):
  • hot dense gases and melts
  • supercritical state
• planetary interiors:
  • Earth:
    • lower and upper mantle,
    • core-mantle boundary
    • core and core formation
    • volatiles inside the Earth (part of DCO – Deep Carbon Observatory Consortium),
  • super-Earths
  • icy worlds
• planetary surfaces:
  • theoretical spectroscopy for in situ mineral identification – the WURM project
• smart materials:
  • multiferroics inspired from the mineral realm
  • molecular solids
  • low-Z materials