Ricerc@Sapienza

My main research interests lie at the edge between high energy physics and condensed matter, mainly on the phenomenological aspects of both.

From the purely particle physics viewpoint, I have been extensively working on the low energy spectrum of QCD. In particular, I have studied different aspects of the so called "exotic hadrons". These are particles observed at colliders and made of quark which, however, do not fit into the standard meson/baryon picture.

I also spend most of my time working on new way to detect dark matter in the lab, especially for what concerns sub-GeV models of dark matter (so called "light dark matter") and axions. This line of research requires a close interplay between particle phenomenology, particle experiment and condensed matter phenomenology.

I also often work on more formal aspects of quantum field theory, especially on the development of effetive field theory for systems featuring the spontaneous breaking of Lorentz/Galilei invariance. This theories find most of their applications in either condensed matter or cosmology.

Finally, I lead the theory efforts of the PTOLEMY collaboration. This is an experimental project aiming at using tritiated graphene to measure the neutrino mass and, potentially, detect the elusive cosmic neutrino background.