PhD Days

Contribution List

11. Radiopure crystal scintillators for rare-event searches: my PhD work recognized by the SIF "Ettore Pancini" Prize

Alice Leoncini

08/10/2025, 14:00

I present the core results of my PhD research - recognized
with the SIF "Ettore Pancini" Prize for Nuclear and Subnuclear
Physics - on the development and characterization of highly radiopure
scintillating crystals for rare-event searches. At the DAMA
low-background facilities (LNGS), I conducted calibration campaigns,
data taking, and analyses with enriched 106CdWO4​ and
next-generation...

1. CPV in b-quarks from tt̄ events & Performance studies of the RPC detector and L1 Muon Barrel Trigger

Daniele Truncali

08/10/2025, 14:20

CP violation (CPV) refers to the non-conservation of charge and parity symmetries, leading to differences between particles and antiparticles that can be probed in heavy flavour decays. In particular, semileptonic decays of b-hadrons provide a sensitive environment to search for CPV through charge asymmetry measurements. Using $t\bar{t}$ events collected by the ATLAS detector, where b-hadrons...

2. Exploring CEvNS with NUCLEUS experiment & latest updates on the Cryogenic Outer Veto (COV)

Marco Giammei

08/10/2025, 14:40

Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CEνNS) is a weak neutral current process where the neutrino interacts with the nucleus as a whole. The CEνNS cross section is several orders of magnitude larger than that of other low-energy neutrino interactions, even though the single outcome of this process is a very small nuclear recoil.
The NUCLEUS experiment employs cryogenic calorimeters...

5. Hadron phenomenology from Lattice QCD

Francesca Margari

08/10/2025, 15:00

In the last decade, several advances in theoretical and algorithmic methods, together with the increase of computational resources, have made Lattice QCD a key tool at the precision frontier of Particle Physics, providing accurate and systematically improvable predictions for observables measured with ever-increasing experimental accuracy. We present the results of a first-principles...

6. Search of New Physics at LHCb in leptonic and semileptonic decays of neutral B meson

Federico Manganella

08/10/2025, 15:20

The semileptonic and leptonic decays of the $B_s^0$ meson are key processes in the LHCb physics program, offering complementary windows onto the structure of the Standard Model (SM) and possible signs of new physics. The channel $B_s^0 \to D_s^* \mu \nu_{\mu}$ provides direct sensitivity to hadronic form factors, which encode the strong interaction dynamics governing the transition between...

3. Measurement and modelling of thermal neutron cross sections for neutron transport simulations

Margherita Simoni

08/10/2025, 15:40

Simulating the thermal neutron cross section of complex systems is a complicated and time-consuming task: in the thermal energy range, neutron cross sections are determined by the chemical and structural properties of materials, and cannot be accurately approximated by summing the contributions of isolated atoms (e.g. free gas model). Moreover, additional properties of materials, such as...

4. Inferring Multi-scale Chaos Using Sparse Information

Francesco Fossella

08/10/2025, 16:00

Nonlinearities amplify small uncertainties in initial conditions, resulting in strong unpredictability of the dynamics. We investigate optimal strategies to integrate sparse and noisy data into forecasting models to extend the predictability horizon, with applications ranging from intermittent shell models for turbulence to the spatiotemporal complexity of Rayleigh–Bénard convection, while...

7. Surface Physics Approach to Prebiotic Molecular Aggregation on Mineral Substrates: Focusing on the Earliest Stages

Ilaria Tomei

08/10/2025, 16:20

This project explores the controlled deposition of amino acid molecules onto mineral surfaces relevant to the early Earth environment, under ultra-high vacuum conditions. As an initial step, suitable substrate materials were characterized. Reflectance Anisotropy Spectroscopy (RAS) and X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to investigate layered systems such as Ge₂Sb₂Te₅, as well...

8. Wetting problems with advanced computational techniques

Elisa Bellantoni

08/10/2025, 16:40

Wetting is a captivating class of phenomena whose study intertwines physics, chemistry, and engineering.
Macroscopically, a droplet's tendency to wet a solid can be fully described in terms of its surface tension and equilibrium contact angle, that is the angle formed at the interface between the solid, liquid, and gas phases. However, when spreading processes are considered, molecular...

9. Molecular nanostructures for advanced materials

Antonio Caporale

08/10/2025, 17:00

My projects focus on the study of novel molecular systems by means of low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), operating at 10 K under ultra-high vacuum conditions. In particular, I am focusing on molecules featuring chalcogenazolo-pyridine (CGP) moieties that persistently self-assemble through double chalcogen interactions, giving rise to ordered supramolecular structures on...

10. Supercooled First-Order Phase Transitions in Early Universe Cosmology

Francesco Rescigno

08/10/2025, 17:20

Many extensions of the Standard Model predict first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) that may have occurred in the early universe. In particular, theories with classical scale invariance are associated with strong phase transitions capable of producing gravitational-wave signals potentially detectable in future interferometer experiments. Recently, the possibility of primordial black hole...

22. Active control of Lagrangian particle transport in complex and turbulent flows

Chiara Calascibetta

15/10/2025, 14:00

In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the main results of my PhD, which focused on the control and optimization of Lagrangian particle transport in turbulent flows. I will present my work on using optimal control theory and reinforcement learning to minimize the relative separation of fluid particles navigating chaotic environments, enabling efficient pursuit of drifting targets...

12. Complexity in the spectra of graphs and strings

Lorenzo Grimaldi

15/10/2025, 14:20

Complexity plays a pivotal role across diverse fields, often emerging from spectral data and profoundly shaping system behaviour. As a first instance, we analyse the Fiedler eigenvalue of fiber graphs using the Laplacian Renormalisation Group, showing that its flow cannot be fully controlled by the spectral dimension, reflecting the graph’s intrinsic structural richness. Moving from discrete...

13. Eulerian and Lagrangian turbulence: closure and control problems

André Freitas

15/10/2025, 14:40

Turbulence, although ubiquitous in nature and engineering applications, remains one of the most challenging problems in classical physics. It is characterized by chaotic and multiscale interactions, with anomalous scaling laws and intermittency, making its theoretical understanding and practical modeling a challenging task. In this presentation, I will cover our recent efforts in developing...

14. Growth and characterization of Chalcogenides-based compounds

Christian Petrucci

15/10/2025, 15:00

Phase change materials (PCM) are a class of materials mainly based on chalcogenides elements, with sharp differences in electrical and optical properties among crystalline and amorphous phase. These properties are widely exploited in various fields such as neuromorphic computing. Ge-Sb-Te based alloy (GST) is the most widespread compound used for the realization of devices; despite this, low...

15. Exploring complexity with network and computational methods: from statistical validation to applications

Daniele Cirulli

15/10/2025, 15:20

Statistical validation of complex networks through maximum-entropy null models is explored as a robust framework to identify significant structures in large-scale data. These methods are applied to computational social science, including the study of polarization, echo chambers, language complexity, and information diffusion in online discourse. Simulations of social systems with large...

16. Exploring Corporate Financial Statements with Machine Learning: Sentiment, Structure, and Retrieval

Daniele Picano

15/10/2025, 15:40

Corporate financial statements provide a comprehensive summary of a company’s annual performance, but they also reflect writing biases, shaped both by the author and by the historical moment in which they are produced. Sentiment analysis can help uncover these biases by classifying the tone of the text on a scale from positive to negative. This is possible through the use of neural networks,...

18. Cosmological Inflation and Modified Gravity

Carlo Di Benedetto

15/10/2025, 16:00

Inflation was introduced to address fundamental issues of the classical Hot Big Bang Theory. Moreover, investigations of the Early Universe could require extensions of Einstein’s General Relativity in several directions, as generically predicted, for instance, by String Theory. Higher order terms in the curvature can play an important role in this respect, as shown by the Starobinsky model....

19. Advanced Acoustic for Diagnostic Applications to Audiology and Beyond

Yoshita Sharma

15/10/2025, 16:20

Otoacoustic Emissions (OAEs) offer fast, objective, frequency-specific hearing assessment but remain largely limited to newborn screening. Recent advances in acquisition, analysis, and nonlinear modelling have enhanced their diagnostic potential beyond research settings.
Using advanced swept-tone paradigms with and without contralateral stimulation, specifically designed time-frequency...

20. Co-sputtering of metal oxides to reduce opto-mechanical losses

Zahid Ali

15/10/2025, 16:40

Mechanical and optical thermal noise fundamentally limit the sensitivity of high-precision optomechanical experiments based on stabilized optical cavities, with gravitational-wave detectors being the main drivers of theoretical and experimental progress in this field. The most informative frequency band for gravitational signals lies in the mid-frequency range (a few to hundreds of Hz), where...

17. Generation and Characterization of Secondary Radiation from Laser Wakefield Acceleration

Federica Stocchi

15/10/2025, 17:00

Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) is a promising technique for generating relativistic electron beams and secondary radiation in compact experimental setups, through the interaction of an ultra-short, high-intensity laser pulse with a supersonic gas jet. Beams of X-rays, known as betatron radiation, are generated by the transverse oscillations of electrons in the plasma channel created from...

21. Energy deposition in MRI

Marco Martellucci

15/10/2025, 17:20

The presentation will focus on the progress of my PhD project. Specifically, it will focus on three aspects:
1) the acquisition chain set up to acquire the SAR from the phantom that will be used for the measurements;
2) the choice of material used to construct the anthropomorphic phantom and the definition of its geometry, which was determined based on the MRI acquisitions performed on the...

23. Radiopure crystal scintillators for rare-event searches: my PhD work recognized by the SIF "Ettore Pancini" Prize

Radiopure crystal scintillators for rare-event searches: my PhD work recognized by the SIF "Ettore Pancini" Prize

I present the core results of my PhD research - recognized
with the SIF "Ettore Pancini" Prize for Nuclear and Subnuclear
Physics - on the development and characterization of highly radiopure
scintillating crystals for rare-event searches. At the DAMA
low-background facilities (LNGS), I conducted calibration campaigns,
data taking, and analyses with enriched 106CdWO4​ and
next-generation...