I am currently a member of the international collaboration MEG (Italy, Japan, Switzerland, USA, Russian) which searches for the decay 𝜇 → e 𝛾 at the Paul Scherrer Institut (Zurich, Switzerland). This decay, practically forbidden in the Standard Model of Particle Physics, is foreseen in many extensions of this model at an experimentally accessible level. The observation 𝜇→e𝛾 would be a clear signal of New Physics , while stringents contraints allow to set limits on the parameters space of new theoretical models or even to exclude some of them. The experiment exploits the most intense muon beam in the world available at PSI and represents an important contribution to New Physics searches at the intensity frontier .
I participated in the MEG experiment, which collected data in the years 2008-2013 and set the most stringent limit in the world (4.2x10-13 @90% C.L.,EPJC76,8,434(2016)). My main contribution to the MEG experiment were on the timing counter detector (commissioning/calibration/analysis) and to the likelihood analysis.
I am currently working on the MEG II experiment, which is an upgrade of MEG and aims to improve the sensitivity on the searched decay by one order of magnitude (down to ~5x10-14). MEG II is currently taking data and in a special seminar at PSI the collaboration presented on Oct. 20th 2023 its first results, based on data collected in 2021. By combining this result with the previous result from MEG, an improved upper limit of 3.1x 10-13 @90% C.L has been obtained (paper).
I am coordinator of the MEG Rome group which main contrbutions are related to the Drift Chamber of the experiment, the system for measuring the target position, the data analysis. The group is also involved in the search of the X17, an hypothetical particle that could explain an anomaly observed at the ATOMKI laboratory (paper). The result of this search has been presented in 2024 in a seminar at PSI and is close to publication.
The MEG II detector
The group is involved also in the MuEDM experiment, which is under construction at PSI for the search of the electric dipole moment of the muon, another sign, if different from zero, of physics beyond the Standard Model (paper ). In this experiment, we are committed to build the Time Projection Chamber that will measure the momentum of the muon entering in the detector.
The group participate in the aMUSE network, which coordinates the activities of about 80 researchers from twelve European research institutes and industries participating to the search for New Physics in the muon sector and to the design of a new generation muon accelerators in high-profile US laboratories (Fermilab, BNL, SLAC). We are mainy involved in the development of new gaseous detector geeometries and innovative gas mixtures.
I have been a member of the Babar collaboration in the years 1999-2010.
The Babar detector took data in the years 1999-2008 at the high luminosity B-factory PEPII (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). The Babar experiment discovered the CP violation in the B meson system and several B decays (it also studied charm and tau decays). The Babar collaboration is an international collaboration of~600 physicists from several institutions around the word.
During my activity in the experiment, I have been coordinator of the sin2𝛽 working group (paper ) and of the flavor tagging working group. I have also been Babar representative at the Heavy Flavor Averaging group. My Phd thesis was focused on the CP violation in B decays to open charm and in the (related) studies of the B decays in D*s𝜋 final states (paper ). I observed the B→Ds𝜋 for the first time (paper)
I have been awarded the Pancini Prize from the Italian Physics Society in 2008 for the relevant contribution given to the Babar experiment.
I have been a member of the DREAM collaboration in the years 2007-2013 for the
development of Dual Readout hadronic calorimetry. The DREAM (Dual REAdout Method) international collaboration (CERN, Italy, USA) studies the possibility of improving significantly the resolution for hadron calorimeters by measuring the electromagnetic fraction through the detection of the Cerenkov light, produced only by the electromagnetic component of an hadronic shower.
I am a member of the Applied Radiation Physics (ARPG) group that apply experimental techniques used in Particle Physics to Medicine.
I worked on the development of a dose profiler for hadrontherapy in collaboration with the SBAI department of Sapienza (paper).
The dose profiler
My interests then focused on the analysis of medical images with advanced AI-based analysis techniques.
I am PI of the INFN unit of the project MUCCA (Multi-disciplinary Use Cases for Convergent new Approaches to AI explainability) funded within the call CHIST-ERA 2019 (Explainable Machine Learning Based Artificial Intelligence). The aim of this project is to develop algorithms to provide explanation of AI system in various use cases from high energy Physics and applied Physics. I am currently part of the funded PRIN "RECENTRE" about motion correction in MRI with AI techniques and of the funded PNRR project PNRR-MAD-2022- 12376889 in collaboration with IRCSS Santa Lucia, for the developed of Na-MRI based biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. In the field of the medical image analysis with AI algorithms I worked in collaboration with different clinical centers (Policlinico Umberto I, IFO, Sant'Andrea) to develop, using advanced machine learning algorithms, automated and personalized diagnostic and prognostic tools. These work led to various publications. I have been the coordinator of the NEPTUNE Rome group (2019-2022). NEPTUNE is an INFN approved experiment which studied the possible enhancement of the radiobiological effectiveness in proton therapy of cancer using nuclear reactions with borated and fluorinated tracers. The Rome group had the responsibility of developing clinical compatible imaging of tracers using 19F magnetic resonance, which is affected by low signal to noise ratio, through low noise RF coils, advanced signal processing and image analysis.
