I work on searches for new physics with the CMS experiment, developing analyses that connect detector performance, unconventional signatures, and the physics reach of the LHC.
A timeline of my main CMS research activities, from photon-based searches during the PhD to current work on exotic signatures, timing, and detector-driven strategies for HL-LHC.
Search for Heavy Stable Charged Particles with Run 3 data and projections at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), using timing information to improve sensitivity to slow, massive charged signatures.
Search for light resonances in di-electron final states with Run 3 data, using a novel parking strategy to access signatures that are difficult to collect with standard trigger paths.
P.I. of the PINCH project, presented for the PRIN 2022 call, ranked 19th over 114 selected projects and financed for two years with 300k EUR.
At INFN, Sezione di Roma, I developed timing-based strategies for LLP searches with ECAL and the MIP Timing Detector, including delayed photons, delayed jets, and heavy stable charged particles, and contributed to LYSO:Ce crystal characterization for MTD.
I expanded the research program toward exotic multiquark states, including searches for all-bottom tetraquarks and X(3872) production in B-meson decays, supervising master and PhD students on these analyses.
As CMS Exotica group convener, I co-coordinated the largest CMS physics group, covering searches beyond the Standard Model across Run 2 and Run 3 data, from dark sectors to leptoquarks, new resonances, and long-lived signatures.
As Sapienza RTDa I continued the CMS E/Gamma convenership, started the Run 2 electron/photon performance paper, taught computing laboratory and mechanics, and developed the transition toward timing-based searches for HL-LHC.
I coordinated and contributed to high-mass diphoton searches at 13 TeV, including the statistical combination with my 8 TeV PhD analysis during the 750 GeV excess period.
At Cornell I worked on dark matter searches with jets, photons, and Higgs bosons, and led the delayed-photon search at 13 TeV using ECAL timing, supervising PhD work connected to both themes.
As E/Gamma Identification convener and then E/Gamma group convener, I coordinated CMS electron/photon reconstruction, identification, trigger, scale factors, and Run 2 performance work.
During my PhD at Sapienza I worked on ECAL calibration and timing, delayed photons, photon identification for H to gamma gamma, high-mass diphoton resonances, and CMS test-beam studies for future calorimetry. My PhD thesis received the INFN Marcello Conversi Prize for the best doctoral thesis in subnuclear physics.
At CERN I continued the photon-based PhD research program and contributed to CMS data-taking operations as ECAL Detector On Call and ECAL Barrel High Voltage on call.