Research
Precision Muon Physics
The Mu3e experiment is a precision particle physics experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, designed to search for the extremely rare, lepton-flavour-violating decay of a muon into three electrons (\(\mu ^{+}\rightarrow e^{+}e^{+}e^{-}\)). By utilizing the world's most intense muon beam, it aims to detect this decay, which is forbidden in the Standard Model, potentially revealing new physics like supersymmetry or dark matter interactions, with sensitivity reaching branching fractions as low as \(10^{-16}\). The detector requires exceptional timing, position, and momentum resolution to distinguish the signal from overwhelming background processes, using advanced sensors like High-Voltage Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (HV-MAPS) and scintillating fibres.
Axion, Dark Photon Search and High Frequency Gravitational Waves
The axion is a hypothetical elementary particle, was first conceived in the 1970s, independently, by Wilczek and Weinberg as the Goldstone boson of the Peccei-Quinn theory, to resolve the strong CP problem in quantum chromodynamics. If axions exist and have a low mass within a certain range, they could be a part of cold dark matter.
The FLASH experiment (FINUDA magnet for Light Axion SearcH) is a proposed axion haloscope designed to search for dark matter axions in the low-mass (0.49-1.49 µeV) range using a large resonant microwave cavity within a strong magnetic field at INFN Frascati National Laboratories, recycling components from the FINUDA experiment.
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy that explores the foundations, methods, and implications of science, asking fundamental questions about what science is, how it works, its limitations, and its relationship to truth, reality, and knowledge. It investigates the logic behind scientific reasoning, the nature of scientific theories, the demarcation problem (separating science from non-science), and the validity of scientific claims about the world. Key areas include epistemology (how we know), metaphysics (what exists), and ethics, providing critical analysis that strengthens and clarifies scientific practice.