Scientific Staff
Riccardo Barbieri
Professor Emeritus
I am interested in the Fundamental Interactions of Particle Physics and in the early Universe. My current interests focus on the theory and the phenomenology of the flavour problem in Particle Physics.
Augusto Sagnotti
Full Professor
My research focuses on Theoretical Physics, and in particular on gravitational interactions. Currently a main theme is the breaking of Supersymmetry in Supergravity and in String Theory. I retired from teaching on November, 2025.
Enrico Trincherini
Associate Professor
My research activity focuses on Theoretical High Energy physics, in particular on Quantum Field Theory, Gravitational physics and Cosmology.
Guilherme Pimentel
Associate Professor
I’m interested in early universe cosmology — both theoretical and phenomenological aspects, quantum field theory in curved space, and also in string theory and conformal field theories.
Associated Scientific Staff
Dario Buttazzo
INFN Researcher
My research activity is focused on theoretical high-energy physics. In particular, I am interested in fundamental interactions beyond the Standard Model, the origin of fermion masses and mixings, and more in general quantum field theory and cosmology.
Alessandro Vichi
Associate Professor at UniPi
My research is mostly focused on conformal field theories and their supersymmetric extension. The goal is to study these often intricate quantum field theories using only basic principles, like symmetry and quantum unitarity. I am working on developing new methodologies and applying them to critical phenomena and high energy theories.
Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, Building C, Office 272
Postdoc Fellows
My work focuses on string theory compactifications and their consequences for particle physics and cosmology, including questions related to the accelerated expansion of the Universe and axion physics as a testable probe of quantum gravity. Recently I am exploring the mathematical structures behind these topics using ideas from automorphic methods and number theory.
Laura Engelbrecht
I have a wide variety of interests with work on topics including cosmology, scattering amplitudes, modified gravity, holography, and supersymmetry. Most recently, I am working with cosmological correlation functions to investigate ways to place theoretical bounds on cosmological observables.
Carlos Duaso Pueyo
I am interested in early universe cosmology and the physics of expanding spacetimes. In particular, I am focused on better understanding quantum field theory in those contexts, developing new methods to compute inflationary observables, and constraining the space of inflationary theories.
Giacomo Brunello
My research lies at the interface between mathematical physics and fundamental interactions. I focus on scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory and multi-loop Feynman integrals. I apply this framework to study phenomena from collider physics to gravitational-wave physics and early-universe cosmology.
Majid Ekhterachian
I am interested in theoretical and phenomenological aspects of fundamental interactions and the early universe. The focus of my research is on developing and identifying the overlapping space between plausible and observable theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. My current research includes works on baryogenesis, probes of cosmological inhomogeneities, flavor physics, physics of tetraquarks, and cosmological collider physics.
Chrysoula Markou
I am interested in decoding aspects of quantum gravity by means of strings and fields, with a focus on massive states of spin-2 and higher and their scattering amplitudes. Recently, I have been developing aspects of the construction of the spectrum of string theory, which may serve towards deciphering the underlying nature of string theory per se.
Sumer Jaitly
My work has focused on understanding how high energy properties of physical theories can be used to constrain observable phenomena at low energy. I am interested in the theory of scattering amplitudes as well as learning about and developing methods for cosmological correlators.
Emine Şeyma Kutluk
My research interests are in quantum cosmology and general relativity. Most of my recent focus is on asymptotic symmetries, adiabatic solutions and soft modes in gauge theories, gravity and cosmology.
My research focuses on early-universe cosmology and quantum field theory in expanding spacetimes such as de Sitter space. In this context, I have been developing a framework for cosmological correlators that reveals their hidden simplicity and illuminates their geometric origin.
Salvatore Raucci
PhD Students
Chen Yang
I’m interested in de Sitter and FRW physics.
I study the mathematical and phenomenological aspects of cosmological correlators, especially when they concern the strongly coupled sectors.
I'm also interested in UV completion of inflation models and the strongly coupled sector imprints in CMB and LSS.
I am mainly interested in the quantum mechanics of the very early universe. Recently, my focus has been on differential equation methods applied to the study of cosmological correlators and, in particular, loop-corrections.
Craig Clark
My research focuses on understanding the dynamics of gravity in the limit of infinite dimensions and leveraging its relative simplicity to find analytical solutions. I am also interested in obtaining waveforms from amplitudes.
I am interested in Particle Physics Phenomenology. My current research focuses on Electro-Weak symmetry breaking and Dark Matter, exploring
potential links between them.
Leonardo Juliano
My research focuses on theories of gravitation. I am currently working on Black Hole physics and Effective Field Theories of gravity. I also have a more broad interest in Cosmology, Conformal Field Theory and Quantum Information methods.
My research interests lie broadly in early universe cosmology, quantum field theory in curved spacetimes, particularly de Sitter space, and the EFT of gravity. More recently, my work has focused on the EFT description of infrared and low-energy modes in de Sitter background, as well as on exploring novel connections between the cosmological wavefunction and positive geometry.
I am interested in early-universe cosmology and quantum field theory on curved backgrounds, specifically the non-perturbative structure of false vacuum decay and its effects on gravitational waves. My research also focuses on developing kinematic and geometric techniques to capture the simplicity of cosmological correlators.
Behrang Tafreshi
I have a broad interest in string theory, M(atrix)-theory, black holes, and cosmology. My current research focuses on cosmological billiards and identifying black hole signatures within string scattering amplitudes.
My research focuses on Black Hole physics and Effective Field Theories of gravity. I also have further interests in non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theory and cosmology.