CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Search for rare decays of the top-quark

The study of the top-quark properties plays a pivotal role in modern High Energy Physics research. The top quark is the known particle with strongest interaction with the Higgs boson, thus it is likely connected to many unsolved puzzles gravitating around the nature of the Higgs boson and the Higgs sector.

In many experimentally viable descriptions on nature, the top-quark has exotic interactions with either known particles or completely new degrees of freedom.

Since 2016 I give a substantial contribution to this research field; I lead a search for Higgs-mediated flavour-changing neutral-current from top-quark decays and search for low-mass charged Higgs boson. Due to the very low expected signal rate, this research programme relies to sophisticated data analysis techniques and forefront artificial intelligence methods.

Searches for new phenomena characterised by production of multiple heavy quarks

The observation of multiple top-quarks is an intriguing route towards testing the presence of underlying nature forces that are hiding away from our magnifying lenses.

In 2015 I started an ambitious research programme aiming at discovering elusive degrees of freedom that preferentially couple to heavy quarks, such as top-quarks.

For its inherent complexity this stands as a long-term research project, although preliminary results where published in 2016 [H1]. The main challenges for moving forward in this research programme are due to the complexity of the experimental signatures which characterise the expected signal and the challenges to describe it in our analysis models.

Trigger simulation

The ATLAS trigger system consists of a hardware-based first-level trigger and a software-based high-level trigger. It brings down the rate of data to be stored on disk to 1 kHz from up to 40 MHz of collisions at the Large Hadron Collider; all removed events consist ideally of uninteresting collisions and would represent a bottleneck for the computing model [T1].

I coordinate the simulation developments for the ATLAS Level 1 topological trigger (L1Topo) and its commissioning. I lead the main simulation developments, including design of new algorithms, migration to multi-thread safe software, validation of the simulation incorporating new Level 1 trigger subsystems within L1Topo. In this role I also serve as responsible for ATLAS abstracts preparation for the L1Topo talks and posters discussed at international conferences and I take part in their review and coordinate a small team.