Coordinator Prof.ssa Patrizia VITALE

The research activities of the Section cover several areas of fundamental physics. They are part of the specific initiatives of Group IV of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). The Section contributes to experiments and projects of the Institute, particularly on the theoretical side. Its members are involved in national and European projects, including several COST Actions and an ERC project. The research topics include the following areas, listed in alphabetical order:

• Education and History of Physics
  • The role of cognitive, metacognitive, and psychological factors in Physics and Astronomy education
  • Research in the history of physics (scientists, instruments, foundations) and historical outreach

• Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
  • Dark matter in the early and local Universe
  • Astrophysical signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model
  • High-energy multimessenger astrophysics
  • Primordial nucleosynthesis and cosmic neutrinos
  • Black holes and primordial gravitational waves

• Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information, and Foundations
  • Fundamental limits and quantum resources in precision measurements; thermodynamic meaning of quantum resources; entanglement theory; decoherence and open quantum systems; quantum complexity; relativistic quantum information
  • Quantum mechanics on non-Archimedean fields: invariant measures on p-adic Lie groups; composite systems and entanglement over p-adic fields; applications to quantum information

• Statistical Mechanics
  • Applications to molecular biology using physical models, computer simulations, machine learning, and high-throughput data analysis
  • Three-dimensional genome architecture in mammals and its relation to gene regulation in health and disease: underlying physical and molecular mechanisms; applications in diagnostics and drug discovery for genetic diseases
  • Study of critical phenomena in neural networks and phase transitions in open quantum systems
• General Relativity, Quantum Gravity, and Mathematical Methods
  • Classical general relativity and functional integrals in quantum gravity
  • Noncommutative geometry and quantum spacetime; localization of events and quantum observers
  • Noncommutative quantum field theory and semiclassical models; quantum symmetries
  • Groupoids in gauge and field theories
  • Gauge models for quantum gravity
  • Gravity in two and three dimensions and holographic duality
  • Theoretical models of particle propagation in quantum spacetime
  • Astrophysical neutrinos as probes of the microscopic structure of spacetime
  • Decoherence of quantum systems induced by spacetime quantization
  • mplications of IR/UV mixing for cold-atom experiments

• Theory and Phenomenology of Fundamental Interactions
  • Analytical and numerical techniques and effective models in quantum field theory and gravity; conformal theories
  • The Standard Model, its extensions, and astrophysical and cosmological applications
  • Flavor physics: analysis of observables in b-quark physics and study of anomalies
  • Heavy meson decays and CP violation in the charm sector
  • Neutrino physics
  • Scattering amplitudes and higher-order radiative corrections for collider physics
  • Hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment

• Field and String Theory
  • Study of strongly interacting systems through symmetries, dualities, and internal consistency
  • Applications of the holographic principle beyond AdS and study of conformal theories, including complex ones related to holography in flat and de Sitter spacetimes
  • String dualities between strong and weak coupling regimes, focusing on three main research lines:

• List of Activities

The research topics correspond to the following activities, listed in alphabetical order. Each activity involves multiple independent research groups and individual researchers:

• Education and History of Physics
• Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology
• Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Information, and Foundations
• Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems
• General Relativity, Quantum Gravity, and Mathematical Methods
• Field and String Theory
• Theory and Phenomenology of Fundamental Interactions