Committee 1: Particle Physics using Accelerators The research in this field is centered on the study of the collisions at very high energy between elementary particles. The research is performed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that collides head-on protons at center of mass energy of 13 TeV. The accelerator is running since 2009 and has produced a large range amount of physics results:
- The discovery of the Higgs Boson and measuremnt of its properties;
- the search of the supersymmetric particles;
- the investigation of the CP violation in B-decay;
- the search for compositeness of the fundamental fermions;
- the detailed studies of the top quark.
Two LHC experiments are present at the Sezione INFN of Roma “Tor Vergata”: ATLAS and LHC-b. A group of research is also involved in the NA62 experiment at the SPS accelerator at CERN to study rare Kaon decays.
Local co-ordinator: Dr. Barbara Liberti tel. +39 06-7259-91012
Link to the National Committee I
Committee 2: Astroparticle and Neutrinos Physics Physics studying neutrinos, gravitational waves, anti-matter and dark matter are at the forefront of research in the field of elementary particles and astroparticles physics. Measuring such rare events requires very sensitive detectors (Virgo) and laboratories placed underground (DAMA and GNO experiments at Gran Sasso), at very low temperatures (ROG experiment), at very high latitudes (ARGO and AUGER), at the edge of the atmosphere using balloons (Wizard group experiments: MASS, TS93, Caprice) and in space (WiZard group experiments: PAMELA, NINA, AGILE and GLAST).
Local co-ordinator: Prof. Roberta Sparvoli tel. +39 06 7249 4289
Link to the National Committee II
Committee 3: Nuclear Physics Nuclear physics studies the properties of the atomic nucleus where almost all the mass of ordinary matter is contained. The interaction of quarks and gluons inside protons and neutrons is one of the unsolved problems of modern physics. The study of the excited nucleon states constrains the theoretical models of the nucleons made of quarks and sheds light on the transition region between the theory of elementary particles and nuclear physics.
Local co-ordinator: Local coordinator: Dott.ssa Maria Cristina Morone tel. +39 06 7259 4561
Link to the National Committee III
Committee 4: Theoretical Physics Theoretical physics is concerned with the mathematical models developed to interpret the results of experiments. Our group is currently active in various research fields. We study with analytical and numerical methods the forces responsible for the fundamental “microscopic” interactions of nature: the “strong” force, responsible for the interactions that bind quarks inside nucleons and nucleons inside nuclei, the “weak” force, that deals with nuclear beta decays, and the electromagnetic force, that regulates the chemical properties of atoms. All these forces are today unified in the so-called “standard model”. We also study gravitational forces, that dominate at large scales and present deep conceptual problems at short scales, with particular emphasis on the approaches that appear to unify them with the forces described by the standard model: supergravity and String Theory. An additional, important part of our research, deals with systems that include huge numbers of interacting components, of the order of the Avogadro number: this is realm of Statistical Mechanics.
Local co-ordinator: Dr. José Francisco Morales tel. +39 06 7259 4568
Committee 5: Research & Development The 5th National Scientific Committee of INFN co-ordinates the Technological Research aimed at INFN experiments and scientific themes like instrumentation devoted to experiments in nuclear, sub-nuclear and astro-particle physics, particle accelerators and detectors with related electronic technologies and software as well as applications of cutting-edge techniques in interdisciplinary and life sciences. At INFN-RomaII research activities are mainly devoted to the development of space detectors for astro-particle physics, accelerators technologies, particle detectors, electronics for parallel computing and life-sciences experiments.
Local co-ordinator: Dr. Andrea Salamon tel. +39 06 7259 4110 Link to the National Committee V