Education

• March 2002 - March 2003 He develops his thesis work under the supervision of Dr Giovanni Montani working in the group G9 (Relativistic Astrophysics group) directed by Prof. Remo Ruffini in the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. The thesis proposes an evolutionary reformulation of non-perturbative quantum gravity, in particular starting from a conceptual critique to the splitting of space-time procedure, an ideal matter is introduced in order to fix in a mathematically consistent way a reference system with respect to which the concepts of space and time can be naturally recovered.

• March 2003. He graduates in Physics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with full marks and honors (110/110 cum laude), disputing a thesis entitled: Evolutionary
Quantization of Gravity: Canonical and Path-Integral Formalism.

• July 20 - 26, 2003. He takes part in the “X Marcel Grossmann meeting on Relativistic
Astrophysics”, held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), presenting a talk entitled: Revised quantum geometrodynamics: canonical and path-integral approach. In collaboration with Dr Giovanni Montani he prepares a contribution for the proceedings of the meeting.

• August 18 - 23, 2003. He takes part in the “VIII Italian-Korean Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics”, held in Rome and Pescara (Italy), presenting a talk entitled A new approach in quantum gravity and its cosmological implications. He collaborates with Dr Giovanni Montani to the writing of a contribution for the proceeding of the meeting, which besides original material, contains also a brief review on the problem of time in quantum gravity.

• September 2003. He collaborates to a paper containing a series of new results about the problem of time in Quantum Gravity. These results are obtained operating the 3 + 1-slicing of space-time via the definition of a kinematic action, which provide a precise dynamical and physical meaning to the space-time splitting.

• November 2003 - October 2006. He is admitted in the IRAP-PhD (International Relativistic Astrophysics PhD Program), granted by a fellowship of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. This PhD is a co-tutorship of the following international institutions: Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza”, Freie Universität Berlin, ETH Zurich, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, Université de Savoie.

• November 2003 - June 2004. He continues to study the problem of time in quantum gravity. In collaboration with Dr Giovanni Montani he publishes a paper in which a dualism between the fixation of a physical frame and the emergence of time in non-perturbative quantum gravity is established. The obtained result is in accordance with the previous results, furthermore it demonstrates also the opposite implication, namely the semiclassical limit of evolutionary equations yields a gravitational system coupled with ideal matter fields.

• July 2004. He begins to study the new formalism for General Relativity introduced by Prof. Abhay Ashtekar. This formalism, reducing the phase space of General Relativity to that of a particular Yang-Mills theory, represents a remarkable step forward for the program of non-perturbative quantization of the gravitational field. He, in particular, studies the physical consequences of the presence of the so called Immirzi parameter on systems of spinors.

• September 2004. In collaboration with Dr Giovanni Montani, he begins to work on a new research theme. The idea is to study the role the Lorentz group has in the gravitational theory when a coupling with spinor field is considered. Spinors as well known are a particular representation of the Lorentz group, in curved space-time the Lorentz rotations are promotedto local gauge symmetry, but the associated spin connections have not an independent dynamical role, in fact they can be expressed as function of the gravitational field. In order to promote the Lorentz group to independent gauge symmetry, we introduce a new connection which, at least in vacuum, can be directly identified with the torsion tensor. This theory represents an extension of General Relativity in order to include torsion, which in this approach plays the role of gauge connection of the local Lorentz group. The source of this new field is the density of spin, which simultaneously interacts also with the spin connections producing a complicate interaction between the gravitational and new connection fields.

• March 9, 2005. He is invited to present a seminar in the Department of Physics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” entitled Torsion as a gauge field of the Lorentz group.

• June 27 - July 3, 2005. He takes part in the “I Russian-Italian Lifsitz-Zeldovich meeting on Relativistic Astrophysics” held in Pescara at the ICRA-Net center, presenting a talk entitled The contortion field as a candidate for a gauge theory of the Lorentz group.

• July 19 - 24, 2005. He takes part to the “IX Italian-Korean Symposium on Relativistic
Astrophysics”, held in Seoul (Korea) and Mt. Kumgang (D.P.R. Korea), presenting a talk
entitled Physical consequences of the Immirzi parameter.

• September 2005. In collaboration with Dr Giovanni Montani, he prepares a paper containing the results obtained during the study of the relation between the torsion field and the gauge field of the local Lorentz symmetry. This arguments is still under study and, with the collaboration of Dr Lecian, a discussion of the physical consequences due to the presence of such a connection field has been added.

• January 2006. He presents a work about the description of spinor fields in the Ashtekar formalism for General Relativity, proposing a new spinors action, motivated by the fact that the usual minimal coupling leads to an effective action which is not equivalent to that of the Einstein-Cartan theory. In order to obtain the right effective low energy limit is necessary to introduce a non-minimal coupling, which, together with the Holst modification to the Hilbert-Palatini action, reduces to a total divergence once the second Cartan structure equation is satisfied. The introduced modifications to the usual action have a clear topological explanation, being the geometrical elements constituting the Nieh-Yan topological invariant. The non minimal term suggests also the possibility to separate the total action in a “left” and “right” part, allowing a formal simplification of the constraints of the total system.

• February 9, 2006. In occasion of the “I Bego Scientific Rencontre on Relativistic
Astrophysics” held at the University of Nice “Sophia Antipolis” in Nice (France), he presents a seminar entitled Torsion as a gauge field of the Lorentz group and extension of General Relativity in Ashtekar formalism.

• April 11 and May 8, 2006. He presents at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, two
seminars entitled Lorentz invariance and space(-time) discreteness and The
Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi connections, in occasion of a series of discussions entitled
“Lectures of Quantum Gravity”, organized by Dr Giovanni Montani and Dr Giovanni
Amelino-Camelia.

• June 25 - July 1, 2006 He takes part in the “I Stueckelberg Workshop on Relativistic
Astrophysics”, held in Pescara at the ICRA-Net Center, presenting a talk entitled The role of Nieh-Yan invariant in Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi formalism. The meeting is organized in occasion of a series of Lectures on Loop Quantum Gravity and Loop Quantum Cosmology held by Prof. Abhay Ashtekar.

• July 23 - 29, 2006. He takes part in the “XI Marcel Grossmann meeting on Relativistic
Astrophysics”, held in Berlin (Germany), presenting two talks entitled: Nihe-Yan invariant and fermions in Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi formalism and Is torsion a fundamental gauge field?.

- September 2006 He begins to write his PhD thesis entitled Time, Matter and Symmetries in Canonical Quantum Gravity, which must be finished before December 15, 2006.

• Year 2007: In the year he will begin to collaborate with the Quantum Gravity group of the University of Marseille directed by Prof. Carlo Rovelli, granted by a fellowship of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and a fellowship of the Italian Foundation “A. Della Riccia”.

Courses

• Differential Geometry, held by Prof. S. Marchiafava (October 2003 - January 2004).
• Physics of the Gravitational Field, held by Dr G. Montani (March - June 2004).
• Algebraic Topology, held by Prof. P. Piccinni (March - June 2004).
• Relativistic cosmology and beyond held by Dr G. Montani, March - May 2005.
• Covariant kinetic theory held by Prof. Jürgen Ehlers, April 2005.
• March - June 2006 University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Lectures on Quantum Gravity (30 ore). A series of Lectures on arguments of non-perturbative quantum gravity and
non-commutative geometry, organized by Dr G. Montani and Dr G. Amelino-Camelia.

Teaching Experiences

• Academic Year 2004 - 2005 University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
First year Physics class for Pharmacy and Chemistry

Phd Schools

- February 2006. University of Nice “Sophia Antipolis”, Nice (France).
School of Relativistic Astrophysics. (I Bego Scientific Rencontre on Relativistic Astrophysics) Einstein-Maxwell systems, compact binaries systems, black holes and gravitational collapse.

• Gennaio 10 - 27, 2006. ETH Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland). Mathematical Problems in General Relativity. Cauchy problem, asymptotic flatness and conserved quantities in General Relativity.

• June 15 - July 15, 2004. Free University of Berlin, Berlin (Germany). “I IRAP-PhD Summer School”, lectures held by Prof. Hagen Kleinert entitled Selected topics on quantum field theories, 60 hours. Gauge theories, path-integral formalism, Faddev-Popov formula, ghosts, scattering amplitudes.

• September 1 - 15, 2005. ICRA-Net Center (International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics), Pescara (Italy). “II IRAP-PhD Summer School”

◦ Selected topics on quantum field theory II, held by Prof. Hagen Kleinert, 20 hours.

- Selected topics on statistical mechanics, held by Prof. Axel Pelster, 20 hours.

◦ Selected topics on cosmology, held by Prof. Frank Steiner 20 hours.

Seminars

- May 8, 2006 University of Rome “La Sapienza”. The Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi connections. Lectures of Quantum Gravity, (see above).

• 11 Aprile 2006 University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Lorentz invariance and space(-time) discreteness. Lectures of Quantum Gravity.

• February 9, 2006 University of Nice “Sophia Antipolis”. Torsion as a gauge field of the Lorentz group and extension of General Relativity in Ashtekar formalism. I Bego Scientific Rencontre on Relativistic Astrophysics.

• March 9, 2005 University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Torsion as a gauge field of the Lorentz group. Physics Department seminars.

Conferences and Meetings

- July 23 - 29, 2006 XI Marcel Grossmann meeting on Relativistic Astrophysics.
Berlin, Germany. Nihe-Yan invariant and fermions in Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi formalism. Is torsion a fundamental gauge field?

• June 25 - July 1, 2006 I Stueckelberg Workshop on Relativistic Astrophysics. ICRA-Net Pescara. The role of Nieh-Yan invariant in Ashtekar-Barbero-Immirzi formalism.

• July 19 - 24, 2005 IX Italian-Korean Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics.
Seoul, Korea and Mt. Kumgang D.P.R. Korea. Physical consequences of the Immirzi parameter.

• June 27 - July 3, 2005. I Russian-Italian Lifsitz-Zeldovich meeting on Relativistic
Astrophysics. ICRA-Net Center, Pescara (Italy). The contortion field as a candidate for a gauge theory of the Lorentz group.

• June 10 - 20, 2005 II Italian-Sino Workshop on Relativistic Astrophysics. ICRA-Net Center, Pescara (Italy).

• March 29 - April 2, 2005 Space-time in action.
Università di Pavia.

- September 20 - 23, 2004 Testing the Equivalence Principle on Ground and in Space.
ICRA-Net Center, Pescara (Italy).

• August 18 - 23, 2003 VIII Italian-Korean Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics.
University of Rome “La Sapienza” Roma and ICRA-Net Center Pescara Italy. A new approach in quantum gravity and its cosmological implications.

• July 20 - 26, 2003 X Marcel Grossmann meeting on Relativistic Astrophysics.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Revised geometrodynamics: canonical and path-integral approach.