Fabrizio Napolitano

Short Bio. I am a Research Fellow with teaching responsibilities (RTDa) at the University of Perugia, Italy, in the Department of Physics and Geology, working with the CMS Collaboration at CERN, Switzerland, with focus on (quantum) Machine Learning algorithms for the data analysis.

I was PostDoc (2020-2025) at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics INFN, working with the SIDDHARTA-2 and VIP-2 collaborations.

I received my PhD degree (2020) in Particle Physics at the Universität Heidelberg, Germany, magna cum laude, with a thesis on a search for Dark Matter with the ATLAS detector at LHC, advised by Prof. Oleg Brandt (University of Cambridge).

During my PhD I worked with the Kirchhoff-Institut Für Physik and was funded by the International Max Planck Research School on Fundamental Symmetries; I spent over a year at CERN working on the first level trigger.

Got my Master in Physics at the Universität Heidelberg, and my Bachelor at the Tor Vergata University of Rome.

Link to my official UniPG page.

I have a broad and diverse set of interests, including Particle Physics, (bound-state) Nuclear Physics, X-Ray Spectroscopy, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Foundations, (Quantum) Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in physics.

With the CMS collaboration, I work on the development of (Quantum) Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for the analysis of data from the LHC, particularly targeting hadronically decaying boosted topologies, producing precision test of the Standard Model in the Vector Boson Scattering (VBS) – keep tuned for news on this!

I have started as PostDoc in Frascati a series of studies in ML and AI applied to X-Ray spectroscopy, see e.g. Measurement Science and Technology where I constructed a deep neural network approach and Condensed Matter where I developed a Differentiable Programming approach.

In Frascati I had the pleasure to work with the SIDDHARTA-2 Collaboration, studying the fascinating world of kaonic elements, exotic atoms where the kaons form a bounded state. SIDDHARTA-2 at the DAFNE accelerator, has performed precision measurements of the property of kaonic systems, providing a more profound understanding of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at low energies – very glad to have been part of this successful effort.

I also worked in the VIP-2 Experiment at the Gran Sasso underground laboratories. In the cosmic silence, protected from kilometers of rocks, VIP-2 searches for tiny violations of fundamental symmetries, which show up in atomic physics as the well known Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP). Within the VIP collaboration, we are looking for deviation to the standard quantum theory in the wavefunction collapse, and connecting the dots to a class of quantum gravity theories called Non-Commutative Quantum Gravity (NCQG). These experience have been very fruitful, appreciating the beauty of ultra-low background physics, where even a cosmogenically activated copper screw can light up your detectors.

I am author of over 300 peer-reviewed articles, with a h-index of 92 and counting.