Courses 2025-2026

The use of Synchrotron Radiation (SR) is applied to an enormous number of scientific and technology studies on Condensed Matter, Nano Science, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Medicine, Geology, Archaeometry etc.
The principal characteristic of SR is its wide spectral distribution (from Infrared to Hard X-rays), high intensity, collimation, flexible time structure and polarization. The SR machines are worldwide spread and they are generally open facilities utilized by scientists in an exciting and cosmopolitan environment. Ok, but how is SR produced?
During the course, the physical basis of SR will be explained, together with a simple description of the instruments generating it, namely bending magnets, wigglers, undulators and free electron lasers. A few examples of the “beamlines” and of the experimental stations working with SR will be given, concentrating on hard and soft X-rays instrumentation. Finally, some popular techniques will be described: X-ray diffraction, scattering, absorption and time resolved spectroscopies.

In recent years, mechanical signals to and from living cells have been widely recognized as critical to the proper functioning of many biological processes. Not only are biochemical signals important for living cells, but the forces applied to cells. or exerted by cells on their surrounding environment also contribute to the
physiological behavior of living systems. This evidence has led to the emergence of a new field of research called “mechanobiology”. The mechanical signals are then converted into biochemical signals and these processes, still largely unknown,constitute what is known as “mechanotransduction”.
In this course, we will consider fundamental aspects of mechanobiology, such as the typical mechanical stimuli applicable to cells and how these translate into changes in their behavior. These mechanical aspects can be described as “passive forces” but we will also consider “active forces”; or the mechanisms that cells employ to exert forces on their environment. Many of the topics covered during the course will be
closely related to the experimental activities carried out in the UNIMORE and CNR-NANO laboratories, and a visit to the laboratory will also be included.

Contents:
Intro to Quantum Technologies and Quantum Sensing:
– The Rabi problem. Jaynes Cummings. weak vs strong coupling
– Spin waves in FM systems.
Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance with NV-center and pentacene
Cavity magnonics.
Spin manipulation by MW pulses:
– 2D planar s/c resonators & MW hetorodyne.
– Spin dynamics (manipulation by MW)
– Examples of pulse sequences for q-sensing and q-gates
Spin qubits in semiconductors

The course offers a unified overview of the theoretical and computational aspects of transport phenomena in condensed matter systems. It begins with the rudiments of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, introducing extensive conserved variables, continuity equations, hydrodynamic fluctuations, and Onsager’s linear relations between fluxes and forces, illustrated through Fick’s law and Einstein’s 1905 work on Brownian motion.
The framework of linear-response theory is then developed, with emphasis on the Green-Kubo and Einstein-Helfand formulations of transport coefficients, the approach to equilibrium, and the emergence of an arrow of time.
The course introduces modern perspectives on transport phenomena by examining the invariance principles of transport coefficients and demonstrating their application to thermal and electrical conductivities. These concepts provide a rigorous foundation for the use of machine-learning interatomic potentials and oxidation numbers in numerical simulations of heat and charge transport in electronic
insulators.
A final module is devoted to data analysis methods for extracting transport coefficients from simulations, including spectral and cepstral analysis, and their multivariate extensions, complemented by hands-on exercises.

Syllabus:
1.      Electronic excitations in condensed matter: phenomenology
2.      Electronic excitations in condensed matter: theoretical aspects
3.      Optical excitations in materials, from inorganic semiconductors to molecular crystals
4.      X-ray spectroscopy: The fingerprints of materials
5.      Ultrafast dynamics: General aspects and theoretical approaches
6.      Ultrafast dynamics: Optical nonlinearities and vibrational coherence

In these lectures we will discuss the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics in its full glory, using the language of quantum field theory and group theory. After an introduction to the symmetry structure and how to obtain the physical spectrum, we will discuss the main experimental implications of the theory and compare them with data, showing why the SM is s successful.

Critical phenomena and their universality properties are described by conformal field theories (CFTs), i.e. theories invariant under a rescaling of the system. They are at the base of continuous phase transitions in fluids, magnets, and other materials, as well as in our understanding of quantum field theory (QFT). In fact, we can think of QFTs as renormalization group flows between different CFTs, which sit at the fixed
points of the flows. A long-standing research program, called the “conformal bootstrap”, has sought to study these complicated, strongly coupled theories using symmetries and consistency conditions. With the recent development of both analytical and numerical techniques, this program has recently obtained several groundbreaking results, such as the precise determination of critical exponents in the Ising and O(N) models in three dimensions.
In this short course, I will provide a basic introduction to CFTs, the theory of conformal blocks and convex optimization, and will review the bootstrap approach to the 3d Ising model.

Ref: https://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~sheer/bootstrap/BootstrapLectures.pdf

The computation of observables in relativistic quantum theories is based on the knowledge of the so-called scattering amplitude that encodes all the information about the interactions. Traditionally, scattering amplitudes have been computed introducing quantum fields and implementing all the machinery of standard Quantum Field Theory. Despite being extremely powerful, some complications such as the gauge redundancy in the description of massless states with spin higher or equal to one, or the freedom to perform field redefinitions that sometimes obscure the physics, motivate searching for alternatives and complementary approaches.
Our purpose in this mini-course is to introduce on-shell scattering amplitude techniques, in which no quantum fields are ever introduced and the aforementioned difficulties are absent. We start giving a consistent introduction to the spinor helicity formalism, which is pivotal in the computation of on-shell scattering amplitudes which, as we thus discuss, can be constructed simply by imposing Lorentz
symmetry, treating both the cases of massless and massive particles. The final part of the course will be devoted to a discussion of possible applications in the context of Effective Field Theories.

Course contents:
This course introduces participants to the Python programming language, assuming no prior programming experience. It is divided into two main modules: the first focuses on fundamental concepts, while the second addresses data analysis and High-Performance Computing (HPC). Each main module is further organized into topic-based sub-modules, including both mandatory and optional advanced sections.
Practical exercises are integrated throughout the course.
The data module covers the use of key scientific Python libraries, such as NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib. Depending on the participants’ background and level of expertise, the course may also include an additional session dedicated to the use of Python in High-Performance Computing (HPC).

Learning goals:
By the end of the course, participants will have a solid foundational knowledge of Python and its main scientific libraries. They will be able to write Python scripts and develop Jupyter notebooks relevant to their research, and will acquire the skills needed to effectively use and design Python-based solutions to enhance their research activities.