Past Research Activity

Author of about 350 scientific papers, mostly in the leading international scientific journals: Phys. Rev. Letters; Rev. Mod. Phys.; Nature; Physics Reports; Phys. Rev. B ed E; Europhys. Lett.; Physica A; J. of Physics etc. (Above 5000 ISI citations).

Author of a monographic volume and editor of several volumes of proceedings.

Broad international experience in academic and industrial enviroments. The scientific activity is of both of fundamental and applied nature, with an interdisciplinary perspective.

Invited lectures in about 120 International Conferences. Currently invited or plenary speaker in the main Conferences and Schools in the fields of Statistical Physics, Complexity and High Tc SC, among which: STATPHYS (1989 e 2001); APS General (March) Meeting (1998); EPS Trends in Physics (1987 e 1990); EPS Cond. Matt. (vari); Aspen Institute of Physics (2000); International Conf. on High Tc SC (2003 e 2006); Cargese (various); Erice (various); ICTP (various).

Main fields of activity and collaborators:

  • Inertial dragging in General Relativity (with B. Touschek 1972-73)
  • Electronic properties of molecular crystals and electron-phonon interaction in molecular crystals (F. Bassani; C.B. Duke; M.J. Rice; S. Strassler; H.R. Zeller; 1973-1976)
  • Ionic conductors and disordered systems (S, Strassler; W.R. Schneider; P. Fulde; H.U. Beyeler; P. Bruesch; H.R. Zeller; 1975-1982)
  • One-dimensional electronic systems and Peierls instability (S. Strassler; H.R. Zeller; 1974-78)
  • Electronic transport in synthetic metals and carbon polymers (S.Strassler; 1980-83)
  • Theory of surface melting in solids (E. Tosatti; 1979-84)
  • Random Walks and polymes statistics (J. Bernasconi; L. Peliti; 1985-88)
  • Physical models of Fractal Growth. Dielectric Breakdown Model (L. Niemeyer; H.J. Wiesmann; W. Schneider 1984-90). This model of 1984 has opened (together with DLA) a vast area of theoretical and applied developments with applications in various fields. It provides one of the first and more general physical mechanism for the self-organization of complex structures.
  • Fractal and Multifractal properties in various models and systems (A.P.Siebesma; A. Erzan; E. Tosatti; M. Marsili; G. Paladin 1986-97)
  • Nonlinear transport and critical properties in 1-d Charge density Waves (S. Strassler; A. Erzan; G. Parisi 1983-92)
  • Theory of Fractal Growth (Fixed Scale Transformation) for Laplacian Fractal models (1992-98, C. Eversz; B.B. Mandelbrot; A. Erzan; A. Vespignani; R. Cafiero; G. Caldarelli; S. Sidoretti). Introduction of a new theoretical framework for several problems related to Self-Organized-Critical Phenomena (see also following points).
  • Generalization of the theory to models with quenched disorder (Invasion Percolation) and development of the method of the Run Time Statistics (W. Schneider; A. Stella; A. Gabrielli; G. Caldarelli; A. Vespignani)
  • Development of the method Dynamically Driven Renormalization Group for problems of Self-organized Criticality (Sandpile; Self-Organized Criticality) (S. Zapperi; A. Vespignani; G. Caldarelli; V. Loreto; A. Gabrielli 1993-2003)
  • Renormalization Group theory for the dynamics of rough surfaces (KPZ) (1998-2004) (M. Marsili; C. Castellano; M. Munoz, A. Gabrielli; G. Bianconi)
  • Complexity in cosmic structures (1987-2006, P. Coleman; F. Sylos Labini; M. Montuori; M. Joyce; R. Durrer; A. Gabrielli; S. Torquato; Y. Baryshev; J. Lebowitz; P.W. Anderson (Nobel laureate). This interdisciplinary application of modern Statistical Physics to Cosmic Structures (galaxy correlations) led to a broad debate on the foundations of the field which is reported in detail in the volume: Y. Baryshev e P. Teerikorpi, Discovery of Cosmic Fractals, World Scientific, Singapore (2002); Italian translation Boringhieri (2005). (See also the highlights of 2007)
  • Applications of the methods of Complex systems to Self-similar Networks, Information theory and Socio-economic systems (1999-2006, G. Caldarelli; V. Loreto; C. Castellano; C. Cattuto; V. Alfi; F. Coccetti; A. Petri; A. Baldassarri; F. Colaiori; F. Rao; V. Servedio; A. Baronchelli; B. Cerruti)
  • New approach to the study of Spayio-temporal correlations of earthquakes (2004-2006, V. Loreto; V. De Rubeis; P. Tosi; V. Beato; S. Zapperi)
  • Models and properties of Granular Systems (2004-2006, A. Petri; V. Loreto; S. Zapperi; F. Dalton)
  • High Temperature Superconductivity and related problems:
    • Charge distribution and properties of High Tc Superconducting cuprates (1999; K.A. Müller (Nobel laureate))
    • Development of the Theory of Nonadiabatic Superconductivity (1992-2006). Generalization of the many Body Theory beyond Migdal’s theorem (Born Oppenheimer) for the normal and superconducting state. These studies lead to a new type of complex Fermi liquid with direct relevance to the Cuprate high Tc Superconductors, the Fullerene compounds and MgB2 (1992-2006, S. Strassler; C. Grimaldi; E. Cappelluti; P. Paci; G. Bachelet; S. Ciuchi; L. Boeri; O. Andersen)