Mapping the mass assembly of galaxies in groups and clusters 

 Exploring the low surface brightness universe is one of the most challenging tasks in the era of the deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys.
It is however a crucial ingredient to map the mass assembly of galaxies at all scales and all environments and thus constrain their formation within the Lambda-Cold Dark Matter paradigm.
In this framework, clusters of galaxies are expected to grow over time by accreting smaller groups. During the infall process, the material stripped from the galaxy outskirts builds up the stellar halos and the intracluster light (ICL; see e.g. Contini et al. 2014; Cui et al. 2014; Pillepich et al. 2018). These are diffuse and very faint (μg > 26 mag/arcsec2) components made of stars stripped from satellite galaxies, also in the form of streams and tidal tails, with multiple stellar population and complex kinematics, which are still growing at the present epoch.

My scientific interests are focused on this aspect of the extragalactic astrophysics

Ongoing Projects:

• LEWIS (2021 - present): Looking into the Faintest with MUSE

• VEGAS (2016 - present): VST Early-type Galaxy Survey

• Ultra-VEGAS (2016 - present)

• SUNRISE (2023-2025): Explore the extreme universe: a preview of the galaxy Structure to be Unveiled from the Next geneRatIon aStronomical survEys 

Completed Projects:

• Fornax3D (2016 - 2022)

• Fornax Deep Survey@VST (2014 - 2021 )