Angelo Esposito - Research

Research

Quantum field theory and effective field theories

I study different aspects of quantum field theory and effective field theories (EFTs), especially in relation to different phases of matter. My collaborators and I employed EFT techniques for the description of system like vortices in ultra-cold atom gases, sound waves in different media, and spin-wave excitations in magnetic materials. I have also explored the connection between condensed matter and gravity via the celebrated holographic duality. Lately, I became interested in what EFTs have to say about possible bounds on physical quantities like, for example, the transparency of a material.

Light dark matter

I work on possible ways of detecting light dark matter in the lab. In particular, my collaborators and I have investigated the possibility of detecting sub-MeV dark matter (including the QCD axion) using phonons in superfluid He-4, as well as spin-wave excitation in anti-ferromagnets. Moreover, I am working towards a solid theoretical framekwork to describe the so-called Migdal effect in various systems, like semiconductors and noble liquids. This effect has attracted much attention as a possible way of extending the sensitivity of current experiments to substantially ligheter dark matter masses.

Exotic hadrons

I investigate the properties of the so-called exotic hadrons, which are observed resonances that do not fit the standard quarkonium models. My research has been mostly focused on the two main models proposed to explain their nature: the compact tetraquark and the hadronic molecule. I have studied different aspects of both of them, ranging from the mechanism explaining their production, to selection rules for their spectrum and possible observables able to decipher their structure as, for example, the effective range of low-energy scattering.

PTOLEMY

I am involved in the theory efforts of the PTOLEMY project, a proposed experiment aimed at employing atomic tritium with the goal of (a) providing a measurement of the neutrino mass, and (b) detecting the cosmic neutrino background. In particular, I spend my time on the aspects related to the interplay between the particle physics part of the problem (β-decay and neutrino absorption) and the condensed matter details of the experiment (storage of atomic tritium on a carbon-based materials).

Large scale structures

I am also interested in the connection between the large scale structures of the Universe and primordial non-Gaussianities. In particular, my collaborators and I investigate how it is possible to determine whether the initial inflationary expansion of the Universe was driven by one or more light fields by applying the so-called consistency relations (identities between different statistical correlators) to the distribution of matter in the sky.

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