Born in Rome in 1979. Graduated in particle physics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in 2002. PhD in theoretical high energy physics at SISSA (Trieste) in 2005. Postdocs at IFAE and at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). In 2011, tenured Researcher at the University of Padova, and Associate Professor since 2016. Joint CERN/EPFL Staff from 2016 to 2021. ICREA Research Professor since October 2022.
Research interests
I am a particle physicist. My mission is to unveil the microscopic laws that govern the fundamental particles and their interactions. I study what these laws could be, and how they manifest as concrete predictions for a multitude of experimental measurements that are being and will be performed at particle colliders. Devising strategies to extract maximal information on fundamental physics laws from the data collected at the Large Hadron Collider is a main focus of my research. Another goal is to identify new pathways for further progress at ambitious future collider projects and in particular at a muon collider of very high energy. I attack these questions by employing and developing theoretical tools for predictions based on the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and special relativity, combined in what is known as "Quantum Field Theory", as well as statistical and statistical learning tools for comparing the predictions with the experimental data.
Selected publications
- Ruhdorfer M, Salvioni E & Wulzer A 2025, 'Building the case for forward muon detection at a muon collider', Physical review d, 111 - 5 - 053010.
- Glioti A, Marzocca D & Wulzer A 2025, 'Flavor physics at high-energy muon colliders', Journal of high energy physics, 12 - 152.
Selected research activities
In 2025 I completed my study program on forward muons detection at a muon collider and I opened the new direction of probing beyond the Standard Model quarks and leptons flavor structure in high energy muon collisions.
I also initiated exploratory studies of a fixed-target experiment that exploits the collimated beam of neutrinos from the decay of the high energy muon collider beams. First results---outlining extraordinary perspectives for the measurement of the quark mixing matrix---have been obtained (preprint arXiv:2511.23288, under journal review) and more studies are ongoing.
Not related with muon colliders but with the ongoing LHC physics program, I proposed a novel methodology for a principled parametrization of the uncertainties associated with the finite predictive power of an Effective Field Theory (EFT) description of new physics. This results from a new international collaboration with Markus Luty (University of California, Davis) and Spencer Chang (University of Oregon). The paper (arXiv:2507.15954) was accepted by JHEP in the Fall of 2024 but the publication process suffered a technical delay.
The aforementioned preprints are in collaboration with my student, who is progressing rapidly and successfully towards his doctoral thesis.
I gave several invited plenary (or keynote) talks at international workshops and conferences. I participated to the GGI workshop "Exploring the energy frontier with muon beams", where I gave a talk and led two discussion sessions.
Finally, I taught the High Energy Physics part (50%) of the course "Introducció a la Física del Cosmos" for the Master program at the UAB.