Dr. Lovato’s research is in theoretical nuclear physics and focuses on understanding properties of atomic nuclei and neutron-star matter in terms of the individual interactions among the constituent protons and neutrons. Nuclei exhibit fascinating, self-emerging, quantum-mechanical properties, which are experimentally probed by several facilities worldwide, including the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System. Precisely modeling their structure and electroweak interactions is also relevant to access neutrino properties and to test the fundamental symmetries of the Standard Model. The same nuclear forces that determine the structure of nuclei are responsible for the stability of neutron stars against gravitational collapse and are imprinted in the gravitational wave signal. 

To carry out his research, Dr. Lovato develops nuclear quantum Monte Carlo methods, which capitalize on high-performance computing resources to solve the many-body Schrödinger equation with high accuracy. With the goal of reducing the computational complexity of the problem, Dr. Lovato is exploring the use of artificial neural networks to represent the quantum-mechanical wave function of nuclei and nuclear matter. 

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA-ISAS), Trieste (2012)
• Master of Science, ​“Sapienza” University, Rome (2008)
• Bachelor of Science, ​“Sapienza” University, Rome (2006)