Theses
A thesis with our group is an excellent way to join us and experience what it is like to conduct research in nuclear physics. We are always happy to offer bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD theses. Based on our most recent projects (see Research), the activities are tailored to the students’ interests and the group’s needs. Students will generally perform data analysis and contribute to the development of detectors and related software or electronics, working in a diverse and international environment. For master’s and PhD students, there is often the opportunity to be involved in the entire project, taking responsibility from detector development and data taking, to data analysis, and finally to publication. Students will acquire both hard and soft skills that can be applied beyond the academic world. INFN funds travel, accommodation, and meals for master’s and PhD students to participate in our experiments and to attend workshops and conferences worldwide.
Bachelor’s Theses at ISOLDE, CERN
The University of Florence has an agreement with CERN for activities at the bachelor’s level. INFN funds travel, accommodation, and meals for the participating students. Within our group, it is possible to carry out bachelor’s theses at CERN’s ISOLDE facility in Geneva, Switzerland. ISOLDE is the reference centre for radioactive ion beam production and acceleration in Europe and hosts several experiments. Previous students have worked on the Miniball, ISS and WIZARD experiments.
Contact: Adriana Nannini (adriana.nannini@fi.infn.it)
Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses at International Labs with INFN
Each year, INFN launches a national call for undergraduate and master’s students to carry out thesis projects at international nuclear physics laboratories. The fellowship covers all travel, accommodation, and meals. Within our group, students can apply to spend a research period at the INFN national laboratories in Italy or abroad, at facilities such as ANL (USA), FRIB (USA), or GANIL (France), working on experimental topics related to nuclear structure, reactions, and applications. These opportunities are part of INFN’s broader activities in nuclear physics, coordinated by its dedicated scientific commission.
Contacts: Alberto Camaiani (alberto.camaiani@fi.infn.it), Marco Rocchini (marco.rocchini@fi.infn.it)
Examples of Available Bachelor’s Theses
- Test of the silicon detectors of the FAZIA detector at the INFN-LABEC accelerator in Florence, which is currently used together with the INDRA detector at the GANIL Laboratories.
Contact: Alberto Camaiani (alberto.camaiani@fi.infn.it) - Test of the segmented silicon detectors of the SPIDER array, which is currently used together with large high-purity germanium arrays (AGATA and GALILEO) at the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories.
Contact: Naomi Marchini (naomi.marchini@fi.infn.it) - Analysis of targets used in Coulomb-excitation experiments with the INFN-LABEC accelerator in Florence using the Rutherford backscattering technique.
Contact: Marco Rocchini (marco.rocchini@fi.infn.it) - Data analysis of experiments performed with the GARFIELD detector at the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories to study clustering and nuclear reaction mechanisms.
Contact: Silvia Piantelli (silvia.piantelli@fi.infn.it)
Examples of Available Master’s Theses
- Data analysis of a β-decay experiment performed with the GRIFFIN gamma-ray spectrometer at the TRIUMF laboratories (Vancouver, Canada) to investigate the extremely rare double β decay in 130Te.
Contact: Marco Rocchini (marco.rocchini@fi.infn.it) - Data analysis of an experiment performed at the GANIL Laboratories (Caen, France) with the FAZIA+INDRA setup to study the equation of state and phenomena related to isospin diffusion in atomic nuclei.
Contact: Alberto Camaiani (alberto.camaiani@fi.infn.it) - Data analysis of a low-energy Coulomb excitation experiment performed at the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories (Padova) with the AGATA gamma tracking spectrometer to investigate exotic nuclear phenomena in atomic nuclei.
Contact: Adriana Nannini (adriana.nannini@fi.infn.it)
Examples of Available PhD Theses
- Implementation of the internal electron spectrometer SLICES at the β-decay stations of the radioactive ion beam facilities SPES at LNL and ISOLDE at CERN, and use for experiments to explore shape coexistence in exotic nuclei.
Contact: Adriana Nannini (adriana.nannini@fi.infn.it) - Development of an active target for the SPES radioactive ion beam facility at LNL, and use for experiments related to direct reactions and fission decay.
Contact: Sandro Barlini (sandro.barlini@fi.infn.it)
Former Theses
Since 2009
- Two-phonon quadrupole-octupole collective excitations in 112Cd
Tommaso La Marca, master’s thesis (2025)
Supervisor: Marco Rocchini - Study of the energy response of the ionization chamber of the ISS setup at ISOLDE (CERN) for direct reaction studies with radioactive beams
Olimpia Orlandi, bachelor’s thesis (2025)
Supervisor: Marco Rocchini - Quadrupole and octupole collectivity in the isotope 106Pd via Coulomb excitation
Andrea Fini, master’s thesis (2025)
Supervisors: Adriana Nannini, Marco Rocchini - Measurement of the thickness of thin silicon detectors using proton beams at LABEC
Duccio Picchi, bachelor’s thesis (2024)
Supervisor: Alberto Camaiani - Octupole Collectivity in 96Zr from Low-Energy Coulomb Excitation with the AGATA+SPIDER Setup
Federica Ercolano, master’s thesis (2024)
Supervisors: Adriana Nannini, Antonino Di Leva (INFN Napoli and Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”), Naomi Marchini, Marco Rocchini - Check of the isobaric contaminants in radioactive beams produced at ISOLDE (CERN) for Coulomb excitation measurements
Tommaso La Marca, bachelor’s thesis (2023)
Supervisor: Adriana Nannini - Calibration of detectors for protons of WISArD at ISOLDE
Lorenzo Martinelli, bachelor’s thesis (2023)
Supervisors: Naomi Marchini, Gabriele Pasquali - High-precision determination of the positioning of the Miniball gamma-ray spectrometer at CERN using the Doppler effect
Filippo Simonelli, bachelor’s thesis (2023)
Supervisors: Marco Rocchini, Sandro Barlini - Study of the fusion-evaporation channel in the 18O+12C system at the energy of 17 AMeV
Lucia Baldesi, master’s thesis (2022)
Supervisors: Sandro Barlini, Silvia Piantelli - Electron Spectroscopy with the SLICES setup
Naomi Marchini, PhD thesis (2022)
Supervisors: Adriana Nannini, Stefano Simonucci (INFN Perugia) - Study of quasiprojectile breakup in semiperipheral collisions of 64,58Ni+64,58Ni at 32AMeV and 52AMeV with the INDRA-FAZIA apparatus
Caterina Ciampi, PhD thesis (2022)
Supervisors: Sandro Barlini, Gabriele Pasquali - Commissioning tests under beam of the new Active Target detector ATS in the perspective of experiments on the isoscalar giant resonances
Antonio Maria Buccola, PhD thesis (2021)
Supervisors: Sandro Barlini, Gabriele Pasquali - Reaction mechanisms and particle correlations in light-ion reactions at Fermi energies
Catalin Frosin, PhD thesis (2021)
Supervisors: Andrea Stefanini, Giovanni Casini - Complete isotopic characterization of projectile fragments in Ca+Ca reactions at Fermi energies with the FAZIA array
Alberto Camaiani, PhD thesis (2020)
Supervisors: Giovanni Casini, Andrea Stefanini - Study of asymmetric 40,48Ca+12C collisions at 25 and 40 MeV/nucl. with the FAZIA apparatus
Pietro Ottanelli, PhD thesis (2020)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Study of collectivity in 130Xe via Coulomb excitation
Andrea Tredici, master’s thesis (2020)
Supervisor: Adriana Nannini - Measurement of non-linearity effects in the energy response of CsI(Tl) detectors
Lucia Baldesi, bachelor’s thesis (2019)
Supervisors: Andrea Stefanini, Sandro Barlini - Characterization of targets used in nuclear physics measurements using the RBS technique
Elena Pasquali, bachelor’s thesis (2019)
Supervisor: Alessandro Saltarelli (INFN Perugia) - Study of the reaction 80Kr+48,40Ca at 35 MeV/u with the FAZIA detector array
Giuseppe Pastore, PhD thesis (2018)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Coulomb excitation and collective properties of the 94Zr nucleus
Naomi Marchini, master’s thesis (2018)
Supervisor: Adriana Nannini - A novel application of silicon carbide detectors for identification of nuclear fragments in heavy ion collisions: characterization and first beam tests
Caterina Ciampi, master’s thesis (2018)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Coulomb excitation of low-lying states in 66Zn with the SPIDER array
Marco Rocchini, PhD thesis (2017)
Supervisor: Adriana Nannini - Identification via time of flight of low-energy fragments emitted in heavy-ion reactions
Antonio Maria Buccola, master’s thesis (2017)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Competition between heavy-ion reaction mechanisms as a function of the system isospin
Simone Valdré, PhD thesis (2016)
Supervisor: Giovanni Casini - Study and reconstruction of the decay of the 25Mg system formed in the 12C+13C reactions as a method to outline possible structure effects
Alberto Camaiani, master’s thesis (2016)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Real-time extraction of energy and shape parameters of digitized signals from nuclear radiation detectors
Pietro Ottanelli, master’s thesis (2016)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Tuning of a reading electronic chain for tests on silicon detectors
Caterina Ciampi, bachelor’s thesis (2015)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Test of an apparatus for particle – gamma ray coincidence measurements
Silvia Bettarini, bachelor’s thesis (2015)
Supervisor: Andrea Perego - Measurements of gyromagnetic factors in isomeric states of 174W
Marco Rocchini, master’s thesis (2014)
Supervisors: Adriana Nannini, Giovanna Benzoni (INFN Milan) - Characterization of scintillation light emitted from a CsI(Tl) scintillator for different nuclear species
Antonio Maria Buccola, bachelor’s thesis (2014)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Energy and time measurements with partially depleted silicon detectors
Giuseppe Pastore, master’s thesis (2013)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Effect of radiation damage on the response of a silicon detector
Alberto Camaiani, bachelor’s thesis (2013)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Study and characterization of a trapezoidal filter for digital signals of nuclear physics detectors
Pietro Ottanelli, bachelor’s thesis (2013)
Supervisor: Gabriele Pasquali - Radioactivity measurements using γ-ray spectroscopy of extended sources: analysis of the problem and applications
Marco Rocchini, bachelor’s thesis (2012)
Supervisor: Andrea Stefanini - Study of decay channels of Molybdenum nuclei exited via fusion reactions
Simone Valdré, master’s thesis (2012)
Supervisors: Giovanni Casini, Alessandro Olmi - Nuclear physics at the basis of PET (Positron Emission Tomography): measurements of gamma-gamma coincidences with a source
Giuseppe Pastore, bachelor’s thesis (2011)
Supervisor: Andrea Perego - Effect of the layer resistance on junction and ohmic side on the timing of signals in silicon detectors
Simone Valdré, bachelor’s thesis (2009)
Supervisor: Giacomo Poggi - Lifetime measurements in 122,124Ba
Caterina Michelagnoli, master’s thesis (2009)
Supervisor: Piergiorgio Bizzetti