Lucio Cerrito

Professor of Experimental Physics of Fundamental Interactions
Director of the Physics Department - Coordinator of the Division of Natural, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences
Contacts

Lucio Cerrito is a particle physicist who currently works on the ATLAS experiment at CERN's proton-proton Large Hadron Collider.

Cerrito is interested in studying the properties of subatomic particles, including the production and mass of the top quark, the associated production of W-bosons with bottom and charm quarks, and the Higgs boson in high-energy hadronic collisions. The analysis of the production and dynamics of heavy quarks at the energy frontier could lead to the discovery of unknown particles and forces, advancing our understanding of the Universe and its space-time fabric.

Professor Cerrito works on the ATLAS experiment since 2007 and has been a member of the CDF Collaboration at the Tevatron collider in the USA since the early 2000’s. With CDF, Cerrito measured properties of the W boson (the polarisation at high transverse momentum) and of the top quark (the production rate and mass), worked on the early alignment of the tracking detector and was responsible for the operations of the central muon detectors during the Run II commissioning phase and until 2004. In 2004, Prof. Cerrito investigated a claim of new physics in W and jets with semileptonic B decays. He went on to study the charge correlation of W and B in top pairs and while searching for anomalies on the charge signs of the muon from the semileptonic heavy quark decay and the accompanying W, he performed the first measurement of W+charm production cross section. This technique allows the direct determination of the strange quark density in the proton. In 2016, prof. Cerrito used ATLAS data to perform the first search for CP violation in B mesons produced from top-quark decays, and in 2019 he led ATLAS most precise top quark mass measurement using semileptonic B decays.

Professor Cerrito has held academic positions at Queen Mary University of London, the University of Oxford and the University of Illinois, and visiting scientist positions at CERN, Fermilab and the University of Southampton. He was awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2015 for the project NPTEV-TQP2020, and is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics and of the UK Advance Higher Education.

EDUCATION
- Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics, University College London, 2002
- Laurea in Fisica, “Sapienza” University of Rome, 1998
- Postgraduate Certificate on Academic Practice, Queen Mary University of London, 2009

ACADEMIC POSITIONS HELD
-Reader in Particle Physics, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, UK), 2013 -16
-Lecturer of Experimental Particle Physics, Queen Mary University of London (UK), 2006 -13
-PPARC Research Fellow, University of Oxford (UK), 2005-06.
-Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), 2002-05

MAIN MANAGEMENT and PANELS 
-Director of the Physics Department, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2024-27)
-Coordinator of the Division of Natural, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2021-24)
-Vice Director of the Physics Department, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2018-24)
-Member of the University's Technology Transfer Committee, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2022-25)
-Deputy Team Leader, ATLAS University of Rome Tor Vergata group (2018-)
-Convener, ATLAS Top Quark Mass measurements Group (2017-19)
-Member of the University’s Research Committee, University of Rome Tor Vergata (2019-22)
-Member of the Group of Evaluation Experts (GEV), Physical Sciences, ANVUR VQR 2015-19 (2020-22)
-Member of the national panel 02/A1 (experimental HEP) of the Italian Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (2016-18)
-Convener, ATLAS Top Quark Cross Section Group, (2011-12)
-Member of the UK Science and Technology Projects Peer Review Panel, (STFC) 2010-11
-Deputy Team Leader, ATLAS Queen Mary University London group (2011-16)
-Institute Representative, ATLAS Trigger and DAQ board, 2009-
-Coordinator of the QM London ATLAS Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger group (2009-16)
-Convener, ATLAS-UK Top Physics Group, 2008-10
-Convener, CDF Muon Software Group (2003-2005)

AFFILIATIONS and PRIZES
-Grantee of the European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant (2015-21)
-Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics (Elected 2018)
-Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (Admitted 2009)
-Recipient of the QMUL Science and Engineering Research Performance Award (2013)
-Co-recipient of the 2019 EPS-HEP Prize to the CDF and D0 Collaborations (2019) “for the discovery and detailed measurements of the top quark”
-Co-recipient of the 2013 EPS-HEP Prize to the ATLAS Collaboration (2013) “for the discovery of the Higgs boson”
-Recipient of a UK Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2011)
-Recipient of a UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Fellowship (2005-08)
-Member of the European Physical Society (2015-)
-Member of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN (2007-)
-Member of the CDF Collaboration at FermiLab (2000-)

Books

Radiation and Detectors, Introduction to the Physics of Radiation and Detection Devices by Lucio Cerrito, Ed. Springer (2017).

I am author of over 1000 publications. Click here for a full Publications List (Spires database search)

Select Publications

  1. A. Belyaev, L. Cerrito, E. Lunghi, S. Moretti, N. Sherril, Probing CPT invariance with top quarks at the LHC, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 221601 (2024), arXiv:2405.12162 (2024) [hep-ph]

  2. ATLAS+CMS Collaborations, Combination of measurements of the top quark mass from data collected by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at √s=7 and 8 TeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 261902 (2024) arXiv:2402.08713 [hep-ex] 

  3. ATLAS Collaboration, Search for flavor-changing neutral-current couplings between the top quark and the Zboson with LHC Run 2 proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s}=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Rev. D 108 (2023) 032019, arXiv:2301.11605 [hep-ex] (2022) 

  4. ATLAS Collaboration, Measurement of the top quark mass using a leptonic invariant mass in pp collisions at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, JHEP 06 (2023) 019, arXiv:2209.00583 [hep-ex] (2022) 

  5. ATLAS Collaboration, Measurement of charge and CP asymmetries in b-hadron decays using top-quark events collected by the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at sqrt{s}=8TeV, JHEP 02 (2017) 071, arXiv:1610.07869[hep-ex] (2016)

  6. CDF Collaboration, Observation of the Production of a W Boson in Association with a Single Charm Quark, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 071801 (2013), arXiv:1209.1921 (2012).

  7. ATLAS Collaboration, Performance of the ATLAS Trigger in the 2010 running at the LHC., European Physics Journal C72 1849 (2012).

  8. ATLAS Collaboration, Measurement of the top quark pair production cross-section with ATLAS in the single lepton channel, Physics Letters B 711 244-263 (2012)

  9. ATLAS Collaboration, Measurement of the top quark pair production cross-section with ATLAS in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV , European Physics Journal C, 71 (2011) 1577, arXiv:1012.1792 [hep-ex] (2010).

  10. CDF Collaboration, Exclusion of an Exotic Top Quark with -4/3 Electric Charge Using Soft Lepton Tagging, arXiv:1006.4597v1 (2010), Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 101801 (2010).

  11. CDF Collaboration, Measurement of the Top Quark Mass Using the Invariant Mass of Lepton Pairs in Soft Muon b-tagged Events arXiv:0906.5371v1 [hep-ex], Physical Review D (R) 80 051104 (2009).

  12. CDF Collaboration, Measurement of the t-tbar Production Cross Section in 2~fb^-1 of p-pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV Using Lepton Plus Jets Events with Soft Muon b-Tagging. Physical Review D 79, 052007 (2009).

  13. CDF Collaboration, First measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. Physical Review Letters 100, 091803 (2008).

  14. CDF Collaboration, Search for anomalous semileptonic decay of heavy flavour quarks produced in association with a W boson. Physical Review D, RC73 051101 (2006).

  15. CDF Collaboration, Measurement of the top-antitop production cross section in proton anti-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using lepton plus jets events with soft muon b-tagging. Physical Review D 72, 032002 (2005).

  16. CDF Collaboration, First measurements of inclusive W and Z cross sections from Run II of the Tevatron Collider. Physical Review Letters 94, 091803 (2005).

  17. CDF Collaboration, Measurement of the polar angle distribution of leptons from W boson decay as a function of the W transverse momentum in proton anti-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. Physical Review D 70, 032004 (2004).

Other Select Documents

- L. Cerrito, on behalf of the ATLAS Collaboration, Highlights on top quark physics with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, ATL-PHYS-PROC-2023-068 (2023)
- L. Cerrito et al, Measurement of the top quark pair production cross-section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV in the single-lepton channel using semileptonic b decays, ATLAS- CONF-2012-131 (2012)

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

-Upgrade of the ATLAS Level-1 Muon Trigger
-Measurement of the production, properties and mass of the top quark
-Measurement of associated W and heavy quark
-European Research Council action NPTEV-TQP2020

 

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Teaching in the Physics Department
ID Course Name Semester Length CFU
Particle Physics First 14 Weeks 6
Physics of Energy and the Environment First 14 Weeks 6