Nicola Vittorio

Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics
President of the Coordination Board of the the Tor Vergata PhD programs ---- Coordinator of the PhD program in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science
Contacts

Welcome to my webpage of the Physics Dept.

I am happy to share with you some info about my career and my interests.

Unfortunately for me, I have been in the Italian university system for 39 years. After a period of post-graduate scholarships at the Italian National Research Council, I became a University Researcher at the age of 27, in 1981, at the Astronomical Institute of the University of Rome La Sapienza. Then, I became Associate Professor at the age of 33 at the Physics Department of the University of L'Aquila, and Full Professor at the Physics Department of this University when I was 40 years old.

I am a national fellow of the Academy of Sciences of Turin, distinguished member of the Italian Physical Society, member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, of the European Physical Society, of the International Astronomical Union, of the Italian Astronomical Society, and of the Italian Society for the Advancement of Science.

After a four-year period spent at the Astronomy Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Astronomy Department of the University of Chicago, I have been actively working on the theoretical predictions for the anisotropies of cosmic background radiation (CMB), providing the first estimate of small-scale angular anisotropy in a universe dominated by Cold Dark Matter (Vittorio, N., & Silk, J., Fine-scale anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in a universe dominated by cold dark matter, (1984), The Astrophysical Journal, 285, L39). Since then, I’ve participated in several international collaborations, for the realization of balloon and satellite experiments. I was co-Investigator of the Planck satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA/Planck) cwhich provided the definitive picture of the angular anisotropies in temperature of the cosmic background radiation.

It is now necessary to make a step further and studying the anisotropies of the polarized component of the cosmic background radiation. This is of fundamental importance, because from this study it will be possible to reveal the existence of a stochastic background of gravitational waves due to quantum fluctuations of the vacuum energy during the inflationary period, an accelerated phase of the universe that has generated an expansion of 60-efolds [e60] at epochs very close (10-37s) to the Big Bang and at temperatures (T ~ 1016 GeV) otherwise inaccessible in any terrestrial laboratory.

Thus, cosmology will be able to provide fundamental information not only for large-scale structure and galaxy formation models, but also for the physics beyond the standard model.

On this line, I’m the Scientific Coordinator of a Grant of the Italian Space Agency-ASI, to support the Italian community to participate to the Phase-A study of LiteBIRD, a space mission selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency-JAXA in June 2019, with the aim of detecting the CMB B-mode polarization. This Grant is meant to coordinate the scientific/programmatic activities of other ten Italian institutions involved in the project.

The research I carried out in these years has contributed to forming an Italian school in this field. I have graduated 29 students, and of these 9 got a PhD under my supervision. Several of my students now occupy important positions in Italian universities and research centers.

The metrics of my scientific production today includes the publication of 210 articles in international refereed journals, 25034 citations (referenced and without self-citations) and an h-index of 77. You can have more details by clicking on “Publications” in the banner at the top right.

Textbooks

  • N. Vittorio, Cosmology, CRC Press – Taylor and Francis Group, 2017
  • A. Bonincontro, N. Vittorio, Meccanica e Termodinamica, Casa Editrice CEA, 1992

Articles with more than 100 refereed citations (credit: NASA-ADS):

  1. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A16 (6653 cit.).
  2. de Bernardis, P., Ade, P. A. R., Bock, J. J., Bond, J. R., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., A flat Universe from high-resolution maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation, (2000), Nature, 404, 955 (2109 cit.).
  3. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A22 (1581 cit.).
  4. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Alves, M. I. R., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A1 (1295 cit.).
  5. Mazzotta, P., Mazzitelli, G., Colafrancesco, S., & Vittorio, N., Ionization balance for optically thin plasmas: Rate coefficients for all atoms and ions of the elements H to NI, (1998), Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 133, 403 (882 cit.).
  6. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXIV. Constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A24 (693 cit.).
  7. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XV. CMB power spectra and likelihood, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A15 (588 cit.).
  8. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXIII. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A23 (517 cit.).
  9. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XX. Cosmology from Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster counts, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A20 (490 cit.).
  10. Planck Collaboration, Abergel, A., Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Alves, M. I. R., Aniano, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XI. All-sky model of thermal dust emission, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A11 (397 cit.).
  11. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. I. The Planck mission, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A1 (388 cit.).
  12. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXIX. The Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A29 (350 cit.).
  13. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XVII. Gravitational lensing by large-scale structure, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A17 (340 cit.).
  14. Planck Collaboration, Aghanim, N., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, C., Ballardini, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck intermediate results. XLVI. Reduction of large-scale systematic effects in HFI polarization maps and estimation of the reionization optical depth, (2016), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 596, A107 (333 cit.)
  15. Planck Collaboration, Adam, R., Aghanim, N., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck intermediate results. XLVII. Planck constraints on reionization history, (2016), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 596, A108 (329 cit.).
  16. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. VIII. The all-sky early Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster sample, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A8 (326 cit.).
  17. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XIX. All-sky temperature and dust optical depth from Planck and IRAS. Constraints on the "dark gas" in our Galaxy, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A19 (269 cit.).
  18. Tauber, J. A., Mandolesi, N., Puget, J.-L., Banos, T., Bersanelli, M., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck pre-launch status: The Planck mission, (2010), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 520, A1 (261 cit.).
  19. Montroy, T. E., Ade, P. A. R., Bock, J. J., Bond, J. R., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., A Measurement of the CMB <EE> Spectrum from the 2003 Flight of BOOMERANG, (2006), The Astrophysical Journal, 647, 813 (252 cit.).
  20. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXV. Searches for cosmic strings and other topological defects, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A25 (251 cit.).
  21. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. VII. The Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A7 (243 cit.).
  22. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XII. Diffuse component separation, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A12 (242 cit.).
  23. Jones, W. C., Ade, P. A. R., Bock, J. J., Bond, J. R., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., A Measurement of the Angular Power Spectrum of the CMB Temperature Anisotropy from the 2003 Flight of BOOMERANG, (2006), The Astrophysical Journal, 647, 823 (229 cit.).
  24. MacTavish, C. J., Ade, P. A. R., Bock, J. J., Bond, J. R., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Cosmological Parameters from the 2003 Flight of BOOMERANG, (2006), The Astrophysical Journal, 647, 799 (220 cit.).
  25. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Atrio-Barandela, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck intermediate results. V. Pressure profiles of galaxy clusters from the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, (2013), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 550, A131 (216 cit.).
  26. Melchiorri, A., Ade, P. A. R., de Bernardis, P., Bock, J. J., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., A Measurement of Ω from the North American Test Flight of Boomerang, (2000), The Astrophysical Journal, 536, L63 (210 cit.).
  27. Vittorio, N., & Silk, J., Fine-scale anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background in a universe dominated by cold dark matter, (1984), The Astrophysical Journal, 285, L39 (192 cit.).
  28. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XVIII. The power spectrum of cosmic infrared background anisotropies, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A18 (185 cit.).
  29. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXX. Cosmic infrared background measurements and implications for star formation, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A30 (178 cit.)
  30. Planck Collaboration, Abergel, A., Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XXV. Thermal dust in nearby molecular clouds, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A25 (173 cit.).
  31. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XI. Calibration of the local galaxy cluster Sunyaev-Zeldovich scaling relations, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A11 (171 cit.).
  32. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XIX. The integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A19 (165 cit.).
  33. Mauskopf, P. D., Ade, P. A. R., de Bernardis, P., Bock, J. J., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Measurement of a Peak in the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum from the North American Test Flight of Boomerang, (2000), The Astrophysical Journal, 536, L59 (162 cit.).
  34. Piacentini, F., Ade, P. A. R., Bock, J. J., Bond, J. R., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., A Measurement of the Polarization-Temperature Angular Cross-Power Spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the 2003 Flight of BOOMERANG, (2006), The Astrophysical Journal, 647, 833 (161 cit.).
  35. Planck Collaboration, Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Atrio-Barandela, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXVII. Doppler boosting of the CMB: Eppur si muove, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A27 (160 cit.).
  36. Planck Collaboration, Abergel, A., Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XXIV. Dust in the diffuse interstellar medium and the Galactic halo, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A24 (158 cit.).
  37. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XX. New light on anomalous microwave emission from spinning dust grains, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A20 (158 cit.).
  38. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Argüeso, F., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXVIII. The Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A28 (156 cit.).
  39. Hansen, F. K., Cabella, P., Marinucci, D., & Vittorio, N., Asymmetries in the Local Curvature of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Data, (2004), The Astrophysical Journal, 607, L67 (153 cit.).
  40. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Alves, M. I. R., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. Galactic CO emission, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A13 (150 cit.).
  41. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XXIII. The first all-sky survey of Galactic cold clumps, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A23 (150 cit.).
  42. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXI. Power spectrum and high-order statistics of the Planck all-sky Compton parameter map, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A21 (142 cit.).
  43. Planck Collaboration, Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. X. Statistical analysis of Sunyaev-Zeldovich scaling relations for X-ray galaxy clusters, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A10 (135 cit.).
  44. Planck Collaboration, Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. IX. XMM-Newton follow-up for validation of Planck cluster candidates, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A9 (130 cit.).
  45. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. HFI spectral response, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A9 (128 cit.).
  46. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XXVI. Background geometry and topology of the Universe, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A26 (122 cit.).
  47. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. XVIII. The gravitational lensing-infrared background correlation, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A18 (122 cit.).
  48. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XVII. Origin of the submillimetre excess dust emission in the Magellanic Clouds, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A17 (121 cit.).
  49. Bersanelli, M., Mandolesi, N., Butler, R. C., Mennella, A., Villa, F., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck pre-launch status: Design and description of the Low Frequency Instrument, (2010), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 520, A4 (119 cit.).
  50. Mennella, A., Bersanelli, M., Butler, R. C., Curto, A., Cuttaia, F., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. First assessment of the Low Frequency Instrument in-flight performance, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A3 (117 cit.).
  51. Planck Collaboration, Abergel, A., Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XXI. Properties of the interstellar medium in the Galactic plane, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A21 (114 cit.).
  52. Planck Collaboration, Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XII. Cluster Sunyaev-Zeldovich optical scaling relations, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A12 (112 cit.).
  53. Finelli, F., Bucher, M., Achúcarro, A., Ballardini, M., Bartolo, N., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Inflation, (2018), Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2018, 016 (110 cit.).
  54. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Atrio-Barandela, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck intermediate results. XI. The gas content of dark matter halos: the Sunyaev-Zeldovich-stellar mass relation for locally brightest galaxies, (2013), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 557, A52 (110 cit.).
  55. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. VIII. HFI photometric calibration and mapmaking, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A8 (109 cit.).
  56. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, M., Atrio-Barandela, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck intermediate results. IX. Detection of the Galactic haze with Planck, (2013), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 554, A139 (108 cit.).
  57. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Argüeso, F., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck early results. XIII. Statistical properties of extragalactic radio sources in the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, (2011), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 536, A13 (106 cit.).
  58. Masi, S., Ade, P. A. R., Bock, J. J., Bond, J. R., Borrill, J., ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Instrument, method, brightness, and polarization maps from the 2003 flight of BOOMERanG, (2006), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 458, 687 (106 cit.).
  59. Planck Collaboration, Ade, P. A. R., Aghanim, N., Armitage-Caplan, C., Arnaud, M., Ashdown, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck 2013 results. VI. High Frequency Instrument data processing, (2014), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 571, A6 (104 cit.).
  60. Planck Collaboration, Aghanim, N., Akrami, Y., Ashdown, M., Aumont, J., Baccigalupi, ..., Vittorio, N., ..., et al., Planck intermediate results. LI. Features in the cosmic microwave background temperature power spectrum and shifts in cosmological parameters, (2017), Astronomy and Astrophysics, 607, A95 (102 cit.).
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Teaching in the Physics Department
ID Course Name Semester Length CFU
Advanced Cosmology First 14 Weeks 6
Relativity and Cosmology Second 14 Weeks 6