Francesco Iachello

Research Areas

Theoretical Physics
Research Website

Biographical Sketch

Co-developed (with A. Arima) the interacting boson model of nuclei (1976). Introduced supersymmetry in nuclei (1980). Developed the vibron model of molecules (1981). Current research interests: (i) Theory of quantum phase transitions (QPT) and excited state quantum phase transitions (ESQPT) in Bose- and mixed Bose-Fermi systems, with applications to nuclei and molecules. (ii) Theory of double beta decay with and without the emission of two neutrinos for the determination of the neutrino mass. (iii) Algebraic theory of clustering with applications to the alpha-clustering structure of light nuclei.

Selected Awards

Eugene Wigner Medal, 1990
Tom Bonner Prize, APS, 1993
Lise Meiter Medal, EPS, 2002
Somaini Volta Prize, 2009
Enrico Fermi Prize, IPS, 2010

Honorary Doctorates

University of Ferrara, Italy, 1992
University of Sevilla, Spain, 1992
Chung Yuan University, Republic of China, 1993
University of Bucharest, Romania, 2005
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, 2016
Technical University, Darmstadt, Germany, 2017
University of Catania, Italy, 2018

Honorary Professorships

Nanjing University, China, 1995
University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 1997
Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China, 2017

Recent Publications

1. M.A. Caprio, P. Cejnar and F. Iachello, Excited state quantum phase transitions in many-body systems, Ann. Phys. 323 (2008) 1106-1135.
2. J. Kotila and F. Iachello, Phase space factors for double beta decay, Phys. Rev. C 85, 034316 (2012) (13pp).
3. J. Barea, J. Kotila, and F. Iachello, Nuclear matrix elements for double-beta decay, Phys. Rev. C 87, 014315 (2013) (20pp).
4. R. Bijker and F. Iachello, The algebraic cluster model: Structure of 16O, Nucl. Phys. A957, 154-176 (2017).
5. V. Della Rocca, R. Bijker, and F. Iachello, Single-particle levels in cluster potentials, Nucl. Phys. A966, 158-184 (2017).

Education

Ph.D., M.I.T., 1969