CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

    In the last years my research concentrated mainly on the following two systems:
1) the quantum double pendulum: it is a low dimensional autonomous system which in the classical limit displays chaotic behaviour . It is simple enough to allow an extensive study which will be able to shed light on more complex chaotic autonomous systems being studied currently: e.g. the Hydrogen atom in crossed static electric and magnetic fields and the Helium atom. In a paper I just published, I have performed a study of energy curves and compared Husimi functions of eigenstates at important avoided crossings with the corresponding classical surfaces of section. I am now studying the behaviour of suitable packets.
2) Stochastic ionisation of Alkali-metal atoms: microwave experiments with Alkali atoms are easier to perform than with Hydrogen; on the other hand, core effects cause significant deviations from the hydrogenic behaviour. The numerical simulations published by A. Buchleitner and his collaborators are in very good agreement with the laboratory experiment but are very time consuming; moreover only very qualitative arguments and no model has yet been advanced to interpret the regimes where Alkali ionisation deviates from that of Hydrogen. For regime II of A. Buchleitner and coworkers, where quantum effects are still dominant, I developed an evaluation of the ionisation threshold based on the similarities between the phase space structures of Alkali in monochromatic microwave fields and Hydrogen in a bichromatic field. The results are due to be published on Phys. Rev. A. I am currently working on the regimeof very low microwave frequencies (regime III of A. Buchleitner and coworkers), where a classical explanation is possible.