Research interests

My research interests concern the rather broad realm of Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics, with a special focus on the study of deterministic and stochastic particle systems and their numerical modelling through Monte Carlo simulations.

One research line addresses the onset of nonequilibrium phase transitions in deteministic billiard dynamics in two-dimensional circular and polygonal urns, subject to the action of a kind of Maxwell's demon mimicking the effect of short-range interactions between particles. 

In my research activity I also advocate the derivation of model reduction procedures for kinetic and stochastic differential equations, by exploiting classical mathematical tools and methods of kinetic theory of gases (e.g. the invariant manifold method, the Chapman-Enskog expansion, Maximum Entropy principle).

Moreover, a fraction of my research work also targets the study of the hydrodynamic limits of interacting particle systems (e.g. Zero Range processes) and cellular automata in a bounded region, subject to prescribed boundary conditions. One of the main achievements of such research endeavour resulted in the analytical and numerical characterization of stationary non-Fickian currents, known as "uphill diffusions", sustained by a phase transition.