www.iiassvietri.it

Research outline

 Gravitational microlensing.

In collaboration with A. Gould (OSU, US), search for extrasolar planets towards M31 with the LBT (Arizona, US). Principal Investigator of the PLAN collaboration for the search and the characterization of microlensing events towards M31 in the framework of the search for dark matter in form of compact objects (MACHOs) in galactic halos (the observational programme has been mainly carried out at the Astronomical Observatory of Bologna).

In collaboration with G. Ingrosso (Univ. Salento), theoretical analysis for the search of extrasolar planets in M31 and, for the line of sight towards the Galatic Bulge, of polarization effects related
to gravitational microlensing.
Analysis of the results of the observational campaigns of the collaborations MACHO, OGLE and EROS towards the Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) within the framework of the search for MACHOs.
Participation to the collaboration MiNDSTEp (PIs U. Jorgensen and M. Dominik) for the search of extrasolar planets towards the Galactic Bulge with observations at the Danish telescope (La Silla, ESo, Chile).

Within the same collaboration several parallel projects are carried out, in particular the characterization of extrasolar planets with the transit method. (a programme carried out by J. Southworth)

The search and the characterizationof extrasolar planets with gravitational microlensing and the transit method are also carried out at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Salerno.

Research groups: