ALLEGATO C
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO
Procedura di selezione per la chiamata a professore di II fascia da ricoprire
ai sensi dell’art. 18, comma 1, della Legge n. 240/2010 per il settore
concorsuale 02/C1 - Astronomia, Astrofisica, Fisica della Terra e dei Pianeti ,
(settore scientifico-disciplinare FIS/05 - Astronomia e Astrofisica)
presso il Dipartimento di Fisica,
(avviso bando pubblicato sulla G.U. n. 65 del 22-8-2014) - Codice concorso 2835
MICHELA MAPELLI
CURRICULUM VITAE
INFORMAZIONI PERSONALI/PERSONAL INFORMATION
COGNOME/SURNAME
MAPELLI
NOME/NAME
MICHELA
DATA DI NASCITA/
DATE
OF
16/ 01 / 1977
BIRTH
ATTIVITÀ DI RICERCA E PUBBLICAZIONI SCIENTIFICHE
/ RESEARCH ACTIVITY AND SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
CONTACT DETAILS:
Michela Mapelli (PhD)
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, I – 35122 Padova, Italy
Email: michela.mapelli@oapd.inaf.it
Phone: +39 049 8293527
Web: http://web.pd.astro.it/mapelli/
EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENT:
- 08/2011 – now:
PERMANENT RESEARCHER (ricercatore III livello tempo indeterminato)
at INAF (Italian National Institute for Astophysics) Osservatorio
Astronomico di Padova;
- 11/2009 – 07/2011: Postdoctoral fellow, Physics Department G. Occhialini, University of Milano
Bicocca;
- 01/2007 – 10/2009: Postdoc (Forschungskredit fellow, since July 2009), Institute for Theoretical
Physics, University of Zurich;
- 11/2006 – 12/2006: Visitor, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen;
- 11/2003 – 10/2006: Ph.D. student, SISSA/ISAS (International School for Advanced Studies),
Trieste. Ph.D. in Astrophysics obtained on October 19th 2006, Thesis on
`Relic signatures of reionization sources', supervisor: prof. Andrea Ferrara;
- 03/2003 – 10/2003: pre-doctoral fellow, Physics Department, University of Milano Bicocca;
- 10/1998 – 02/2003: undergraduate student, Physics Department, University of Milano Bicocca.
Master in Physics (Italian university degree) obtained on February 25th 2003,
mark 110/110 cum laude. Thesis on `Four-body interactions in globular
clusters: the case of the millisecond pulsar PSR J1911-5958A', supervisor:
prof. Monica Colpi.
1
PRIZES, AWARDS and FELLOWSHIPS:
– Mention in 'Women in Italian astronomy' (2014) by Francesca Matteucci and Raffaele Gratton
http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.1952
– Awarded the Italian National Scientific Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) to
become an associate professor, December 2013
(http://abilitazione.miur.it/public/index.php?lang=eng)
– Awarded a permanent research position at INAF (Italian National Institute for Astrophysics)
in October 2010 (the position started in August 2011).
– Independent Postdoctoral Fellowship 2009 at the University of Milano Bicocca.
– Forschungskredit Fellowship 2008 at the University of Zurich.
– Gratton Prize 2007 for the best Italian Ph.D. Thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 20052006.
– Tacchini Prize 2007 of the Italian Astronomical Society (SAIt) for the five best Italian Ph.D.
theses in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2006.
GRANTS:
– 2012 CO-PI of the FIRB (Future in Research, Italian grant for excellent young researchers)
project `New perspectives on the violent Universe: unveiling the physics of compact objects
with joint observations of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation'.
NOTE: this project is the only astrophysical proposal (PE9) that was funded in the
FIRB 2012 call (success rate <2%).
National coordinator and head of the Urbino University Research Unit (RU): Marica
Branchesi; head of the INAF RU: Michela Mapelli; head of the Pisa University RU:
Massimiliano Razzano.
Awarded 958.49k EUR for 3 years (2013-2016)
– 2012 CO-I of the CONACYT (Mexican grant) proposal `Nearby and distant spheroids: cuttingedge theoretical tools for the analysis of stellar populations' (PI E. Bertone, INAOE, Puebla,
Mexico),
awarded 661.3k PESOS for 2 years (2013-2014).
– 2012 CO-I of the PRIN-INAF `Challenging Ultraluminous X-ray sources' (PI L. Zampieri,
INAF-OAPd),
awarded 41k EUR for 2 years (2012-2013).
– 2009 fellowship at the University of Milano Bicocca (project title: `Understanding galaxy
formation'), PI: M. Mapelli, 0 CO-Is
awarded 20k EUR/year for 2+2 years.
– 2008 Forschungskredit fellowship at the University of Zurich, PI: M. Mapelli, 0 CO-Is,
awarded 60k EUR for 12 months.
– 2007 Gratton Prize for the best Italian PhD Thesis in Astrophysics 2005-2006,
awarded 7.5k EUR.
ACCEPTED COMPUTATIONAL PROPOSALS:
– 2013 PI of the proposal `Star formation in proximity of a supermassive black hole' at
CINECA (Italy),
2.28M CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH simulations on the IBM Blue Gene/Q Fermi.
- 2013 PI of the proposal `Making very massive stars through stellar collisions' at CINECA,
50k CPU hours awarded for N-body simulations with GPUs on the Eurora cluster.
2
– 2013 CO-I of the proposal `Testing and parallelizing the new hybrid Monte Carlo code MYSCE'
(PI: Galanti) at CINECA (Italy),
250.0k CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH simulations on the IBM Blue Gene/Q Fermi
and on the EURORA cluster.
– 2013 CO-I of the proposal `Investigating the statistics and parameter space of double compact
object binaries in young star clusters' (PI: Ziosi) at CINECA (Italy),
50.0k CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH simulations on the IBM PLX and on the
EURORA cluster.
– 2012 PI of the proposal `The violent life of the Galactic Centre', at CINECA (Italy),
281.6k CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH simulations on the IBM PLX and on the
IBM Blue Gene/Q Fermi cluster.
– 2012 CO-I of the proposal `Computational Frontiers of Black Hole Dynamics' (PI: Ripamonti), at
CINECA,
50k CPU hours awarded for simulations with GPUs on the IBM PLX cluster.
– 2011 PI of the proposal `The fate of ring galaxies', at CINECA,
216k CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH simulations on the IBM SP6 and on the Fermi
cluster.
– 2011 CO-I of the proposal `Massive black holes in young star clusters' (PI: Ripamonti), at
CINECA,
48.8k CPU hours awarded for simulations with GPUs on the IBM PLX cluster.
– 2011 PI of the proposal `The fate of ring galaxies: preliminary tests', at CINECA,
18k CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH sim. on the IBM SP6 and BGP clusters.
– 2011 CO-I of the proposal `Stellar dynamics with GPUs' (PI: Ripamonti), at CINECA,
16k CPU hours awarded for simulations with GPUs on the IBM PLX cluster.
– 2008 PI of the proposal `Formation of massive stars in the Galactic Centre', at the Swiss
National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano (Switzerland),
150k CPU hours awarded for N-body/SPH simulations on the CRAY XT3 cluster at the
CSCS.
ACCEPTED OBSERVATIONAL PROPOSALS:
– 2014: PI of TNG proposal `The environment of the ultraluminous X-ray sources in the interacting
galaxy pair NGC 4490/NGC 4485' (AOT29 2014A TNG - ID 2, 2 hours)
– 2004 – now: CO-I in many observational proposals. Accepted proposals in 2011-2013: 1 ESO
proposal (3 nights), 2 TNG proposals (4 nights), 2 XMM proposals (112ksec), 1 Chandra
proposal (71ksec), 1 GRANTECAN proposal (7.2 hours).
COLLOQUIA AND TALKS AT CONFERENCES:
– 13 invited colloquia at international research institutes and universities since my PhD defense (5
in 2013-2014).
– 25 oral presentations at international conferences since my PhD defense (8 in 2013-2014), among
which 7 invited talks and 1 invited review talk.
List of most recent invited colloquia (2010-2014):
– University of Surrey, UK, `The violent life of the Galactic centre', May 22, 2014
– SISSA/ISAS, Trieste, Italy, `The sarabande of stars and black holes in dense young star clusters ', February
18, 2014
– IASF Bologna, Bologna, Italy, `New perspectives on the violent Universe: unveiling the physics of
compact objects with joint observations of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation',
December 18, 2013
3
– University 'La Sapienza', Rome, Italy, `Simulating young star clusters with different metallicity: impact on
structural evolution and stellar exotica', May 6, 2013
– IRAP, Toulouse, France, `Massive stellar black holes and intermediate-mass black holes: formation
pathways and observational fingerprints', March 7, 2013
– INAF, Brera Observatory (Milano, Italy), `Dynamics of massive stellar black holes', November 23, 2011
– Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Padua (Padova, Italy), `Galaxy clashes and perturbed
galaxies', September 8, 2011
– University of Bologna and INAF-Bologna Observatory (Bologna, Italy), `Massive stellar black holes
in low-metallicity environments’, November 18, 2010
– Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland), `Massive stellar black holes’,
September 22, 2010
List of most recent talks at workshops and conferences (2010-2014):
– Astro-GR@Rome, `Gravitational waves and electromagnetic observations of dense stellar systems',
July 14-18 2014, Rome, Italy, invited talk
– MODEST 14, `The dance of stars: dense stellar systems from infant to old', June 2 - 6 2014, Bad Honnef,
Germany, contributed talk
– Science Workshop on `ULXs - Implications for our View of the Universe', Lorentz Center, Leiden, The
Netherlands, March 31- April 4, 2014, invited review talk
– Meeting `Challenging ultraluminous X-ray sources', University of Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy, January
30-31 2014, invited talk
– GH 2013, Massive Young Star Clusters Near and Far: From the Milky Way to Re-ionization, Puebla,
Mexico, December 2-6, 2013, contributed talk
– High Energy Tidal Disruption Events: Looking at the Future, Favignana, Italy September 23-26, 2013,
invited talk
– Black hole (g)astronomy, Brindisi, Italy, 2-6 September 2013, contributed talk
– 20th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR20) and 10 th Amaldi Conference
on Gravitational Waves (Amaldi10), Warsaw, Poland, 7-13 July 2013, contributed talk
– X-ray Astronomy: towards the next 50 years!, Milano, Italy, 1-5 October 2012, contributed talk
– Half a Century of X-ray Astronomy, Mykonos, Greece, 17-21 September 2012, contributed talk
– European week of astronomy and space science (EWASS) 2012, Gaia Research for European Astronomy
Training: GREAT Network Science Symposium, Roma, Italy, July 4-6 2012, contributed talk
– EWASS 2012, Special Session `Morphology and kinematics of interacting galaxies', Roma, Italy,
July 5th 2012, contributed talk
– Black hole Universe 2012, Bamberg, Germany, June 18-22 2012, contributed talk
– 1st Science Workshop of the Gaia Italia Community, Science with Gaia: revising the Italian selection of
main themes, Bologna, Italy, December 12-14 2011, invited talk
– Galaxy Evolution and Environment 2, Milano, Italy, November 7-9 2011, contributed talk
– Aspen Summer Meeting, Stellar and Intermediate Mass Black Holes: Gravitational Physics and Radiation
Sources Across the Universe', Aspen, CO, US, June 6-26, 2011, invited participant, blackboard talk
– Primordial Black Holes and how to grow BHs, COST ACTION MP0905 - BLACK HOLES IN A
VIOLENT UNIVERSE, IRA-INAF, Bologna, Italy, April 12-13 2011, contributed talk
– Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources and Middle Weight Black Holes, European Space Astronomy Centre
(ESAC), Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain, May 24-26 2010, contributed talk
MEMBERSHIPS and COLLABORATIONS:
– 2013 – now: Member of the VMC survey (The VISTA near-infrared YJKs survey of the
Magellanic System)
– 2012 – now: Member of the GAIA–ESO survey
– 2012 – now: Member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
– 2003 – now: 43 co-authors of published papers working in 8 different countries, inside and
outside Europe. Main collaborations with SISSA/ISAS and with the University of Zurich.
SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS:
Star formation and dynamics in the Galactic centre – Dynamics of star clusters and galaxies – stellar
and intermediate mass black holes – X-ray binaries and ultra-luminous X-ray sources – blue
straggler stars – dark ages and reionization epoch
4
PUBLICATIONS:
i) PUBLICATION SUMMARY:
70 publications in international journals, among which
52 publications in peer-reviewed international journals: Nature (1), Astrophysical
Journal (8), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (34), Astronomy
& Astrophysics (2), New Astronomy (1), Astronomische Nachrichten (4), other
peer-reviewed journals (2)
40 publications as 1st author (~60%), 15 as 2nd author, 6 as 3rd author,
1 invited review paper (to appear in the Springer Lecture Notes in Physics Series),
61 publications without the Ph.D. supervisor,
8 publications as an advisor.
1131 total citations, 300 normalized citations, 719 citations as 1st author, as of September 12th
2014.
Hirsch index: 19 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index, data from ADS: http://adsabs.harvard.edu).
H-index as 1st author: 15.
ii) SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
(1) Mapelli M., Zampieri L., Ripamonti E., Bressan A., `Dynamics of stellar black holes in young
star clusters with different metallicities - I. Implications for X-ray binaries', 2013, MNRAS, 429,
2298 (15 citations).
(2) Mapelli M., Hayfield T., Mayer L., Wadsley J., `In situ formation of SgrA* stars via disk
fragmentation: parent cloud properties and thermodynamics', 2012, ApJ, 749, 168 (17 citations).
(3) Mapelli M., Colpi M., Zampieri L., `Low metallicity and ultra-luminous X-ray sources in the
Cartwheel galaxy', 2009, MNRAS, 395L, 71 (53 citations).
(4) Mapelli M., Moore B., Ripamonti E., Mayer L., Colpi M., Giordano L., `Are ring galaxies the
ancestors of giant low surface brightness galaxies?', 2008, MNRAS, 383, 1223 (30 citations).
The above paper was presented for its ground-breaking idea in the`News and Views' section
of Nature (by C. Struck, `Astronomy: Dim view of past clashes', 2007, Nature, 450, 956).
(5) Mapelli M., Sigurdsson S., Ferraro F. R., Colpi M., Possenti A., Lanzoni B. , `The radial
distribution of blue stragglers and the nature of their progenitors', 2006, MNRAS, 373, 361 (77
citations).
(6) Mapelli M., Ferrara A., Pierpaoli E., `Impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on
reionization', 2006, MNRAS, 369, 1719 (134 citations).
From these 6 selected publications, it is apparent that my career is quite eclectic: across the years,
my interest extended to a variety of different fields, often working on different topics at the same
time (e.g. dynamics of star clusters and galaxies, formation of stars in the Galactic centre, origin of
blue straggler stars, reionization epoch, stellar and intermediate-mass black holes, ultraluminous Xray sources).
I was able to reach original results and to write important publications in all of these topics. In
particular, my paper about the impact of dark matter annihilations on reionization (publication 6) is
a milestone for the field; my model for the formation of blue straggler stars (publication 5) is
currently accepted as the reference model; the formation pathway of giant low-surface brightness
galaxies I proposed (publication 4) is a novel idea to explain the origin of such puzzling galaxies.
My recent scenario to explain ultraluminous X-ray sources is ground-breaking and meets growing
success in the community (publications 1 and 3).
Finally, publication (2) is one of the most innovative papers which investigate the formation of the
clock-wise disc in the Galactic centre.
5
iii) FULL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS:
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:
52 – Trani A. A., Mapelli M., Bressan A., `The impact of metallicity-dependent mass loss versus dynamical
heating on the early evolution of star cluster', 2014, MNRAS, accepted, http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.3006
51 – Mapelli M., Zampieri L, `Roche-lobe overflow systems powered by black holes in young star clusters:
the importance of dynamical exchanges', 2014, ApJ, in press, http://arxiv.org/abs/1408.1406
50 – Ziosi B. M., Mapelli M., Branchesi M., Tormen G., `Dynamics of stellar black holes in young star
clusters with different metallicities - II. Black hole-black hole binaries', 2014, MNRAS, 441, 3703
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.441.3703Z
49 – Mapelli M., Gualandris A., Hayfield T., `Perturbations induced by a molecular cloud on the young
stellar disc in the Galactic Centre', 2013, MNRAS, 436, 3809
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.436.3809M
48 – Mapelli M., Annibali F., Zampieri L., Soria R., `A disrupted bulgeless satellite galaxy as counterpart of
the ultraluminous X-ray source ESO 243-49 HLX-1', 2013, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 559, 124
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013A%26A...559A.124M
47 – Esposito P., Israel G. L., Sidoli L., Mapelli M., Zampieri L., Motta S. E., `Discovery of a 6.4-hr black
hole binary in NGC 4490', 2013, MNRAS, 436, 3380,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.436.3380E
46 – Mapelli M., Annibali F., Zampieri L., Soria R., `A minor merger scenario for the ultraluminous X-ray
source ESO 243-49 HLX-1 - II. Constraints from photometry' , 2013, MNRAS, 433, 849,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.433..849M
45 – Mapelli M., Bressan A., `Impact of metallicity on the evolution of young star clusters' , 2013, MNRAS,
430, 3120, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.430.3120M
44 – Cotini S., Ripamonti E., Caccianiga A., Colpi M., Della Ceca R., Mapelli M., Severgnini P., Segreto
A., `The merger fraction of active and inactive galaxies in the local Universe through an improved nonparametric classification', 2013, MNRAS, 431, 2661,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.431.2661C
43 – Mapelli M., Zampieri L., Ripamonti E., Bressan A., `Dynamics of stellar black holes in young star
clusters with different metallicities - I. Implications for X-ray binaries', 2013, MNRAS, 429, 2298,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.429.2298M
42 – Ferraro F. R., Lanzoni B., Dalessandro E., Beccari G., Pasquato M., Miocchi P., Rood R. T., Sigurdsson
S., Sills A., Vesperini E., Mapelli M., et al., `Dynamical age differences among coeval star clusters as
revealed by blue stragglers', 2012, Nature, 492, 393, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012Natur.492..393F
41 – Gualandris A., Mapelli M., Perets H., `Eccentric disc instability in stellar discs formed from
inspiralling gas clouds in the Galactic Centre', 2012, MNRAS, 427, 1793,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MNRAS.427.1793G
40- Fiacconi D., Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Colpi M., `Adaptive mesh refinement simulations of collisional
ring galaxies: effects of the interaction geometry', 2012, MNRAS, 425, 2255,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MNRAS.425.2255F
39- Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Vecchio A., Graham Alister W., Gualandris A., `A cosmological view of
extreme mass-ratio inspirals in nuclear star clusters', 2012, A&A, 542A, 102,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012A%26A...542A.102M
38- Mapelli M., Zampieri L., Mayer L., `A minor merger scenario for the ultraluminous X-ray source ESO
243-49 HLX-1', 2012, MNRAS, 423, 1309, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MNRAS.423.1309M
37- Ripamonti E., Mapelli M., `Broad [OIII] in the globular cluster RZ 2109: X-ray ionized nova ejecta?',
2012, MNRAS, 423, 1144, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MNRAS.423.1144R
36- Mapelli M., Hayfield T., Mayer L., Wadsley J., `In situ formation of SgrA* stars via disk fragmentation:
6
parent cloud properties and thermodynamics', 2012, ApJ, 749, 168,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...749..168M
35- Mapelli M., Mayer M., `Ring galaxies from off-centre collisions', 2012, MNRAS, 420, 1158,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MNRAS.420.1158M
34- Monelli M., Cassisi S., Mapelli M., Bernard E. J., Aparicio A., Skillman E. D., Stetson P. B., Gallart C.,
Hidalgo S. L., Mayer L., Tolstoy E., `The ACS LCID project VII: the blue straggler population in the
isolated dsph galaxies Cetus and Tucana', 2012, ApJ, 744, 157,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...744..157M
33- Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Zampieri L., Colpi M., `Dynamics of massive stellar black holes in young
star clusters and the displacement of ultra-luminous X-ray sources', 2011, MNRAS, 416, 1756,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011MNRAS.416.1756M
32- Ripamonti E., Mapelli M., Zampieri L., Colpi M., `The metallicity of the nebula surrounding the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 1313 X-2', 2011, AN, 332, 418,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AN....332..418R
31- Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Zampieri L., Colpi M., `Remnants of massive metal-poor stars: Viable
engines for ultra-luminous X-ray sources', 2011, AN, 332, 414,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AN....332..414M
30- Wolter A., Pizzolato F., Rota S., Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., `The population of ULXs in the spiral
galaxy NGC 2276', 2011, AN, 332, 358, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AN....332..358W
29- Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Zampieri L., Colpi M., Bressan A., `Ultra-luminous X-ray sources and
remnants of massive metal-poor stars', 2010, MNRAS, 408, 234,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010MNRAS.408..234M
28- Mapelli M., Huwyler C., Mayer L., Jetzer Ph., Vecchio A., `Gravitational waves from intermediate-mass
black holes in young clusters', ApJ, 2010, ApJ, 719, 987, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ApJ...719..987M
27- Zampieri L., Colpi M., Mapelli M., Patruno A., Roberts T. P., `Ultraluminous X-ray Sources forming in
low metallicity natal environments', 2010, AIPC, 1248, 97,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010AIPC.1248...97Z
26- Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Battaglia G., Tolstoy E., Irwin M. J., Moore B., Sigurdsson S., `Blue
straggler stars in dwarf spheroidal galaxies - II. Sculptor and Fornax', 2009, MNRAS, 396, 1771,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009MNRAS.396.1771M
25- Mapelli M., Colpi M., Zampieri L., `Low metallicity and ultra-luminous X-ray sources in the Cartwheel
galaxy', 2009, MNRAS, 395L, 71, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009MNRAS.395L..71M
24- Mapelli M., Moore B., `Are ring galaxies the ancestors of giant low surface brightness galaxies?', 2008,
AN, 329, 948, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AN....329..948M
23- D'Onghia E., Mapelli M., Moore B., `Ring galaxy formation rate and merger history'', 2008, MNRAS,
389, 1275, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.389.1275D
22- Mapelli M., Moore B., Bland-Hawthorn J., `Lopsided galaxies: the case of NGC 891', 2008, MNRAS,
388, 697, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.388..697M
21- Ripamonti E., Mapelli M., Zaroubi S., `Radiation from early black holes - I: effects on the neutral intergalactic medium', 2008, MNRAS, 387, 158, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.387..158R
20- Ghosh K. K., Mapelli M., `UGC 7069: the largest ring galaxy', 2008, MNRAS, 386L, 38,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.386L..38G
19- Mapelli M., Moore B., Ripamonti E., Mayer L., Colpi M., Giordano L., `Are ring galaxies the ancestors
of giant low surface brightness galaxies?', 2008, MNRAS, 383, 1223,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.383.1223M
18- Mapelli M., Moore B., Giordano L., Mayer L., Colpi M., Ripamonti E., Callegari S., `Intermediate mass
black holes and ultra-luminous X-ray sources in the Cartwheel ring galaxy'', 2008, MNRAS, 383, 230,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.383..230M
17- Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Tolstoy E., Sigurdsson S., Irwin M. G., Battaglia G. , `Blue straggler stars in
dwarf spheroidal galaxies', 2007, MNRAS, 380, 1127,
7
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.380.1127M
16- Devecchi B., Colpi M., Mapelli M., Possenti A. , `Millisecond pulsars around intermediate-mass black
holes in globular clusters', 2007, MNRAS, 380, 691, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.380..691D
15- Lanzoni B., Sanna N., Ferraro F. R., Valenti E., Beccari G., Schiavon R. P., Rood R. T., Mapelli M.,
Sigurdsson S. , `A Panchromatic Study of the Globular Cluster NGC 1904. I: The Blue Straggler Population',
2007, ApJ, 663, 1040, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...663.1040L
14- Lanzoni B., D’Alessandro E., Ferraro F. R., Mancini C., Beccari G., Rood R. T., Mapelli M., Sigurdsson
S. , `The Blue Straggler Population of the Globular Cluster M5', 2007, ApJ, 663, 267,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007ApJ...663..267L
13- Valdes M., Ferrara A., Mapelli M., Ripamonti E. , `Constraining darkmatter through 21 cm
observations', 2007, MNRAS, 377, 245, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.377..245V
12- Mapelli M. ,`Intermediate-mass black holes in dwarf galaxies: the case of Holmberg II', 2007, MNRAS,
376, 1317, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.376.1317M
11- Ripamonti E., Mapelli M., Ferrara A. , `The impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on the
formation of the first structures', 2007, MNRAS, 375, 1399,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.375.1399R
10- Ripamonti E., Mapelli M., Ferrara A. , `Intergalactic medium heating by dark matter', 2007, MNRAS,
374, 1067, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.374.1067R
9- Mapelli M., Sigurdsson S., Ferraro F. R., Colpi M., Possenti A., Lanzoni B. , `The radial distribution of
blue stragglers and the nature of their progenitors', 2006, MNRAS, 373, 361,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006MNRAS.373..361M
8- Mapelli M., Ferrara A., Pierpaoli E. , `Impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on reionization',
2006, MNRAS, 369, 1719, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006MNRAS.369.1719M
7- Mapelli M., Ferrara A., Rea N. , `Constraints on Galactic Intermediate Mass Black Holes', 2006,
MNRAS, 368, 1340, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006MNRAS.368.1340M
6- Mapelli M., Salvaterra R., Ferrara A. , `Gamma-ray constraints on the infrared background excess', 2006,
NewAstronomy, 11, 420, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006NewA...11..420M
5- Mapelli M., Colpi M., Possenti A., Sigurdsson S., `The fingerprint of binary intermediate mass black
holes in globular clusters: suprathermal stars and angularmomentum alignment', 2005, MNRAS, 364, 1315,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005MNRAS.364.1315M
4- Mapelli M., Ferrara A. , `Background radiation from sterile neutrino decay and reionization', 2005,
MNRAS, 364, 2, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005MNRAS.364....2M
3- Mapelli M., Sigurdsson S., Colpi M., Ferraro F. R., Possenti A., Rood R. T., Sills A., Beccari G. , `The
Contribution of Primordial Binaries to the Blue Straggler Population in 47 Tucanae', 2004, ApJL, 605, 29,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004ApJ...605L..29M
2- Colpi M., Mapelli M., Possenti A., `Is NGC 6752 Hosting a Single or a Binary Black Hole?', 2004,
Coevolution of Black Holes and Galaxies, from the Carnegie Observatories Centennial Symposia. Carnegie
Observatories Astrophysics Series, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004cbhg.sympE...8C
1- Colpi M., Mapelli M., Possenti A. , `Probing the Presence of a Single or Binary Black Hole in the
Globular Cluster NGC 6752 with Pulsar Dynamics', 2003, ApJ, 599, 1260,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003ApJ...599.1260C
INVITED REVIEW PAPERS AND BOOKS:
1 – Mapelli M. & Gualandris A., Star Formation and Dynamics in the Galactic Centre, invited review paper,
2014, to appear as a chapter of the book 'Astrophysical Black Holes', in the Lecture Notes in Physics,
published by Springer
NON-REFEREED PUBLICATIONS:
17 – Branchesi M., Woan G., Astone P., Bartos I., Colla A., Covino S., Drago M., Fan X., Frasca S., Hanna
8
C., Haskell B., Hazboun J. S., Heng I. S., Holz D. E., Johnson-McDaniel N. K., Jones I. D., Keer L.,
Klimenko S., Kostas G., Larson S. L., Mandel I., Mapelli M., et al., `C7 Multi-messenger astronomy of GW
sources', 2014, General Relativity and Gravitation, 46, 1771, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10714014-1771-6
16 – Zampieri L., Mapelli M., `Exploring the formation of binary systems of Ultraluminous X-ray Sources',
2014, The X-ray Universe 2014, edited by Jan-Uwe Ness. Online at
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/workshops/2014symposium/, id.211
15 – Mapelli M., Trani A. A., Bressan A., The impact of metallicity and dynamics on the evolution of young
star clusters, to appear in the Proceedings of the fifth Guillermo Haro conference, held 2-6 December 2013,
Puebla, Mexico, http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.0669
14 - Mapelli M., `The missing link between ultraluminous X-ray sources and metallicity', 2013, in Half a
Century of X-ray Astronomy, Proceedings of the conference held 17-21 September, 2012 in Mykonos Island,
Greece, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013hcxa.confE..80M
13 - Mapelli M., Annibali F., Zampieri L., `Shedding light on the nature of ESO 243-49 HLX-1', 2013, in
Half a Century of X-ray Astronomy, Proceedings of the conference held 17-21 September, 2012 in Mykonos
Island, Greece, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013hcxa.confE.130M
12 - Wolter A., Villani M., Pizzolato F., Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., `ULXs in the bright spiral NGC 2276 ',
2013, Proceedings of the conference held 17-21 September, 2012 in Mykonos Island, Greece,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013hcxa.confE.129W
11 - Mapelli M., `X-ray binaries powered by massive stellar black holes', 2013, X-ray Astronomy: towards
the next 50 years!, Proceedings of the conference held October 1-5, 2012 in Milan, Italy, Memorie della
SAIt, 84, 635, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MmSAI..84..635M
10 - Mapelli M., Bressan A., `Young star cluster evolution and metallicity', 2013, to appear in Stellar
Populations 55 years after the Vatican conference, Proceedings of the Symposium 6 of the European Week
of Astronomy and Space Science 2012 (EWASS 2012), held July 2-4, 2012 in Roma, Italy. To be published
on Mem. SAIt, arXiv:1302.2328, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013arXiv1302.2328M
9 - Zampieri L., Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., Colpi M., Pintore F., `Challenging Ultraluminous X-ray
Sources', 2011, in "The X-ray Universe 2011, Presentations of the Conference held in Berlin, Germany, 2730 June 2011, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011xru..conf..176Z
8 - Mapelli M., Moore B., Ripamonti E., Giordano L., Mayer L., Colpi M., Callegari S., `Are ring galaxies
the ancestors of giant low surface brightness galaxies?', 2009, in "The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological
Context"; Proceedings of the IAU Symposium, Volume 254, p.41; Copenhagen; 9-13 June 2008; eds. J.
Anderson, J. Bland-Hawthorn, B. Nordstrom, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009IAUS..254P..41M
7 - Mapelli M., Moore B., Bland-Hawthorn J., `The origin of lopsidedness in galaxies', 2009, in "The
Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context"; Proceedings of IAU Symposium, Volume 254, p.40; Copenhagen;
9-13 June 2008; eds. J. Anderson, J. Bland-Hawthorn, B. Nordstrom,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009IAUS..254P..40M
6 - Devecchi B., Colpi M., Mapelli M., Possenti A., `On the Dynamical Capture of a MSP by an IMBH in a
Globular Cluster', 2008, in "Dynamical Evolution of Dense Stellar Systems'', Proceedings of the IAU
Symposium, Volume 246, p. 359, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008IAUS..246..359D
5 - Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., `Primordial gas heating by dark matter and structure formation', 2007,
Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, v.78, p.800, proceedings of the LI Congress of the SAIt, April
16-20 2007, Firenze, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MmSAI..78..800M
4 - Mapelli M., Ripamonti E., `Impact of dark matter on reionization and heating', 2008, in "THE
ELEVENTH MARCEL GROSSMANN MEETING On Recent Developments in Theoretical and
Experimental General Relativity, Gravitation and Relativistic Field Theories”. Proceedings of the MG11
Meeting on General Relativity, held 23-29 July 2006 in Berlin, Germany. Edited by Hagen Kleinert (Freie
9
Universität Berlin, Germany), Robert T Jantzen (Villanova University, USA), editor of the Marcel
Grossmann Meeting series: Remo Ruffini (University of Rome "La Sapienza" Italy) . Published by World
Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2008. ISBN #9789812834300, pp. 979-981,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007astro.ph..1672M
3 - Ripamonti E., Mapelli M., `Impact of dark matter decays and annihilations on structure formation', 2008,
in "THE ELEVENTH MARCEL GROSSMANN MEETING On Recent Developments in Theoretical and
Experimental General Relativity, Gravitation and Relativistic Field Theories”. Proceedings of the MG11
Meeting on General Relativity, held 23-29 July 2006 in Berlin, Germany. Edited by Hagen Kleinert (Freie
Universität Berlin, Germany), Robert T Jantzen (Villanova University, USA), editor of the Marcel
Grossmann Meeting series: Remo Ruffini (University of Rome "La Sapienza" Italy). Published by World
Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2008. ISBN #9789812834300, pp. 982-984,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008mgm..conf..982R
2 - Colpi M., Devecchi B., Mapelli M., Patruno A., Possenti A., `The dynamical fingerprint of intermediate
mass black holes in globular clusters', 2005, Invited review in: "Interacting Binaries: Accretion,Evolution,
and Outcomes", AIP Conference Proceedings, v. 797, p. 205,
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AIPC..797..205C
1 - Mapelli M., Salvaterra R., Ferrara A., `Extragalactic Background Light: new constraints from the study
of the photon-photon absorption on blazar spectra', Proceedings of "Baryons in Dark Matter Halos", 5-9
October 2004, Novigrad, Croatia. Editors: R. Dettmar, U. Klein, P. Salucci. Published by SISSA,
Proceedings of Science, http://pos.sissa.it, p.12, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004bdmh.confE..12M
THESES:
– 2006, Mapelli M., `Relic signatures of reionization sources', PhD Thesis,
http://web.pd.astro.it/mapelli/images/thesis.ps.gz
– 2003, Mapelli M., `Four-body interactions in globular clusters: the case of the millisecond pulsar PSR
J1911-5958A', Master Thesis, in Italian, http://web.pd.astro.it/mapelli/images/tesi.ps.gz
10
ATTIVITÀ DI DIDATTICA, DI DIDATTICA INTEGRATIVA
E DI SERVIZIO AGLI STUDENTI /
TEACHING ACTIVITIES, SUPPLEMENTARY TEACHING
AND SERVICE TO STUDENTS
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
– Primary lecturer of the course `Collisional dynamics in stellar systems' (2012-now), for the Ph.D.
School in Astronomy, at the University of Padova.
– Invited lecturer at the Binational Heraeus Summer School Series for Teacher Students and
Teachers `Space, Time and Gravitation, The case of Active Galactic Nuclei' (September 1- 6
2014), at the University of Padova. Lectures about: `Star formation around super-massive
black holes: theory and phenomenology'.
– Invited lecturer at the PRIN meeting `Challenging ultra-luminous X-ray sources' (January 30-31
2014), at the University of Milano Bicocca. Lectures about: `Dynamics and
ultraluminous X-ray sources'
– Invited lecturer at the Summer school `HIGH PERFORMANCE SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING '
(Strategic Research Project AACSE - Algorithms and Architectures for Computational
Science and Engineering , Department of Information Engineering , University of Padova),
Padova, Italy, September 16-19, 2013 – Lectures about: `Direct summation N-body codes
for astrophysical simulations: from GRAPE to GPU '
– Teaching Assistant of the following courses:
* `Stellar evolution’ and `Galactic dynamics’, for the academic years 2009-2010 and 20102011, at the University of Milano Bicocca.
* `Proseminar Theoretical Physics’, 2008-2009, University of Zurich.
* `Theoretical Astrophysics’, 2008-2009, University of Zurich.
* `Introduction to Astrophysics’, 2007-2008, University of Zurich.
* `Proseminar Theoretical Physics’, 2007-2008, University of Zurich.
RESEARCH ADVISING (since 2008):
– Bachelor students: Cedric Huwyler (2008, University of Zurich), Davide Fiacconi (2010,
University of Milano-Bicocca), Marcello Gomitoni (2010, University of Milano-Bicocca),
Giovanni Bruno (2010, University of Milano-Bicocca), Alessandro A. Trani (2011,
University of Milano- Bicocca)
– Master students: Stefano Cotini (2010-2011, University of Milano-Bicocca), Mattia Villani
(2010-2011, University of Pavia), Davide Fiacconi (2011-2012, University of MilanoBicocca), Alessandro A. Trani (2013, University of Milano-Bicocca), Andrea Moretti
(2014, University of Milano-Bicocca), Alessandra Ferri (2014, University of MilanoBicocca)
– PhD students: Brunetto Marco Ziosi (2012-now, University of Padova, supervisor), Alessandro
Alberto Trani (2013- now, SISSA, external supervisor)
– Postdocs: Dr. Mario Spera (2014-now, INAF-OAPd)
Note:
According to the Swiss law, I was main supervisor of the Bachelor student Mr. Cedric Huwyler.
According to the Italian rules (because I was still a postdoctoral fellow), I could not be the official
supervisor (relatore) of the following bachelor students (studenti di laurea triennale): Davide
Fiacconi (University of Milano-Bicocca), Marcello Gomitoni (University of Milano-Bicocca),
11
Giovanni Bruno (University of Milano-Bicocca), Alessandro A. Trani (University of MilanoBicocca). For the same reason, I was not the official supervisor (relatore) of the following master
students (studenti di laurea magistrale): Stefano Cotini (University of Milano-Bicocca), Mattia
Villani (University of Pavia), Davide Fiacconi (University of Milano-Bicocca). I was officially cosupervisor of these students. On the other hand, I personally proposed the topic of the Thesis for all
of them and I supervised these students as primary supervisor.
I was/am external supervisor (relatore esterno) of the following master students (studenti di laurea
magistrale): Alessandro A. Trani, Alessandra Ferri and Andrea Moretti (University of Milano
Bicocca). I cannot be internal supervisor (relatore interno), as I am a researcher at INAF, but I
personally proposed the topic of the Thesis for all of them and I supervised these students as
primary supervisor.
I am currently supervisor of the PhD student Brunetto Ziosi (University of Padova) and external
supervisor of the PhD student Alessandro Trani (SISSA). In both cases, I am the main supervisor.
Finally, I am officially scientific responsible (responsabile scientifico) of Dr. Mario Spera, postdoc
(assegnista di ricerca) at INAF Padova.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY:
During my career, I taught a number of astrophysical courses (in Italian and in English) for students
with various background (from undergraduates with a non-astronomy major, to PhD students in astronomy).
I always took great pains to adapt my level of teaching to these different backgrounds.
My goal is to teach the method to learn physics and to do research. I strongly stimulate questions and
curiosity in my classes. I also encourage students to go personally through the t opics they find more
interesting, and to discuss them with me and with the rest of the class. I put particular attention in
highlighting the open questions of the research topics I discuss, to stimulate the students' independent
thinking. I also taught two 'pro-seminar' courses, i.e. courses aimed at teaching how to give presentations. I
think that such courses are particularly important for the career of students, as they must develop a technique
to clearly and concisely present their work both inside and outside academia.
Finally, I was recently invited to give a lecture about direct N-body codes to PhD students in
different fields (from astrophysics to biology, to information science). I found this experience particularly
stimulating for me, as the different background of the students was a real challenge. I put a great effort to
show the physical motivation of the algorithms we use for direct N-body codes and the interdisciplinarity of
them (e.g. I made the example of the SAPPORO library, Gaburov et al. 2009, New Astronomy, 14, 630,
which includes routines that were initially developed for molecular dynamics and then successfully adapted
to astrophysical dynamics).
I have a wide experience in supervising undergraduate students: in the last 5 years I have been the
supervisor or co-supervisor of more than 8 undergraduate students in Physics and in Astronomy, at both the
Bachelor and the Master level.
Since December 2012, I am supervisor of the PhD student Brunetto Marco Ziosi (at the University of
Padova), working on `The impact of stellar evolution and dynamics on the formation of compact-object
binaries'. Since November 2013, I am external supervisor of the PhD student Alessandro Trani (at
SISSA/ISAS), working on 'Formation and dynamical evolution of the young massive stars in the Galactic
centre'. I am the principal advisor of both Brunetto Ziosi and Alessandro Trani.
The collaboration with undergraduate and graduate students led to five refereed publications (in
collaboration with Mr. C. Huwyler, Mr. D. Fiacconi, Mr. S. Cotini, Mr. B. Ziosi and Mr. A. Trani) and to
three non-refereed publications (with Mr. M. Villani, Mr. B. Ziosi and Mr. A. Trani). More papers are in
preparation.
I think that interacting with undergraduate and graduate students is very stimulating for my research,
and my aim is to train young researchers so that they can develop independent and original careers.
12
ATTIVITÀ ISTITUZIONALI, ORGANIZZATIVE E DI
SERVIZIO / INSTITUTIONAL, ORGANIZATIONAL AND
SERVICE ACTIVITIES
REFEREE:
– 2014: Reviewer, Cycle 16 Chandra Proposal Peer Review
– 2013 – now: referee for the European Research Council
– 2013 – now: referee for the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).
– 2012 – now: referee for the National Science Foundation organizations of various EU countries
– 2011 – now: referee for the CINECA (Italian HPC centre).
– 2006 – now: referee for some of the main astrophysical journals (ApJ, MNRAS, A&A, AN) on a
regular basis.
INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
2012 – now: Faculty member, PhD school in Astronomy (Membro del Collegio dei Docenti della
Scuola di Dottorato in Astronomia), Padova University
2012 – now: Graduate Student Advisor, PhD school in Astronomy, Padova University
2012 – now: Member of four Committees, for the appointment of fellowships (borse di studio)
and postdoctoral positions (assegni di ricerca) at the Astronomical Observatory of
Padova. In one case, I was Chair of the Committee.
2014 – now: Scientific advisor (responsabile scientifico) of Dr. Mario Spera (assegnista di
ricerca)
OTHER DUTIES:
2012 – now:
member of the 'Gruppo di coordinamento dei giovani ricercatori dell'Osservatorio
Astronomico di Padova per i grant italiani ed europei' (the aim of this group is to
ensure information and technical assistance for grant applications at INAF
Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, especially for young people)
2014 – now:
member of the `HPC committee' at INAF (chair: Ugo Becciani, INAF Catania)
2014 – now:
member of the 'Squadra di Emergenza' at INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di
Padova, led by Mr. Nicola Di Cicco
OUTREACH:
– 2011 – now: Notte dei Ricercatori (The night of researchers), public conferences at the
Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Padova, Italy (http://www.venetonight.it/)
– 2009, Messaggere di Urania, Milano, Italy, public conferences at the Planetarium of Milano
(http://www.brera.inaf.it/annoAstronomia/conferenzePlanetario.html)
– 2008, interview by the Earth & Sky broadcast network, based in Austin, Texas, US
(http://earthsky.org/space/do-ring-galaxies-spread-out-as-they-evolve)
13
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI/ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
IT KNOWLEDGE:
Operating systems: Linux/Unix (excellent), Windows.
Programming languages: C and C++ (good), Fortran 77 and 90, perl, sh, python (good), HTML.
Packages: IDL (excellent), tipsy (excellent), tipgrid (excellent), splash.
Codes: Starlab (excellent), phiGRAPE (excellent), BEV (excellent, developer), pkdgrav/gasoline
(excellent), Gadget (good), Recfast (good), CMBFAST, RAMSES.
Experience in parallel computing (usage of MPI and OpenMP) and in high-performance
computing (zbox clusters at the University of Zurich, CRAY XT3 cluster at the CSCS in
Lugano, Avogadro and Lagrange clusters at CILEA, SP6, Fermi, EURORA and PLX
clusters at CINECA).
Experience in GPU computing (with CUDA parallel architecture).
LANGUAGE KNOWLEDGE:
Italian (mother tongue), English (fluent), French (good), German (basic)
CAREER OVERVIEW and SUMMARY OF RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
I am a theoretical astrophysicist, working mainly with numerical simulations, and I always took great pains
to compare my work with observational data and to make predictions for observations.
I obtained my PhD in Astrophysics in October 2006, from SISSA/ISAS (International School for Advanced
Studies) in Trieste, Italy. For my PhD Thesis, I was awarded the Gratton Prize 2007 and the Tacchini Prize
2007. I worked as a postdoc (Forschungskredit fellow) at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and as a
senior postdoctoral fellow at the University of Milano Bicocca (Italy). In 2010, I got a permanent position at
INAF (Italian Institute for Astrophysics).
Despite the bad funding situation in Italy and despite the international economical crisis, I was awarded
important grants from both Italy (PRIN, FIRB) and other countries (Mexican CONACyT). This allowed me
to create my independent research group, which is now composed of two Master students, two PhD students,
and of a postdoc. I have also supervised several other Bachelor and Master students. Even if INAF
researchers have no teaching duties, I was invited to teach several courses for both master and PhD students.
I am currently consolidating my experience as a faculty member and a team leader, through various
institutional responsibilities and referee duties. In 2013, I was awarded the Italian National Scientific
Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) to become an associate professor.
Here-below, I summarize my main research accomplishments.
1) FORMATION AND DYNAMICS OF MASSIVE STARS IN THE GALACTIC CENTRE :
Our Galactic centre is one of the most studied and yet enigmatic places in the Universe. It is an
extremely crowded environment, hosting , a ~4x106 M⊙ super-massive black hole (SMBH), several thousand
solar masses of (ionized, atomic and molecular) gas, and a ~106 M⊙ nuclear star cluster (NSC). Despite the
strong tidal field exerted by the super-massive black hole (SMBH), more than a hundred young massive stars
are observed in the central parsec of the Galaxy, mostly O-type and Wolf-Rayet stars (e.g. Genzel et al.
2003; Ghez et al. 2003; Paumard et al. 2006; Bartko et al. 2009; Lu et al. 2009). About 20 per cent of them
lie in a thin disc, usually referred to as the clockwise (CW) disc, with an estimated age of ∼2-6 Myr and an
average eccentricity of ∼0.3 (e.g. Lu et al. 2013; Yelda et al. 2014, and references therein).
The origin of the CW disc and of the other young stars is largely controversial: the inspiral of a
turbulent molecular cloud in the Galactic Centre may result in the formation of a small, dense and
moderately eccentric gas disc around the SMBH. Such a disc is unstable to fragmentation and may lead to
the formation of young massive stars in the central parsec of the Galaxy. In Mapelli et al. (2012a), we
simulated the infall of a turbulent molecular cloud toward the Galactic Centre. The molecular cloud is tidally
disrupted, spirals toward the Galactic Centre, and forms a small, dense, and eccentric disc around SgrA*.
With high-resolution simulations, we follow the fragmentation of the gaseous disc. Star candidates form in a
ring at ~0.1-0.4 pc from the SMBH and have moderately eccentric orbits (e ~ 0.2-0.4). The mass function of
star candidates is top-heavy (dN/dm ∝ m-1.5) only if the local gas temperature is high during the star
formation and if the parent cloud is sufficiently massive. Our simulations are the only available simulations
14
so far, that follow the fragmentation of gas directly, with a suitable cooling function.
In a follow-up paper (Gualandris, Mapelli & Perets 2012), we investigate the dynamical evolution of
the stars formed as described in Mapelli et al. (2012a), by means of direct-summation N-body simulations.
We observe evidence of the eccentric disc instability described by Madigan et al. (2009), according to which
precession of the orbits due to the presence of the stellar cusp induces coherent torques that drive orbital
eccentricities away from their initial values. In particular, stellar orbits with initial eccentricity > 0.3 (< 0.3)
tend to become even more (less) eccentric, resulting in a bimodal eccentricity distribution.
In a second follow-up paper (Mapelli, Gualandris & Hayfield 2013), we investigate the perturbations
induced on a thin stellar disc by a molecular cloud. We find that differential precession is very important,
and leads to the increase of orbital inclinations and to the dismembering of a stellar disc in less than 2 Myr.
In a forthcoming paper, I am investigating the formation of a circumnuclear ring (with radius ~2-3
pc) and the possibility that it drives star formation (Mapelli et al., in preparation). Finally, in a recent invited
review (Mapelli & Gualandris, in press), we review the processes that lead to the formation of stars in
proximity of a SMBH.
2) DYNAMICS AND STELLAR EVOLUTION in STAR CLUSTERS:
Most star clusters (SCs) are collisional systems: their two-body relaxation time-scale is shorter than
their lifetime. Thus, they are site of intense dynamical processes, such as core collapse and re-expansion,
close encounters between stars and binaries, and collisions between stars. The dynamical history of a SC is
deeply connected with stellar evolution and mass loss by massive stars.
I study the joint contribution of dynamics and stellar evolution to shape SCs through the ages. My
work is mainly based on theoretical models and numerical simulations (through both the N-Body and Monte
Carlo techniques), but I always take great pains to compare my results with data and to make predictions for
future observations. I recently focused on the following aspects.
* Massive star evolution and metallicity: I recently upgraded the N-body code STARLAB (Portegies Zwart
& McMillan 2001) to include recipes for metallicity-dependent stellar evolution (Hurley et al. 2000), stellar
winds (Vink et al. 2001; Vink & de Koter 2005) and remnant formation (e.g. Mapelli et al. 2013a). I ran Nbody simulations with the updated version of the code, to check the impact of metal-dependent stellar winds
on the early evolution of SCs, and in particular on the core-collapse and post core-collapse phases (Mapelli
& Bressan 2013). I found that the structural properties of SCs are significantly affected by stellar winds, if
the core collapse time-scale is of the same order of magnitude as the lifetime (<6 Myr) of massive stars (>30
M⊙). In particular, the post-collapse re-expansion of the core is weaker for metal-poor SCs than for metalrich SCs, because the former lose less mass (through stellar winds) than the latter. As a consequence, the
half-mass radius expands faster in metal-poor Scs.
* Formation of stellar exotica: The joint effect of dynamics and stellar evolution in SCs is an essential
ingredient for the formation of stellar exotica (Davies 2002). Blue straggler stars (BSSs), which lie above
and blue-wards the turn-off mass in SCs, are a fascinating example of this. I used Monte Carlo simulations of
globular clusters and dwarf galaxies to investigate the formation and dynamical evolution of BSSs (Mapelli
et al. 2004, 2006a, 2007a, 2009a; Monelli et al. 2012; Ferraro et al. 2012). I found that BSSs form through
two different pathways: mass transfer in binaries and collision of stars. The mass-transfer pathway is the only
possible formation mechanism in non-collisional environments (e.g. dwarf galaxies), while collisions are
efficient in the core of dense SCs.
3) MASSIVE STELLAR BLACK HOLES and INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES:
The mass spectrum of stellar black holes (BHs) is currently thought to be in the 3-20 M ⊙ range, but
is highly uncertain. Dynamical mass estimates are available only for a few tens of BHs, hosted in X-ray
binaries (see Ӧzel et al. 2010, for one of the most updated compilations). In the case of IC 10 X-1, the BH
mass can be as high as ~30 M⊙ (e.g., Prestwich et al. 2007). Which factors can affect the BH mass?
Theoretical models (e.g. Mapelli et al. 2009b) indicate that the metallicity of the progenitor star can
significantly influence the mass of the BH. In particular, a massive star can collapse into a BH quietly (i.e.
without supernova or with a faint supernova), if its final mass (i.e. the mass immediately before the collapse)
is sufficiently high (~40 M⊙, Fryer 1999). Massive metal-poor stars lose less mass by stellar winds than
metal-rich stars (e.g. Vink et al. 2001), and thus are more likely to have a final mass >40 M⊙. The mass of a
BH born from direct collapse is expected to be very close to the final mass of the progenitor star: it can
significantly exceed 25 M⊙, depending on the metallicity.
In recent papers (Mapelli et al. 2009b, 2010a, 2011a, 2013a), I studied the formation of massive
stellar BHs (MSBHs), i.e. stellar BHs with mass >25 M⊙, in metal-poor environments. In particular, I
15
proposed (Mapelli et al. 2009b) that MSBHs can explain the high occurrence rate of ultra-luminous X-ray
sources (ULXs, i.e. point-like X-ray sources with luminosity, assumed isotropic, >10 39 erg s-1) in metal-poor
environments. I recently investigated the importance of MSBHs for the dynamical evolution of binaries in
SCs (Mapelli et al. 2011a, 2013a; Mapelli & Zampieri 2014). In collaboration with my students, I also
investigated the importance of MSBHs as sources of gravitational waves in the frequency range of Advanced
LIGO and VIRGO detectors (Ziosi et al. 2014).
Intermediate-mass BHs (IMBHs, with mass in the 10 2 – 5 M⊙ range) have been predicted to form
through different dynamical pathways (e.g. runaway collapse of massive stars in a young SC, Portegies
Zwart & McMillan 2002). The point-like X-ray source HLX-1, close to the S0 galaxy ESO 243-49, is the
brightest known ULX (with peak luminosity ~1042 erg s-1) and likely the strongest IMBH candidate (Farrell
et al. 2009). I recently proposed that the counterpart of HLX-1 coincides with the nucleus (and possibly with
the nuclear SC) of a satellite galaxy undergoing merger with ESO 243-49 (Mapelli et al. 2012b, 2013b,
2013c). I also investigated the possible dynamical fingerprints of IMBHs in SCs (e.g. Colpi, Mapelli &
Possenti 2003; Mapelli et al. 2005) and in galaxy discs (e.g. Mapelli et al. 2006b; Mapelli 2007).
4) THE FOSSIL SOURCES OF COSMIC REIONIZATION:
I have studied the role played by various possible sources of cosmic reionization, as population III
stars, intermediate-mass black holes and annihilating/decaying dark matter (DM) particles. I focused on DM
decays and annihilations. I studied a wide range of DM candidates (sterile neutrinos, light dark matter
particles, gravitinos, neutralinos), deriving their influence on the cosmic heating and reionization (Mapelli &
Ferrara 2005; Mapelli, Ferrara & Pierpaoli 2006c; Ripamonti, Mapelli & Ferrara 2007a).
I found that sufficiently light DM candidates (<10 MeV) might be source of early partial reionization
and can significantly increase the matter temperature. As a consequence, DM decays and annihilations might
play a role on the formation of the first structures, delaying the collapse of the primordial halos (Ripamonti,
Mapelli & Ferrara 2007b). I also studied the influence of IMBHs on the cosmic heating and reionization
(Ripamonti, Mapelli & Zaroubi 2008).
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