Hi! I am Matteo Cerruti, a gamma-ray astrophysicist at the Astroparticles & Cosmology laboratory and associate professor at the Université Paris Cité
My research focuses on understanding gamma-ray emission from super-massive black holes. With the birth of multi-messenger astronomy in the past years, I am now actively studying joint photon and neutrino emission from the Universe.
Research
Gamma-ray astronomy with Cherenkov telescopes
Gamma-ray photons at TeV energies can be observed from the ground by imaging the Cherenkov light emitted when they interact with the Earth’s atmosphere.
I work with the H.E.S.S. telescopes in Namibia and I have previously worked with VERITAS and MAGIC. I am part of the consortium building CTA, the next generation Cherenkov array.
Photons and neutrinos from super-massive black holes
Accreting super-massive black holes, known as active galactic nuclei, AGNs, are among the brightest objects in the Universe. They emit photons from radio to gamma rays, and there is evidence that they are also bright neutrino emitters.
I develop numerical codes to simulate the photon and neutrino emission from AGNs. Testing the models on the data we can constrain how particles are accelerated and how they radiate, the exact location of the emitting region and much more.
Other projects
Besides gamma-ray astronomy and modeling of AGN emission, I am working on other closely related topics.
During my master thesis I studied the origin of the soft-X-ray excess in AGNs, and recently I am investigating quasi-periodic oscillations in AGN light curves.
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Van der Hoeven
Curriculum Vitæ
Born in Italy, I have studied physics in Milan and Paris. In 2012, I got a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics by the Paris Observatory / Université Paris-Diderot.
As postdoctoral researcher, I have worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian CfA (Cambridge, MA), the LPNHE (Paris) and the ICCUB (Barcelona).
Since December 2020 I am associate professor at the Université Paris Cité and the APC laboratory.
Publications
I am co-author of 163 papers in refereed journals and 42 conference proceedings.
As at March 2022, my publications have been cited 10457 times, with and h-index of 44 (source NASA/ADS).
Teaching
I am associate professor of physics at the Université Paris Cité. I am giving classes from the L1 to the M1 level.
Students and open positions
If you are interested in joining as master student, PhD student, or postdoctoral researcher, do not hesitate to contact me. Open positions and relevant informations will be posted here.
Matteo Cerruti 