Research Area
Active Research fields
Our research activity essentially covers three parts.
i) Characterization of quantum entanglement, correlations and coherence for both identical and nonidentical quantum particles.
ii) Dynamics and protection of quantum coherence and correlations in open quantum systems.
iii) Design of experiments to confirm the theoretical predictions.
For updated info: http://rosariolofranco.weebly.com/.
Research projects of the last 5 years
- 2024-2025. Principal Investigator (PI) of the project “Quantum thermodynamic processes enabled by indistinguishable particles" (QUANTIP), PNRR MUR project - Bando a cascata, Partenariato Esteso “National Quantum Science & Technology Institute” (NQSTI) - PE00000023, Spoke 9.
- 2024-2025. Principal Investigator (PI) of the project "Identical particle interferometry as a controllable resource for robust quantum information processing (ICON-Q)", PNRR MUR Project - Bando a cascata, Partenariato Esteso "National Quantum Science & Technology Institute" (NQSTI) - PE00000023, Spoke 2.
- 2024-2025. Participation, Research Line (RL1) "Quantum-safe cryptographic primitives and protocols for digital identity", in the project "Advanced and Quantum-safe Solutions for Digital Identity and Digital Tracing (AQuSDIT)", PNRR MUR Project - Bando a cascata, Partenariato Esteso SERICS - PE00000014, Spoke 5 - Cryptography and Distributed Systems Security.
- 2024-2025. Participation, Task "Quantum communication and sensing", in the project "Programmable RAN Infrastructure for Spectrum-Agile and Multi-RAT environments (PRISM)", PNRR MUR Project - Bando a Cascata - Partenariato Esteso RESTART - PE00000001 - Spoke 4: "Programmable Networks for Future Services and Media".
- 2023-2026. Coordinator of project CORI-2023-D3-D26-162050, Contribution for the start-up and development of international collaborations of the University of Palermo. Universities involved: Department of Computer Science, University of Hong Kong (China).
- 2023-2024. Participation in the project "Spectral theory and Frames, applications in physics and biomedical images". System of Incentives, Support, and Rewards for Departmental Research, Research Groups. Department of Engineering, University of Palermo.
- 2023-2024. Participation in a research project on Metal-Organic Framework (MOF), Incentives for interdisciplinary research activities, SSD involved: FIS/01, FIS/03. Department of Physics and Chemistry and Department of Engineering, University of Palermo.
- 2022-2023. Scientific Responsible (PI) of the project "Indistinguishability as a controllable resource for processes of quantum information and quantum thermodynamics (IRISQ)", MUR FUNDS PNR D.M. 737/2021 - European Union - NextGenerationEU. Eurostart Call, University of Palermo.
- 2022-2023. Coordinator of the project "Controlling indistinguishability of quantum bits as a resource for quantum networking", Research Projects developed by individual Researchers – Year 2021. Program: "System of Incentives, Support, and Rewards for Departmental Research", Department of Engineering, University of Palermo.
- 2019-2022. Project coordinator CORI-2019-D3-D26-162050, Contribution for the launch and development of international collaborations of the University of Palermo. Universities involved: University of Oxford (UK) & University of Hong Kong (China).
Collaborations
- Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (Kurt Busch)
- CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, USA (Armando Perez-Leija)
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Roma, Italy (Fabio Sciarrino, Paolo Mataloni, experimental group)
- Quantum Transport and Information Group, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy (Vittorio Giovannetti)
- School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom (Gerardo Adesso)
- ICREA, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Andreas Winter)
- Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China (Guang-Can Guo; experimental group)
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Laser Polarization and Information Technology, Department of Physics, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China (Zhong-Xiao Man, Yun-Jie Xia).
- Department of Physics, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran (Ali Mortezapour)
- FAMAF, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina (Ricardo Zamar, Cecilia Gonzalez)
- Instituto de Fisica de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, Brazil (Diogo de Oliveira Soares-Pinto)
- Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físícas (CBPF), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (I. Oliveira)
- Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, Jahrom University, Jahrom, Iran (Hossein Rangani Jahromi)
- RIKEN, Tokyo, Japan (Franco Nori)
- Department of Physics, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran (Alireza Dehghani)
- Technical University of Gdansk, Poland (Pawel Horodecki)
- Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelos, México (Carlos A. González-Gutiérrez, Ricardo Román-Ancheyta, Diego Espitia)
- IFISC (UIB-CSIC), Instituto de Fisica Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos, UIB Campus, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (Roberta Zambrini)
- Dipartimento di Fisica della Materia e Ingegneria Elettronica, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy (Salvatore Savasta)
- SUPA, Department of Physics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom (Erika Andersson)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Macquarie University, Australia (James D. Cresser)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, Turun yliopisto, Finland (Sabrina Maniscalco)
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Italy, (Giuseppe Falci, Elisabetta Paladino)
- Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como, Italy (Giuliano Benenti)