Francesca Bonaiti

Bio

Francesca Bonaiti is Theory Fellow of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), hosted by the Theoretical and Computational Physics Group in the Physics Division. Her research focuses on understanding the structure of atomic nuclei and its implications in astrophysics. 

Francesca obtained her Ph.D. from the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany in 2024. During her Ph.D. she investigated nuclear electromagnetic observables, as dipole polarizabilities and isoscalar monopole resonances, which are strongly correlated with the nuclear matter equation of state, a fundamental ingredient to describe the structure of neutron stars. 

At FRIB and ORNL, her goal is to extend first-principles calculations of these quantities to extremely neutron-rich nuclei, where unique constraints on the nuclear equation of state can be obtained in synergy with future experiments at FRIB and FRIB 400. Leveraging ORNL’s leadership computing capabilities, her research in nuclear many-body physics will benefit also other FRIB research programs at the interface between nuclear structure and astrophysics, for instance studies of beta-decay rates, which are a key input for nucleosynthesis simulations. She is also interested in time-dependent approaches to the description of nuclear collisions.

FRIB email address: bonaiti@frib.msu.edu