COLPI MONICA

Role
Full Professor  
Academic disciplines
Astrophysics, Cosmology and Space Science (PHYS-05/A)
Scientific-Disciplinary Group:
ASTROPHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY, EARTH- SPACE- AND CLIMATE PHYSICS (02/PHYS-05)
Office phone
Room:
  • U02, Floor: 2, Room: 2014

Biography

Monica Colpi is Full Professor at the Department of Physics G. Occhialini of the University of Milano Bicocca.nShe received her Master and Ph.D. Degree in Physics from the University of Milano in 1982 and 1987, respectively. She entered the academic career after being visiting scientist at Cornell University and postdoctoral fellow at the International School for Advanced Studies (Sissa, Trieste). Monica Colpi  has broad research interests in the areas of high energy astrophysics, theoretical astrophysics, and general relativity theory.  She has worked on black holes as accreting sources and on neutron stars, in particular on soft X-ray transients, millisecond pulsars and isolated neutron stars in the Milky Way.   Monica Colpi pioneered the field of massive black hole binary formation in gas-rich galaxy mergers, by combining her experience in high energy astrophysics with experience in galactic dynamics, after her studies on dynamical friction and tidal stirring. Binary black holes in interacting galaxies anticipate  the phase of their coalescence driven by the emission of gravitational waves. Colpi has been exploring their formation pathways with use of large-scale N-Body SpH simulations to follow their dynamics.  Coalescing binary black holes, among the loudest sources of gravitational waves in the universe, pinpoint places where galaxies assemble. Detectable out to very high redshifts, these sources are exquisite probes of the process of clustering of galactic structures, and testbed of gravity theories in the strong field regime. Monica Colpi is now actively working in the development of key aspects of the core science of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and of the multi-messenger astronomy with LISA,  the LIGO-Virgo Detectors and third  generation interferometers as the Einstein Telescope.

 

Publications

  • Izquierdo-Villalba, D., Sesana, A., Colpi, M., Spinoso, D., Bonetti, M., Bonoli, S., et al. (2024). Connecting low-redshift LISA massive black hole mergers to the nHz stochastic gravitational wave background. ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 686(June 2024), 1-17 [10.1051/0004-6361/202449293]. Detail

  • Fedrigo, G., Cattorini, F., Giacomazzo, B., Colpi, M. (2024). GRMHD simulations of accretion flows onto massive binary black hole mergers embedded in a thin slab of gas. PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 109(10) [10.1103/PhysRevD.109.103024]. Detail

  • Abbott, R., Abbott, T., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adams, C., Adhikari, N., et al. (2024). GWTC-2.1: Deep extended catalog of compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the first half of the third observing run. PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 109(2 (5 January 2024)) [10.1103/PhysRevD.109.022001]. Detail

  • Abbott, R., Abe, H., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adhicary, S., Adhikari, N., et al. (2024). Search for Gravitational-lensing Signatures in the Full Third Observing Run of the LIGO–Virgo Network. THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 970(2) [10.3847/1538-4357/ad3e83]. Detail

  • Lupi, A., Quadri, G., Volonteri, M., Colpi, M., Regan, J. (2024). Sustained super-Eddington accretion in high-redshift quasars. ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 686(June 2024), 1-8 [10.1051/0004-6361/202348788]. Detail

Research projects

Attività per la fase B2/C della missione LISA
Year: 2024
Grantors: AGENZIA SPAZIALE ITALIANA (ASI)
TESIFA - Tracking the Evolution and dynamicS of Intermediate-mass black holes to Forecast their upcoming observAtions
Year: 2022
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022
Grantors: EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Attività per la fase A della missione LISA
Year: 2020
Call: Bando ASI - Attività per la fase A della missione LISA
Grantors: AGENZIA SPAZIALE ITALIANA (ASI)
LISA - PHASE A: Gravitational Waves from Massive Black Holes in "The Gravitational Universe"
Year: 2017
Call: PRIN 2017
Grantors: M.I.U.R. - MINISTERO DELL'ISTRUZIONE, DELL'UNIVERSITA' E DELLA RICERCA
Pulsar e buchi neri: uno sguardo sulle loro proprietà dinamiche, gravitazionali e radiative
Year: 2005
Call: 2005-006 - PRIN 2005

Awards

Scientific fellowships

  • Componente del Consiglio/Comitato Direttivo - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) - Membro del Consiglio Scientifico, 2025
  • Presidente - Commission D1- Gravitational Wave Astrophysics- International Astronomical Union (IAU), 2024
  • Socio effettivo o corrispondente - Istituto Lombardo-Accademia di Scienze e Letter, 2023
  • Componente dell'Advisory Board - Albert Einstein Institute - Hannover and Potsdam - Max Planck Gesellschaft, 2022
  • Socio effettivo o corrispondente - Accademia dei Lincei, 2022
  • Vice-Presidente - Commission D1- Gravitational Wave Astrophysics- International Astronomical Union (IAU), 2021
  • Componente del Comitato Scientifico - ESA - Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC), 2020
  • Socio effettivo o corrispondente - Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati, 2019
  • Componente dell'Advisory Board - Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (Bonn) - Max Planck Gesellschaft, 2019
  • Componente del Comitato Scientifico - European Space Agency - LISA Science Study Team, 2017
  • Vice-Presidente - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) - Consiglio Scientifico, 2016

Editorial boards

  • Membro del Comitato Editoriale - LIVING REVIEWS IN RELATIVITY, 2017