Emanuele UsaiParticle physics · UA

Publications

Publications

As of October 2026 I have co-signed 1,227 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, with more than 122,000 citations. Below are the papers where I made a major contribution, followed by proceedings and reports, a preprint, open data, my theses and selected talks.

Full list on INSPIRE Curriculum vitae

01 · Eleven papers

Selected papers

Papers from the CMS experiment list every member of the collaboration as an author. These are the papers where I made a major contribution, newest first. The physics behind them is explained on the research page.

Reading the titles: pp means proton-proton, √s is the total energy of the two colliding protons, t is a top quark and t̄ (“t-bar”) its antiparticle, so tt̄ is a top quark-antiquark pair.

  1. 2023

    Evidence for four-top quark production in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

    CMS Collaboration

    Phys. Lett. B 844 (2023) 138076

    Evidence that proton collisions at the LHC can produce four top quarks at once.

    doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138076 arXiv:2303.03864
  2. 2022

    Four-top quark physics at the LHC

    F. Blekman, F. Déliot, V. Dutta and E. Usai

    Universe 8 (2022) 638

    doi:10.3390/universe8120638
  3. 2022

    End-to-end jet classification of boosted top quarks with the CMS open data

    M. Andrews et al.

    Phys. Rev. D 105 (2022) 052008

    Deep learning that recognizes jets from high-momentum (“boosted”) top quarks directly from low-level detector data, using public CMS Open Data.

    doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.105.052008
  4. 2020

    Deep Learning the Morphology of Dark Matter Substructure

    S. Alexander et al.

    Astrophys. J. 893 (2020) 15

    Deep learning applied to strong gravitational lensing images, to probe the substructure of dark matter halos.

    doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab7925 arXiv:1909.07346
  5. 2020

    End-to-end jet classification of quarks and gluons with the CMS Open Data

    M. Andrews et al.

    Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 977 (2020) 164304

    Deep learning that tells jets started by quarks from jets started by gluons, directly from low-level detector data, using public CMS Open Data.

    doi:10.1016/j.nima.2020.164304 arXiv:1902.08276
  6. 2017

    Search for a heavy resonance decaying to a top quark and a vector-like top quark at √s = 13 TeV

    CMS Collaboration

    JHEP 09 (2017) 053

    A search for a new heavy particle decaying to a top quark and a vector-like top quark, a hypothetical heavy partner of the top.

    doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2017)053 arXiv:1703.06352
  7. 2017

    Search for tt̄ resonances in highly boosted lepton+jets and fully hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

    CMS Collaboration

    JHEP 07 (2017) 001

    A search for new heavy particles decaying to a top quark-antiquark pair. The particles would be so heavy that the top quarks move very fast, and a top quark that decays to three quarks (its most common decay) shows up as a single wide jet.

    doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2017)001 arXiv:1704.03366
  8. 2016

    Search for resonant tt̄ production in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

    CMS Collaboration

    Phys. Rev. D 93 (2016) 012001

    A search for new heavy particles decaying to a top quark-antiquark pair, using collisions at 8 TeV.

    doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.012001 arXiv:1506.03062
  9. 2015

    Search for vector-like T quarks decaying to top quarks and Higgs bosons in the all-hadronic channel using jet substructure

    CMS Collaboration

    JHEP 06 (2015) 080

    A search for vector-like T quarks, hypothetical heavy partners of the top, recognized through the internal structure of the jets their decay products form.

    doi:10.1007/JHEP06(2015)080 arXiv:1503.01952
  10. 2015

    Measurement of the production cross section ratio σ(χb2(1P)) / σ(χb1(1P)) in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV

    CMS Collaboration

    Phys. Lett. B 743 (2015) 383–402

    Compares how often two closely related bottomonium states (bound states of a bottom quark and its antiquark) are produced.

    doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2015.02.048 arXiv:1409.5761
  11. 2012

    Measurement of the relative prompt production rate of χc2 and χc1 in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV

    CMS Collaboration

    Eur. Phys. J. C 72 (2012) 2251

    Compares how often two charmonium states (bound states of a charm quark and its antiquark) are produced. This measurement was also the topic of my master’s thesis.

    doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-012-2251-3 arXiv:1210.0875

02 · Nine publications

Proceedings and reports

Proceedings of my conference talks, community reports on machine learning, jet substructure, detector R&D and the future of the LHC, and the design report for the new CMS endcap calorimeter.

  1. 2021

    Determination of κt from tt̄ and tt̄tt̄

    E. Usai

    Proceedings, 9th Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference (LHCP 2021), 2021

    Proceedings of my LHCP 2021 talk, which reported ATLAS and CMS results on κt, the strength of the top quark’s coupling to the Higgs boson relative to the Standard Model prediction.

  2. 2019

    Report from Working Group 3: Beyond the Standard Model physics at the HL-LHC and HE-LHC

    X. C. Vidal et al.

    CERN Yellow Report, vol. 7 (2019), pp. 585–865

    Prospects for new physics at the High-Luminosity and High-Energy LHC upgrades. I contributed to assessing the physics performance of these upgrades.

    doi:10.23731/CYRM-2019-007.585 arXiv:1812.07831
  3. 2019

    Deep Learning End-to-end particle and event identification at the Large Hadron Collider with CMS Open Data

    J. Alison et al.

    Meeting of the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society (DPF 2019), 2019

    arXiv:1910.07029
  4. 2019

    New Technologies for Discovery

    Z. Ahmed et al.

    CPAD Instrumentation Frontier Workshop 2018: New Technologies for Discovery IV, 2019

    arXiv:1908.00194
  5. 2018

    Machine Learning in High Energy Physics Community White Paper

    K. Albertsson et al.

    J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1085 (2018) 022008

    doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1085/2/022008 arXiv:1807.02876
  6. 2017

    The Phase-2 Upgrade of the CMS Endcap Calorimeter

    CMS Collaboration

    Technical Design Report CERN-LHCC-2017-023, CERN, 2017

    The design report for HGCAL, the new endcap calorimeter that my lab is now helping to build. I contributed studies of reconstruction and jet substructure performance.

    CDS record
  7. 2015

    Boosted top: experimental tools overview

    E. Usai

    Proceedings, 7th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics (TOP 2014), 2015

    arXiv:1501.00900
  8. 2015

    Towards an Understanding of the Correlations in Jet Substructure

    D. Adams et al.

    Eur. Phys. J. C 75 (2015) 409

    doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3587-2 arXiv:1504.00679
  9. 2012

    Measurement of the production cross-section ratio of the charmonium states χc2 and χc1 in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV with CMS

    E. Usai

    Il Nuovo Cimento C 35 (2012) 31–37

    doi:10.1393/ncc/i2012-11307-5

03 · One preprint, two data releases

Preprint and open data

Preprint

  1. 2020

    Decoding Dark Matter Substructure without Supervision

    S. Alexander et al.

    arXiv preprint

    arXiv:2008.12731

Open data

Simulated CMS data sets that keep low-level detector information, down to individual hits in the tracker, which I helped produce and release for machine-learning research. Anyone can download and use them.

  1. 2019

    Samples with full event information including tracker hits for tracking, Machine Learning, and top quark tagging studies

    M. Andrews et al.

    CERN Open Data Portal, 2019

    doi:10.7483/OPENDATA.CMS.CHC3.5KPG
  2. 2019

    Simulated datasets (TTJets_Hadronic, QCD_Pt-15to3000) enriched with tracker hits in AODSIM format for 2012 collision data

    CMS Collaboration

    CERN Open Data Portal, 2019 (four data sets)

    doi:10.7483/OPENDATA.CMS.OPKY.OJMJ doi:10.7483/OPENDATA.CMS.HUED.7R3E doi:10.7483/OPENDATA.CMS.YWDZ.KSLK doi:10.7483/OPENDATA.CMS.CWTT.8Q3E

04 · Three theses

Theses

  1. 2017

    Searches for heavy resonances in all-jet final states with top quarks using jet substructure techniques with the CMS Experiment

    E. Usai

    Doctoral thesis, University of Hamburg, 2017

    Advisor: Prof. Alexander Schmidt. Graded summa cum laude, the highest grade possible.

    INSPIRE record
  2. 2011

    Measurement of the ratio σ(pp → χc2) / σ(pp → χc1) with the CMS detector at LHC

    E. Usai

    Master’s thesis, University of Turin, 2011

    Advisor: Prof. Stefano Argirò. Graded 110/110 cum laude, with honorable mention.

  3. 2009

    Preparation for data taking of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter of CMS

    E. Usai

    Bachelor’s thesis, University of Turin, 2009

    Graded 110/110 cum laude.

05 · Seventeen talks

Selected talks

Talks I presented at international conferences and as an invited speaker, newest first.

  1. “Building the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter for the High-Luminosity LHC”

    Invited colloquium Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS

  2. “Recent Results on Searches with Boosted Tops (CMS)”

    Parallel talk 13th Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference (LHCP 2025)

  3. “Top quark as a tool for discovery”

    Invited colloquium University of Minnesota

  4. “Top quark as a tool for discovery”

    Invited talk SESAPS 2023, meeting of the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society

  5. “BSM searches in the top final state in CMS”

    Plenary talk 16th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics (TOP 2023), Traverse City, MI

  6. “Machine learning and computing tools for LHC Run3 and HL-LHC: challenges and opportunities”

    Invited talk SESAPS 2022

  7. “Rare top quark production at ATLAS and CMS: tt̄Z, tt̄W, tt̄γ, tZ, tγ, and tt̄tt̄ production”

    Parallel talk SUSY 2021

  8. “Outlook for experimental high-pT LHC physics”

    Plenary talk APS Division of Particles and Fields meeting (DPF 2021)

  9. “Determination of κt from tt̄ and tt̄tt̄”

    Parallel talk 9th Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference (LHCP 2021)

  10. “End-to-end particle and event identification at the Large Hadron Collider with CMS Open Data”

    Parallel talk APS Division of Particles and Fields meeting (DPF 2019), Northeastern University, Boston, MA

  11. “End-to-end particle and event identification at the Large Hadron Collider with CMS Open Data”

    Plenary talk BOOST 2019, MIT

  12. “Beyond the standard model physics at the HL-LHC with CMS”

    Parallel talk SUSY 2019, Corpus Christi, TX

  13. “End-to-end particle and event identification for regular and boosted topologies with CMS Open Data”

    Parallel talk SUSY 2019, Corpus Christi, TX

  14. “End-to-end particle and event identification for regular and boosted topologies at the LHC”

    Parallel talk CPAD Instrumentation Frontier Workshop 2018, Providence, RI

  15. “Searches for tt̄ and tb resonances at CMS”

    Parallel talk SUSY 2015, Lake Tahoe, CA

  16. “Experimental tools for boosted tops: overview (CMS and ATLAS)”

    Plenary talk TOP 2014, Cannes, France

  17. “Boosted jet algorithm development in CMS”

    Plenary talk BOOST 2013, Flagstaff, AZ

I have also given many talks at internal and national meetings, such as the USCMS Annual Collaboration Meeting (2018–2019), the spring meeting of the German Physical Society (DPG Frühjahrstagung, 2014–2016), the congress of the Italian Physical Society (Congresso SIF, 2011) and Physics at the Terascale (2013–2014).