Francesco Coghi

VITA

I am a PostDoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham (UK), in the Condensed Matter Theory group led by Juan P. Garrahan. My research focuses on the development and application of methods to study fluctuations and rare events in memory-driven stochastic systems.

Before joining Nottingham University, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Nordita in Stockholm in the group of John Wettlaufer. Before that, in October 2021, I obtained my PhD at Queen Mary University of London working on large deviations with Rosemary J. Harris.

I am drawn by random systems and structures and, in particular, by the appearance of rare ordered patterns and events out of noise and chaos. In the last few years I have started investigating the interplay between stochasticity and memory. A few keywords related to my research work as well as extra-academic interests:

Fluctuations dynamics
Large deviation theory
Rare events
Out-of-equilibrium physics
Self-interacting processes
Stochastic control
Reinforcement learning
Finance

Hobbies

I like bikepacking, swimming, kneading, crime board games, reading and sharing with friends.

Download full CV

RESEARCH

Publications

Current fluctuations of a self-interacting diffusion on a ring

arXiv: 2406.15561

arXiv

Generalised Landauer bound from absolute irreversibility

Phys. Rev. E 109 (2024) 024138

arXiv PRE

Understanding random-walk dynamical phase coexistence through waiting times

Phys. Rev. Research 6, 013077 (2024)

arXiv PRR

Thermodynamic cost for precision of general counting observables

Phys. Rev. E 109, 064128 (2024)

arXiv PRE

Dynamical fluctuations in a minimal model of higher-order networks

Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 107401 (2024)

arXiv PRL

Convergence of the Integral Fluctuation Theorem estimator for nonequilibrium Markov systems

J. Stat. Mech. Theory Exp. (2023) 063201

arXiv JSTAT

Adaptive power method for estimating large deviations of Markov chains

Phys. Rev. E 107 (2023) 034137

arXiv PRE

Delocalisation-localisation dynamical phase transition of random walks on graphs

Phys. Rev. E 107 (2023) 024126

arXiv PRE

Maximal dispersion of adaptive random walks

Phys. Rev. Res. 4, L042051 (2022)

arXiv PRR

Graph-combinatorial approach for large deviations of Markov chains

J. Phys. A Math. Theor. 55 295001 (2022)

arXiv JPA

Role of current fluctuations in nonreversible samplers

Phys. Rev. E 103 (2021): 062142

arXiv PRE

A large deviation perspective on ratio observables in reset processes: robustness of rate functions

J. Stat. Phys. 179, 131–154 (2020)

arXiv JSP

Large deviations of random walks on random graphs

Phys. Rev. E 99.2 (2019): 022137

arXiv PRE

Controlling the uncertain response of real multiplex networks to random damage

Phys. Rev. E 98.6 (2018): 062317

arXiv PRE

PhD Thesis

Large deviation methods for the study of nonequilibrium systems: variational and spectral approaches.

September 2021

PDF

TEACHING

Teaching

Iceland University

Lecturer (fixed term) for the module Statistical Physics of the Master's course Advanced Topics in Classical Physics.

Autumn 2023

Queen Mary University of London

Teaching assistant of various modules such as Dynamical Systems, Calculus 2, Programming with Python, etc...

2018-2020

Mentoring

Nordita (Stockholm)

Supervisor of Romain Duvezin’s Internship between ENS Paris and Nordita. Title: Revisiting escape times for self-interacting diffusion processes.

Spring 2024

Nordita (Stockholm)

First supervisor of David Stuhrmann’s Master Thesis in Computational Physics. Title: Adaptive random walks on graphs to sample rare events.

Autumn 2022 - Summer 2023

Honours & Funding

Blanceflor Scholarship

Awarded with SEK 50000 from the Blanceflor Foundation in support of research work.

Apr 2024

Nordita Workshop Funding

Awarded with SEK 80000 for the organisation of the workshop on ‘Fluctuations and First-Passage Time Problems’ held at Nordita.

Dec 2022

Eileen Colyer Prize

Awarded with £1000 from the School of Mathematical Sciences at QMUL, towards the forthcoming trip to the University of Stellenbosch, SA.

Dec 2019

Queen Mary Postgraduate Research Fund

Awarded with £1000 from Queen Mary University of London, towards the forthcoming trip to the University of Stellenbosch, SA.

Nov 2019

IMA Small Grant 2019

Awarded with £500 from the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, for the forthcoming trip to the Laboratoire J. A. Dieudonné in Nice, FR.

Jun 2019

NEWS

Jul 2025

Organising workshop on 'Fluctuations of self-interacting and learning systems'

Along with L. Buffoni, H. Touchette, S. Krishnamurthy and R. Eichhorn, we are organising a workshop (potentially a Satellite of StatPhys29) at Nordita.

CONTACT

School of Physics and Astronomy

The University of Nottingham

Office C7b

Nottingham NG7 2RD

francesco[dot]coghi[at]nottingham[dot]ac[dot]uk