Donatello Dolce is a theoretical physicist currently working at the University of Camerino, Italy. He holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Florence and has held postdoctoral research positions at leading institutions across Europe and Australia, including Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and The University of Melbourne.
Donatello is the originator of the Elementary Space-Time Cycles Theory (ECT)—a novel deterministic framework in which quantum mechanics emerges from classical relativistic systems through the imposition of Periodic Boundary Conditions (PBCs) in spacetime. According to ECT, each elementary particle behaves like an ultra-fast cyclic system—a physical “clock”—whose intrinsic periodicity determines its quantum properties. This approach provides a geometric foundation for quantum mechanics and reveals quantization, commutation relations, wavefunctions, and even entanglement as natural consequences of cyclic dynamics governed by the Principle of Stationary Action.
A major achievement of ECT is the derivation of gauge interactions—such as electromagnetism and the Standard Model forces—not as fundamental postulates, but as modulations of intrinsic periodicities inferred directly by the general principle of relativistic invariance. In this framework, all interactions are interpreted as local deformations of spacetime cycles, leading to a unified description of quantum, gauge, and gravitational phenomena.
His work has also led to a proof of the AdS/CFT correspondence as a classical-to-quantum duality in a virtual extra dimension defined by intrinsic periodicity. This perspective clarifies the mathematical nature of holography and allows a classical interpretation of dualities that usually emerge from string theory.
Beyond its theoretical foundations, ECT opens new avenues in the phenomenology of the quantum world, with implications ranging from the structure of elementary particles to superconductivity, time crystals, graphene physics and quantum computation. It provides a conceptual link between coherence phenomena and the internal clockwork of matter, suggesting testable signatures of underlying cyclic structures.
Donatello has published over 20 scientific works in peer-reviewed journals such as Annals of Physics, Foundations of Physics, Europhysics Letters, and The European Physical Journal. Despite institutional resistance to unconventional frameworks, his work continues to gain recognition among physicists open to foundational questions.