2,386 research outputs found
Physics Experiments with Arduino and Smartphones
No full textThis book on the use of Arduino and Smartphones in physics experiments, with a focus on mechanics, introduces various techniques by way of examples. The main aim is to teach students how to take meaningful measurements and how to interpret them. Each topic is introduced by an experiment. Those at the beginning of the book are rather simple to build and analyze. As the lessons proceed, the experiments become more refined and new techniques are introduced. Rather than providing recipes to be adopted while taking measurements, the need for new concepts is raised by observing the results of an experiment. A formal justification is given only after a concept has been introduced experimentally. The discussion extends beyond the taking of measurements to their meaning in terms of physics, the importance of what is learned from the laws that are derived, and their limits. Stress is placed on the importance of careful design of experiments as to reduce systematic errors and on good practices to avoid common mistakes. Data are always analyzed using computer software. C-like structures are introduced in teaching how to program Arduino, while data collection and analysis is done using Python. Several methods of graphical representation of data are used
Inducing the construction of formal axioms of Quantum Mechanics and fostering their comprehension by high school students: The effectiveness of a conceptual approach
No full textTaking as a paradigmatic example an educational reconstruction of Quantum Mechanics (QM), we discuss the approach and general research lines followed by the Physics Education Research Group of the Universities of Milan
and Rome. Our choice is prompted by the fact that through QM students can lay out the structure of a new grammar, which is necessary for the presentation of any quantum theory (in particular, Quantum Field Theory) in high school. In
particular, we discuss the results of a 15-hour pilot experimentation made in A.Y. 2021–2022, with high school students and teachers. The results obtained are highly
encouraging since they appear to indicate that the introduction of formal aspects of QM in Italian high school is possible with more than satisfying learning outcomes
Scientific Programming: C-language, Algorithms and Models in Science
No full textThe book teaches a student to model a scientific problem and write a computer program in C language to solve that problem. To do that, the book first introduces the student to the basics of C language, dealing with all syntactical aspects, but without the pedantic content of a typical programming language manual. Then the book describes and discusses many algorithms commonly used in scientific applications (e.g. searching, graphs, statistics, equation solving, Monte Carlo methods etc.).This important book fills a gap in current available bibliography. There are many manuals for programming in C, but they never explain programming technicalities to solve a given problem. This book illustrates many relevant algorithms and shows how to translate them in a working computer program
Extracting the speed of sound in quark–gluon plasma with ultrarelativistic lead–lead collisions at the LHC
No full textUltrarelativistic nuclear collisions create a strongly interacting state of hot and dense quark-gluon matter that exhibits a remarkable collective flow behavior with minimal viscous dissipation. To gain deeper insights into its intrinsic nature and fundamental degrees of freedom, we determine the speed of sound in an extended volume of quark-gluon plasma using lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV. The data were recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 0.607 nb-1. The measurement is performed by studying the multiplicity dependence of the average transverse momentum of charged particles emitted in head-on PbPb collisions. Our findings reveal that the speed of sound in this matter is nearly half the speed of light, with a squared value of0.241±0.002(stat)±0.016(syst)in natural units. The effective medium temperature, estimated using the mean transverse momentum, is219±8(syst)MeV. The measured squared speed of sound at this temperature aligns precisely with predictions from lattice quantum chromodynamic (QCD) calculations. This result provides a stringent constraint on the equation of state of the created medium and direct evidence for a deconfined QCD phase being attained in relativistic nuclear collisions
Measurement of fundamental physical quantities in the framework of the Lab2Go project
No full textTo establish a closer contact between school and experimental sciences,
Sapienza Universit\`a di Roma and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
(INFN) launched the Lab2Go project. Lab2Go has the goal of spreading laboratory
practice among students and teachers in high schools. In this article, it is
presented a measurement, carried out in the framework of the Lab2Go project, of
the ratio hc/e where h, c and e are respectively the Planck constant, the speed
of light in the vacuum, and the electric charge
Performance of the PADME Calorimeter prototype at the DAΦNE BTF
No full textThe PADME experiment at the DAΦNE Beam-Test Facility (BTF) aims at searching for invisible decays of the dark photon by measuring the final state missing mass in the process e+e−→γ+A′, with A′ undetected. The measurement requires the determination of the 4-momentum of the recoil photon, performed using a homogeneous, highly segmented BGO crystals calorimeter. We report the results of the test of a 5×5 crystals prototype performed with an electron beam at the BTF in July 2016
Measurement of fundamental physical quantities in the framework of the Lab2Go project
No full textTo establish a closer contact between school and experimental sciences, Sapienza Università di Roma and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) launched the Lab2Go project. Lab2Go has the goal of spreading laboratory practice among students and teachers in high schools. In this article, a measurement is presented, carried out in the framework of the Lab2Go project, of the ratio hc/e where h, c and e are respectively Planck’s constant, the speed of light in vacuum, and the electric charge
Measurement of the cosmic ray flux by an ArduSiPM-based muon telescope in the framework of the Lab2Go project
No full textWithin Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) outreach activities, the Lab2Go project is of great significance. Its goal is involving high school teachers and students in several laboratory activities, aiming at increasing the weight of experimental contents in teaching and learning. In this article, we present the measurement, carried out in the framework of the Lab2Go project, of the cosmic muon flux made by an ArduSiPM-based muon telescope
Characterization of the PADME positron beam for the X17 measurement
No full textThis paper presents a detailed characterization of the positron beam delivered by the Beam Test Facility at Laboratori Nazionali of Frascati to the PADME experiment during Run III, which took place from October to December 2022. It showcases the methodology used to measure the main beam parameters such as the position in space, the absolute momentum scale, the beam energy spread, and its intensity through a combination of data analysis and Monte Carlo simulations. The results achieved include an absolute precision in the momentum of the beam to within ~1–2 MeV/c, a relative beam energy spread below 0.25%, and an absolute precision in the intensity of the beam at the level of 2%
PADME: searching for dark mediator at the Frascati BTF
No full textMassive photon-like particles are predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model with a hidden sector accounting for dark matter candidates. They have interactions similar to the photon, are vector bosons, and can be produced together with photons. Most of the present experimental constraints on the dark photon (A) rely on the hypothesis of dominant decays to lepton pairs. The PADME experiment aims at searching for the e+e- → γA process in a positron-on-target experiment, assuming a decay of the A into invisible particles of the hidden sector. The positron beam of the DAΦNE Beam-Test Facility (BTF), produced by the LINAC at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of INFN, will be used. The core of the experimental apparatus is a fine-grained, high-resolution calorimeter. It will measure with high precision the momentum of the photon in events with no other activity in the detector, thus allowing to measure the A mass as the missing mass in the final state. In about one year data taking, a sensitivity on the interaction strength (ε2 parameter) down to 10- is achievable, in the mass region from 1 MeV < MA < 23.7 MeV, running with 6000 positrons in 40 ns long bunches at 550 MeV beam energy. The experiment, now in the construction phase, is planned to run in 2018. The status of the PADME detector and the physics potential of PADME is reviewed
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