1,845 research outputs found
When gravity meets philosophy again: the Gravitas project
No full textGravity is, by far, one of the scientific themes that have most piqued the
curiosity of scientists and philosophers over the centuries. The history of
science tells us that when the creative effort of physicists and philosophers
to solve the main puzzles of the understanding of our universe met, a new
conceptual revolution has started. However, since Einstein's relativistic
theories and the subsequent advent of quantum mechanics, physicists and
philosophers have taken different paths, both kidnapped by the intrinsic
conceptual and mathematical difficulties inherited by their studies. Is it
possible to restore a unitary vision of knowledge, overcoming the
scientific-humanistic dichotomy that has established itself over time? The
answer is certainly not trivial, but we can start from school to experience a
new vision of a unified knowledge. From this need, the Gravitas project has
born. Gravitas is a multidisciplinary outreach and educational program devoted
to high school students (17-19 years old) that mixes contemporary physics and
the philosophy of science. Coordinated by the Cagliari Section of the National
Institute of Nuclear Physics, in Italy, Gravitas has started on December 2021
with an unconventional online format: two researchers coming from different
fields of research meet a moderator and informally discuss about gravity and
related phenomena. The public can chat and indirectly interact with them during
the YouTube live. The project involved about 250 students from 16 high schools
in Sardinia, Italy. Students should also create posts thought for social media
whose content is based on the seminars they attended during the project. We
present the project and discuss its possible outcomings concerning the
introduction of a multidisciplinary approach in teaching physics, philosophy,
and the history of contemporary physics in high schools.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of ICHEP 2022 Conference, 6 pages, 8
figures. An extended version of the abstract appears in the pape
State and parameter estimation approach to monitoring AGR nuclear core
No full textThis work concerns with the problem of monitoring an Advanced Gas-cooled Nuclear Reactor (AGR) core. This plant (figure 1) makes use of the heat given by the nuclear efficient reaction to produce electricity by means of steam turbines. These are driven by steam, which is heated, from the AGR gas using a heat exchanger. One of the advantages of a gas cooled reactor is the high temperature that the gas can achieve so that when it is used in conjunction with the heat exchanger and steamed turbine the thermal efficiency is very high
The role of the basal ganglia in action imitation: neuropsychological evidence from Parkinson's disease patients.
No full textThough previous studies have suggested that the basal ganglia are necessarily involved in action imitation, their precise role is unclear. An important source of evidence concerns patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who suffer basal ganglia impairments. Some studies report poor execution of observed meaningful (MF) transitive (tool-related) actions but normal performance with intransitive (non-tool-related) MF and meaningless (ML) actions (Leiguarda et al. in Brain 120:75-90, 1997; Leiguarda 2001 in Neuroimage 14:137-141). In other cases, though, patients with lesions involving the basal ganglia appear impaired in imitating ML as compared to meaningful MF transitive pantomimes. Here, we tested a group of PD patients in a full 2 × 2 design with MF transitive and intransitive pantomimes and matched ML movements. PD patients generated higher scores when imitating MF transitive actions than ML-matched actions. On the other hand, ML than MF intransitive actions did not differ significantly. The performance of the patients on imitating ML transitive actions also correlated with their performance on the Corsi block test of visuospatial memory and their scores at the test of verbal fluency for phonemic categories (FAS) while MF intransitive actions correlated with FAS and the neurological evaluation (UPDRS) The results are discussed in terms of the factors that load on visual memory for action reproduction, as well as the possible role of the basal ganglia in communicative actions (for MF intransitive actions)
Theatre: The Other Side of Physics
No full textIn the current century, the relationship between physics and theatre is
becoming more and more intense and fruitful, so much so that stimulating connec-
tions—previously not even suspected—are being discovered between the ways of
unfolding reality that are common to both theatrical research and basic physics
research. Nevertheless, in most important theatres, it is still difficult to attend scien-
tific performances that are on the bill; on the other hand, there is little theatre in
university physics courses, yet. We will analyse the reasons for this situation and
highlight the developments of physics theatre from an educational point of view, but
above all, we will underline the dual structure of physics and theatre when looked
upon from a deep cultural perspective
New constraint on neutrino magnetic moment and neutrino millicharge from LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter search results
No full textElastic neutrino-electron scattering represents a powerful tool to investigate key neutrino properties. In view of the recent results released by the LUX-ZEPLIN collaboration, we provide a first determination of the limits achievable on the neutrino magnetic moment and neutrino millicharge, whose effect becomes non-negligible in some beyond the Standard Model theories. In this context, we evaluate and discuss the impact of different approximations to describe the neutrino interaction with atomic electrons. The new LUX-ZEPLIN data allows us to set a very competitive limit on the neutrino magnetic moment when compared to the other laboratory bounds, namely mu effv < 1.1 x 10-11 mu B at 90% C.L., which improves by a factor of 2.5 the Borexino collaboration limit and represents the second best world limit after the recent XENONnT result. Moreover, exploiting the so-called equivalent photon approximation, we obtain the most stringent limit on the neutrino millicharge, namely Iqeffv I < 1.5 x 10-13e0 at 90% C.L., which represents a great improvement with respect to the previous laboratory bounds
Fostering the Interdisciplinary Learning of Contemporary Physics Through Digital Technologies: The “Gravitas” Project
No full textThe interdisciplinary teaching of contemporary physics has become increasingly common in physics education, especially for high school students and teachers. This approach, which integrates content and methodologies from various disciplines, fosters scientific reasoning, enhances creativity, and increases student motivation and interest in physics. The use of digital technologies, such as social media platforms, supports these educational goals by facilitating the inclusive and cost-effective dissemination of scientific knowledge and the development of soft skills. This paper introduces the “Gravitas” project, an initiative that employs an interdisciplinary approach to present contemporary physics topics to high school students through social media. Coordinated by the Cagliari Division of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy, the “Gravitas” project offers a non-traditional learning environment where students explore modern physics and philosophy and the history of science. Through the creation of educational materials, such as social media posts, students actively engage in their learning. In 2022, around 250 students from 16 high schools across Sardinia, Italy, participated in this project. This paper discusses the learning outcomes, highlighting the potential of integrating formal high school curricula with innovative educational and digital tools
A laser generated acoustic signal for the calibration of hydrophones in large volume underwater detectors
No full textGravitational Waves: An Historical Perspective
No full textOn September 14, 2015, the Earth was hit by a very brief and extremely weak signal, which was the only trace of a catastrophic cosmic event that took place 1.3 billion light years from our planet. That tiny signal recounted the last whirling moments of the life of a binary system of black holes, before the two bodies—of masses 30 times greater than the mass of the Sun—merged into each other at speeds comparable to the speed of light. Captured by two special experimental devices—the interferometric detectors LIGO in the United States—the radiation of September 14 represents the first gravitational signal ever observed by man and the first confirmation that binary systems of black holes exist. Einstein had predicted the existence of gravitational waves as early as 1916. Nevertheless, their reality as physical entities—and not just mathematical solutions of Einstein’s field equations—were still the subject of theoretical discussions in the 1950s, when the first ideas of how to detect them started to develop. Since the first detection in September 2015, an extraordinary new field of cosmic investigation is born: gravitational wave astronomy
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