Astrophysics of compact objects

The course will introduce the nature of astrophyisical compact objects and their emission, both from a theoretical and observational point of view. The program of the lectures is:
a) Introduction to compact objects: white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.
b) Black holes: general properties. Schwarschild and Kerr metrics
c) Neutron stars. Pulsars: general properties and emission mechanisms.
Pulsars as General Relativity laboratories
 

Evolution of galaxies and AGN at high redshift

Formation and co-evolution of galaxies and AGN. New observations and results. The accretion and star formation history.
The galaxy and AGN luminosity functions.
The super-massive black hole mass function.
Evolution of the black hole mass - bulge scaling relations.
Feedback. The role of radio jets. Merging and interaction.
The large scale structure distribution.

Spectroscopy of Astrophysical Plasmas

Programme:
 
-Spectroscopic Notation, Energy Levels, Transitions: selection rules -Basic Processes, The Ionisation Balance -Line Radiation: Emission -Line Absorption, Dust Extinction, Photoionised Plasmas
 

The double trouble of the missing matter in the Universe

This course is at an intermediate level. The main goal is to discus open issues of the Standard Cosmological Model.
Preferred prerequisite: Introductory course in Cosmology.
Program of the course.
The missing baryons problem. Baryon budget at different cosmic epochs. Observational evidences for missing baryons at the present epoch.
Theoretical interpretations. Observational techniques for searching for missing baryons: state of the art and future perspectives.
The Dark Matter [DM] problem. Observational evidences for DM. Theoretical arguments for DM. Alternative models (MOND theories).
Observational constraints and DM properties. Cosmological abundance. Physical properties of DM particles: Hot vs. Cold. DM candidates.
Direct and indirect detection techniques.

 

Experimental data analysis

Data collection and preparation
* Statistic with one variable and inference
* Data in time
* Geographically distributed data
* Statistic with two variables
* Non parametric statistics and multivariate methods
* Worked examples in Python/R
 

EXTRASOLAR PLANETOLOGY

Description
The discovery of about 4000 extrasolar planets, gives a new start to the astrobiological research,
allowing to go further the Solar System. Moreover, the physical and orbital characteristics of the
new worlds, very different from those of our Solar System, are critical for the classical theory of the
planetary formation. The course aims to describe the experimental techniques for the search and
characterization of extrasolar planets, the statistical and physical results obtained up to now, the
consequences on the astrobiological studies and the search for life in other worlds than Earth. In
particular, the following points will be discussed:
• The techniques exploited to search for extrasolar planets.
• Observing techniques for the characterization of Exoplanet's atmospheres.
• Hints on the planetary formation and the migration theory. Pro and cons of both the core
accretion and disk instability theories.
• Main results obtained in the exoplanets research. Known and unknown things (statistic
properties, metallicity vs formation, orbital properties, mass period and eccentricity
distributions, etc. etc.)
• Giant planets and Brown dwarfs physics. The hot Jupiters topic will deepen.
• Terrestrial and rocky planets physics. The super-Earths.
• The concept of the habitable zone, its definition in the Sun case and its extension to the other
stars.
• The search for life as astrophysical problem.

Physics of planetary ices

Ices in the Solar System
Geophysical techniques for planetary ices investigation
Electrical properties of ices
Subsurface radar on planetary and terrestrial ices
Laboratory measurements on planetary ices

 

Space Weather

According to the European Space Agency, Space weather refers to the environmental conditions in Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere due to the Sun and the solar wind that can influence the functioning and reliability of spaceborne and ground-based systems and services or endanger property or human health. As the several branches of application, the theme is very alive all over the world and carried out by teams representing different competences, such as physics, engineering, mathematics, chemistry, biology and medicine.
The course offers an overview of the physical mechanisms triggering the extreme events to highlight the space weather complexity and to represent the competences necessary to develop effective mitigation and forecasting strategies. Finally, the proposed course intends to highlight the scientific, technological and societal challenges still unsolved, also providing example of vulnerable technologies in the daily life.

Outline

• Space weather: science or service?
• Weather and climate in the circumterrestrial space
• The Sun, the solar wind, the magnetosphere and the ionosphere
• Space weather applications: how to predict and mitigate the impact on communication and navigation systems
• Space weather programs and services all over the world

 

Time series analysis

1. We will recall the basic principles of applied and numerical Fourier analysis: Fourier series and transform, energy and power spectrum, mutual and autocorrelation and their numerical computation.
2. Impulse and harmonic response of a system.
3. Filtering of a time series.
4. Time series as sampling of a continuous signal.

Inversion methods in geophysics

This course is an introduction to geophysical inversion methods. The course will deal with both the resolution of linear and nonlinear problems using deterministic approaches such as the least squares method, the SVD, and regularization techniques as well as purely probabilistic approaches such as Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The theory is illustrated through some examples taken from geophysical problems and their solution is discussed by performing inversion algorithms in the classroom.
References Books:
A. Tarantola, Inverse Problem Theory and Methods for Model Parameter Estimation, Siam
M. Bertero and P. Boccacci, Introduction to Inverse Problems in imaging, IoP
W. Menke: Geophysical Data Analysis: Discrete Inverse Theory. Academic Press


 

Communicating science: public speaking (Module B of the course "Communicating Science")

Communicating Science

• You can’t not communicate (1st law of communication).  But at the same time, communicating efficiently is an ability that needs to be learned and constantly improved.  This is always a must, but most of all in the field of science, where convincing the public (and investors) of the importance of your research is becoming everyday more important.
  This didactic module is an introduction to communication for future researchers, engineers, technicians and any other profession related to science.  We do not intend to train professional communicators but to provide to a PhD student some communicating skills he will need sooner or later in his future work, like talking to an audience, presenting the results of his work to an investor, collaborating with press offices, managing interviews by journalists, writing articles for different media, making a website to spread his results, organizing fund raising activities.
  The module is based on hands-on activities and laboratories , starting from the analysis of science communication Case Studies that will be presented and discussed in italian and/or in english (depending on the content) .
   

Introduction to Spintronics

1. Spin and charge coupled density diffusion equations.
2. Giant Magnetoresistance Effect (GMR)
3. Spin-orbit coupling in metals and semiconductors (Rashba, Dresselhaus, etc.)
4. Extrinsic Spin Hall Effect.
5. Intrinsic Spin  Hall Effect.
6. Graphene and Topological Insulators.

Mode structures and global dispersion relations in magnetized toroidal plasmas

Abstract: Understanding the global structures and dispersion relation of fluctuations in magnetized plasmas
is of fundamental importance for understanding their properties in laboratory and space environments. Equilibrium
magnetic field and plasma non-uniformities play crucial roles in this respect and require proper mathematical 
techniques to be addressed. 
This series of lectures is structured in three parts. (I) Variational methods in plasma physics (lectures i-ii-iii),
addressing the general construction of variational methods, providing simple examples and applications, and
illustrating their use in magnetohydrodynamics. (II) Wave propagation in slowly varying, weakly non-uniform media
(lectures iv-v), discussing the eikonal formulation of wave equations and the wave kinetic equation. (III) Description
of Alfvén waves in toroidal plasmas (lectures vi-vii), dealing with the global eigenvalue problem as well as the
time asymptotic solution and WKB dispersion relation.
 

Dynamics of liquids and glass transition theories

• Dynamical correlation functions
• Dynamics of liquids and glass transition
• Mode coupling theory of the glassy dynamics
 

What is a Force?

The notion of force is ubiquitous in physics and the word "force" appears frequently in everyday life. Nevertheless, the notion of force is among the most subtle ones in physics.

The goal of this course is to go beyond the common working knowledge of forces that most of us have, and dwelve into the essence of this fundamental notion. Forces represent one of the major achievements of mathematical-physics, that is, the translation of the observations and the findings of experimental mechanics onto a mathematical model able to predict the outcome of mechanical phenomena.

Properly speaking, theoretical physics began with Newton's Principia, published in 1687;  at almost the same time mathematical analysis began. In this course, we shall review the key steps that brought to the development of the mathematical notions used to describe a force, and we shall describe the modern point of view of force modeling.

Contents
- Kinematics VS dynamics.
- Force as a probe for power
- The principle of virtual power
- Power VS Energy
- The principle of dissipation
- Invariance to change of observer



 

Detector simulation with Geant4

Pre-requisites: Knowledge of C++ language,basic knowledge of MC simulation techniques

Introduction
What is geant4 - basic concepts
Hands on: Installation and first run 

Detector description
Definition of detector geometry and materials
Visualization
Hands on: Add physical volumes to your first detector

Detector simulation
 
Generation of primaries
Extract information: user actions, scoring and hits
Hands on: Shoot particles in your detector, retrieve basic quantities and store them in a ROOT file

Advanced:
Optical physics
Hands on: simulation of a scintillator detector with pmt/sipm readout, comparison with experimental data
 
 

Experimental Flavour Physics

• Flavour Physics Lectures   (A. Passeri)
  
  Definition of flavour and flavour physics.
  Flavour and Higgs.
  CKM matrix. Unitarity triangles.
  Flavour physics beyond the Standard Model
  Lepton Flavour Violation.
  Introduction to CP violation.
  CP violation in Kaons. Experimental measurement in NA48 and KLOE.
  Cabibbo angle (Vus) measurement fro charged and neutral kaon decays.
  Rare and very rare kaon decays.
  The GIM mechanism and observation of the charm quark.
  Charmed hadrons lifetimes.
  Leptonic and semileptonic charm decays.
  D meson mixing.
  Charmed mesons decay asymmetries.
  Accelerators and experiments for b physics studies.
  B meson mixing and CP violation.
  Measurement of angles and sides of the b unitarity triangle.
  Experimental measurement of Bd and Bs mixing.
  B hadrons lifetimes
  Search for new physics with B and D mesons decays.
  The leptonic flavour in the Standard Model.
  LFV beyond the SM.
  Mu-> e gamma and the MEG experiment.
  Future prospects: Mu2E proposal
  Tau LFV decays at B factories.
  Electrical dipole moments in physics BSM and their measurement.

Experimental High Energy Physics at Colliders

- Accelerator Physics, Detectors (Lecture 1)

- Reconstruction of Objects (Lecture 2) - Cross Section Measurements (Lecture 3) - Cross Section Measurements (Lecture 3,continued)
- Kinematics, Feynman Diagrams (Lecture 4)
- pdf’s
- MC Generators & Geant

- Electro Weak Physics (Lecture 5)

a) Standard Candles (Low Mass Resonances, W Boson, Z Boson)
- QCD Physics & B Physics(Lecture 6)
- Top Physics (Lecture 7)
- Higgs Physics (Lectures 8, 9)
- Susy Physics (Lecture 10)
- Exotic Physics
- Future Accelerators and Perspectives (Lecture 11)

 

Hadron interactions at high energy

Experimental environment: ISR, SppS, Tevatron, RHIC, LHC.
General characteristics of low momentum-transfer interactions.
Inclusive particle production. Elastic, diffractive, total cross section.
Quantum chromodynamics, quark and gluons, colour factors, a_S(Q²).
Deep inelastic lepton scattering, structure functions and Q² evolution.
Parton density functions, Monte Carlo event generators, parton shower.
Drell–Yan, W and Z production.
Hadronic jets, jet-reconstruction algorithms, event-shape variables.
Inclusive jets, jet-pairs, jet-photon, multi-jet production.
Jet fragmentation function.
Measurements of a_S(Q²).
Relativistic nuclei collisions, the quark-gluon plasma.
General characteristics of AA collisions, signals of plasma formation.
 

Flavor Physics and Lattice QCD

Flavor Physics and Lattice QCD
4 weeks, 2 sessions per week, each session 2 hours long
Week 1: Basic elements of flavor physics
After abridged description of the Standard Model (SM), more attention is devoted to the flavor sector, and in particular to quarks and their mixing. CKM and the unitarity triangle: current status and the resulting amount of CP violation in the SM. Going beyond the SM: example, flavor problem in the 2HDM.  
Week 2: Introduction to lattice QCD and its relation to flavor physics
QCD on the lattice: (i) discretizing Yang-Mills action à la Symanzik; (ii) challenges with the Dirac operator on the lattice and its inversion. From correlation functions to hadronic matrix elements – part one. Leptonic and semileptonic decays on the lattice in the Standard Model (SM) and beyond. HVP from the lattice. Finite volume effects.   
Week 3: Renormalization of fields and composite operators
From correlation functions to hadronic matrix elements – part two: perturbative and nonperturbative renormalization. Going to the continuum limit. Examples: (i) determination of the quark masses; (ii) towards the physical decay constants and form factors; (iii) hadronic matrix elements of the four-quark operators (in and beyond the SM). 
Week 4: Peculiarities of heavy quarks and current trends in flavor physics
Effective theories of heavy quark off and on the lattice. Renormalization of heavy quark fields and the corresponding composite operators. Current status of the phenomenologically relevant hadronic quantities involving b-quark, as computed on the lattice. Going beyond the SM in flavor sector: SMEFT (rudimentary). Towards the theory of flavor.
 

Advanced course on the Standard Model

- Part I - Prof. Bonvini (to be defined)

- Part II Electroweak physics - G. Degrassi 6 hour (Roma Tre)

• Standard Model Review
  - Definition of the Fermi constant
  - The rho parameter
  - The custodial symmetry
  - Gaugeless limit of the Standard Model
  
  Renormalization of the Standard Model
  - The  Delta r and Delta kappa parameters
  - The Ms bar and On-Shell renormalization schemes
  
  Precision Physics
  - g-2
  - Indirect determination of the top and Higgs masses
  - Theoretical constraints on the Higgs mass
  - Higgs decays and production
   

Elements of Group Theory and GUT

- Grand Unified Theories: SU(5) and SO(10)
- Models of neutrino masses and mixing

ADAPTIVE AND FRACTAL DATA ANALYSIS

- Adaptive time series analysis algorithms: Empirical Mode Decomposition, Ensemble
EMD, time varying filter EMD.
- Algorithms for fractal time series analysis: detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA),
multifractal DFA and the local Hurst exponent.
- Applications: scattered light noise mitigation in the Virgo interferometer,
beryllium-7 time series sampled by the CTBTO.

 

APPLIED NUCLEAR PHYSICS

- Radiometric dating
- Uncertainties and results of radiometric dating 
- Applications: atmospheric transport modelling, nuclear non-proliferation

HANDS ON CONTINUUM MECHANICS

Organizers: the course is organized in partnership with three PhD Schools:

• PhD on Mathematics, Dept. Mathematics & Physics, University Roma Tre;
• PhD on Theoretical & Applied Mechanics, Dept. Aeronautical & Mechanical Engineering, Sapienza University, Roma;
• PhD on Structural & Geotechnical Engineering, Dept. of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Sapienza
University, Roma.
Goal: understand the fundamentals of continuum mechanics through worked examples. Participants will tackle some
typical problems of continuum mechanics, and will learn to implement a given problem using the weak formulation into
the COMSOL software and to discuss the solution.
Synopsis of Lectures
1) Browse a model of nonlinear solid mechanics, from the implementation to the solution.
A first glance at the fundamentals of continuum mechanics: Kinematics, Constitutive, and Balance laws.
Differential form (strong) versus Integral form (weak).
Worked example: large deformations of a hyperelastic solid under loadings.
2) Material Versus Spatial description.
A continuum body as a differentiable manifold.
Tell the difference between tensors: strain tensor versus stress tensor.
Pull back & push forward of scalar, vector and tensor fields.
Geometric elements; change of densities.
3) Solid mechanics versus Fluid mechanics
Kinematical constraints; isochoric motion.
Reference stress (Piola) & Actual stress (Cauchy).
Polar decomposition theorem; eigenspace of the stress tensor and of the strain tensor
4) Non linear solid mechanics
Worked example: large deformations of a hyperelastic solid under distortions. Target metric.
5) Material response
Worked example: from elastic energy to the constitutive law for the stress.
Transversely isotropic materials. Fiber reinforced materials.
Worked example: fiber reinforced hyperelastic solid under traction.
6) Fluid dynamics
Tackling Navier Stokes equations.
Worked examples: fluid in a channel; fluid around an obstacle.
7) Fluid-Structure interactions - theory
Worked examples: understand the moving mesh technique; how to write the problem of a beam immersed in a fluid.
8) Fluid-Structure interactions - practice
Worked example: implement and solve the problem of an oscillating beam immersed in a fluid.

LIE SYMMETRIES OF DIFFERENTIAL AND DIFFERENCE EQUATIONS

1. Lie symmetries of differential equatios and their extensions and generalizations
2. Lie point symmetries of Difference Equations; their derivation and their applications.
3. From Point Symmetries to Generalized Symmetries for Difference Equations
4. Generalized Symmetries from the Integrability of Difference Equations
5. Formal Symmetries and Integrable Lattice Equations

Python

Acquisire competenze per l'implementazione al calcolatore di programmi ad alto livello nel linguaggio interpretato
Python. Conoscere i costrutti fondamentali di Python e la sua applicazione a casi d'uso legati al calcolo scientifico e
all'elaborazione dei dati.