X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a successful technique often used for the elemental analysis of cultural heritage artefacts. It is non-invasive, the equipment can be miniaturized and made portable and it allows addressing crucial issues such as the fabrication technology, authenticity and provenance of the artefacts. Depending on the components' selection (e.g., the primary source, the detector and the focusing optics, if present), the analytical performance and the consequent suitability to investigate a given class of materials may vary significantly. The present paper discusses the analytical performance-with special regard to the limits of detection and the quantification uncertainty-of two portable XRF spectrometers developed within a collaboration between INFN-LNF-FISMEL and CNR-ISPC. The devices are expressly designed for heritage materials. In particular, one is equipped with focusing optics and it is intended to analyze small details on glasses and pigmented surfaces, whereas the other has a 70 kV X-ray tube, which greatly improves sensitivity for medium-Z elements, which is important in copper-based artefacts. Finally, this paper discusses two case studies to highlight the features of the instruments: one concerns Etruscan vitreous material beads and the other pre- and proto-historic copper-based artefacts from Tyrrhenian Central Italy. Thanks to the small size of the equipment, both investigations could easily be carried out in situ, namely, at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco in Rome and the Museo della Preistoria della Tuscia e della Rocca Farnese at Valentano.
The Southern European Thomson back-scattering source for Applied Research (STAR) is a high-energy photon facility located on the campus of the University of Calabria (UniCal). The facility was designed for its first phase to operate with an electron and photon energy up to 85 MeV and 140 keV respectively. For the second phase of the project the energy of the electrons, and thereby the photons, would be increased up to 150 MeV and 350 keV respectively. The Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) was awarded the project for installing, testing, and commissioning the energy upgrade of the electron beamline. In this article, we will outline the progress of this upgrade. In particular the completion of the site acceptance test of the RF system and the IT infrastructure combined with the control system software.
We discuss the consequences of the quantum uncertainty on the spectrum of the electron emitted by the beta-processes of a tritium atom bound to a graphene sheet. We analyze quantitatively the issue recently raised by Cheipesh, Cheianov, and Boyarsky [Phys. Rev. D 104, 116004 (2021)], and discuss the relevant timescales and the degrees of freedom that can contribute to the intrinsic spread in the electron energy. We perform careful calculations of the potential between tritium and graphene with different coverages and geometries. With this at hand, we propose possible avenues to mitigate the effect of the quantum uncertainty.
Abstract At finite density, the spontaneous breakdown of an internal non-Abelian symmetry dictates, along with gapless modes, modes whose gap is fixed by the algebra and proportional to the chemical potential: the gapped Goldstones. Generically the gap of these states is comparable to that of other non-universal excitations or to the energy scale where the dynamics is strongly coupled. This makes it non-straightforward to derive a universal effective field theory (EFT) description realizing all the symmetries. Focusing on the illustrative example of a fully broken SU(2) group, we demonstrate that such an EFT can be constructed by carving out around the Goldstones, gapless and gapped, at small 3-momentum. The rules governing the EFT, where the gapless Goldstones are soft while the gapped ones are slow, are those of standard nonrelativistic EFTs, like for instance nonrelativistic QED. In particular, the EFT Lagrangian formally preserves gapped Goldstone number, and processes where such number is not conserved are described inclusively by allowing for imaginary parts in the Wilson coefficients. Thus, while the symmetry is manifestly realized in the EFT, unitarity is not. We comment on the application of our construction to the study of the large charge sector of conformal field theories with non-Abelian symmetries.
Figure 20.1 was not correct in the published article. The original article has been corrected. The published apologizes for the inconvenience.
This Document contains a complete technical description of the system devoted to the upgrade of the STAR Linear Accelerator (STAR Linac). According to the Contract signed between Universita della Calabria (UniCal) and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) on May 7th, 2021, INFN is committed to install, test and commission the upgrade of the STAR Linac denominated STAR-HE-Linac (STAR High Energy Linac), hereafter STAR-HEL. The technical components as well as the installation / test procedures and the ancillary equipment involved in such an upgrade are the object of this Document, named Complete Detailed Design Report. A technical offer was submitted by INFN in the frame of its participation to the tender issued by UniCal, describing a possible energy upgrade of the STAR Linac, with an electron beam energy boosted from 65 MeV up to 150 MeV by means of Radiofrequency (RF) accelerating sections and power stations based on S-band technology (ie, 2856 MHz RF frequency). Following the Contract signature, INFN conceived and conceptually designed a technology change that offers several advantages both on performances and on operational reliability of STAR-HEL, based on adopting C-band technology (ie, 5712 MHz RF frequency) for accelerating sections and RF power stations. Such a technology change was illustrated in a dedicated document named"improvement option for STAR-2 HE-Linac", addressed to UniCal STAR Management Board and tender R.U.P. for approval on June 9th, 2021. INFN received a formal letter of approval on June 16th, 2021.
We report the status of the development of an High Power RF Laboratory in X-Band called TEX (TEst-stand for XBand). TEX is part of the LATINO (Laboratory in Advanced Technologies for INnOvation) initiative that is ongoing at the Frascati National Laboratories (LNF) of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) that covers many different areas focused on particle accelerator technologies. TEX is a RF test facility based on solid-state K400 modulator from ScandiNova with a 50 MW class X-band (11.994 GHz) klystron tube model VKX8311A operating at 50 Hz. This RF source will operate as resource for test and research programs such as the RF breakdown on RF waveguide components as well as high power testing of accelerating structures for future high gradient linear accelerator such as EuPRAXIA and CLIC. The high power testing will be performed in a dedicated brand-new bunker that has been recently built. RF system, vacuum controls and safety equipments are currently being installed. The first accelerating structure testing is scheduled by beginning 2022. In this document design and tests for all the sub-systems of the facility will be presented and discussed.
A group of 364 Roman Imperial coins, issued by Nero (37-68 A.D.) and exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, was non-invasively investigated by micro X-ray fluorescence analysis. The research aimed at correlating the events of Nero's monetary policy, mainly the reform of 64 A.D., with possible variations in the weight and composition of coinage. We observed that the reform produced: a) weight reduction and/or debasement for both precious metal and orichalcum coinage and b) higher disorder in the coinage production of 64 A.D. and the immediately subsequent years. Thanks to the capability of performing measurements on the small patina-free areas already present on the coin, with no need for abrasion, micro X-ray fluorescence proves an effective option for the non-invasive analysis of ancient coinage.
SABINA (Source of Advanced Beam Imaging for Novel Applications) is a project aimed at the enhancement of the SPARC_LAB research facility. This enhancement is carried out through the following actions: first, the increase of the uptime through the consolidation of technological systems and the replacement of some critical equipment in order to limit the number and extent of faults; then, the improvement of the accelerator performances, by replacing some devices with updated ones. The effect will be greater reliability of the accelerator, which will allow it to be opened as a facility for external users, both industrial and scientific, with the goal of increasing the competitiveness of industries in a broad range of technological areas and enhancing collaborations with research institutions. The two user lines that will be implemented are a power laser target area and a THz radiation line, by using a dedicated undulator. The undulator and the THz line are also described in other contributions to this conference. A brief description of the project and potential exploitations are reported.
This report presents the conceptual design of a new European research infrastructure EuPRAXIA. The concept has been established over the last four years in a unique collaboration of 41 laboratories within a Horizon 2020 design study funded by the European Union. EuPRAXIA is the first European project that develops a dedicated particle accelerator research infrastructure based on novel plasma acceleration concepts and laser technology. It focuses on the development of electron accelerators and underlying technologies, their user communities, and the exploitation of existing accelerator infrastructures in Europe. EuPRAXIA has involved, amongst others, the international laser community and industry to build links and bridges with accelerator science - through realising synergies, identifying disruptive ideas, innovating, and fostering knowledge exchange. The Eu-PRAXIA project aims at the construction of an innovative electron accelerator using laser- and electron-beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration that offers a significant reduction in size and possible savings in cost over current state-of-the-art radiofrequency-based accelerators. The foreseen electron energy range of one to five gigaelectronvolts (GeV) and its performance goals will enable versatile applications in various domains, e.g. as a compact free-electron laser (FEL), compact sources for medical imaging and positron generation, table-top test beams for particle detectors, as well as deeply penetrating X-ray and gamma-ray sources for material testing. EuPRAXIA is designed to be the required stepping stone to possible future plasma-based facilities, such as linear colliders at the high-energy physics (HEP) energy frontier. Consistent with a high-confidence approach, the project includes measures to retire risk by establishing scaled technology demonstrators. This report includes preliminary models for project implementation, cost and schedule that would allow operation of the full Eu-PRAXIA facility within 8-10 years.
In fact, suppression of weakly-bound quarkonia states has been studied for decades in proton-nucleus collisions. Models incorporating final state effects, such as breakup via interactions with comoving hadrons, are able to describe the relative suppression of excited-over-ground quarkonium states in pA collisions. In the case of proton-proton collisions, these final state effects can affect the quakonia production for multiplicities higher than the mean value, giving rise to a suppression that evolves with the increase of comoving particles.
Author(s): Cerri, A; Gligorov, VV; Malvezzi, S; Camalich, J Martin; Zupan, J; Akar, S; Alimena, J; Allanach, BC; Altmannshofer, W; Anderlini, L; Archilli, F; Azzi, P; Banerjee, S; Barter, W; Barton, AE; Bauer, M; Belyaev, I; Benson, S; Bettler, M; Bhattacharya, R; Bifani, S; Birnkraut, A; Bishara, F; Blake, T; Blusk, S; Boos, E; Borsato, M; Bozzi, C; Bragagnolo, A; Brod, J; Brodzicka, J; Buras, AJ; Cadamuro, L; Carbone, A; Carena, M; Carmona, A; Cavallo, FR; Celis, A; Cepeda, M; Chahal, GS; Chala, M; Charles, J; Charles, M; Chen, KF; Chobanova, V; Chrzaszcz, M; Ciezarek, G; Cirigliano, V; Ciuchini, M; Cliff, H; Cogan, J; Colangelo, G; Contu, A; Covarelli, R; Cowan, G; Crivellin, A; Du0027Ambrosio, G; Du0027Onofrio, M; Dang, NP; Davis, A; Francisco, OA De Aguiar; Bruyn, K De; Sanctis, U De; Torre, H De la; Dekens, W; Deliot, F; Morte, M Della; Demers, S; Derkach, D; Deschamps, O; Descotes-Genon, S; Dettori, F; Canto, A Di; Dinardo, M; Dini, P; Dordei, F; Dorigo, M; Reis, A dos; Dudko, L; Dufour, L; Durieux, G; Dutta, S; Dziurda, A; Eitschberger, U; Esposito, A | Abstract: Motivated by the success of the flavour physics programme carried out over the last decade at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we characterize in detail the physics potential of its High-Luminosity and High-Energy upgrades in this domain of physics. We document the extraordinary breadth of the HL/HE-LHC programme enabled by a putative Upgrade II of the dedicated flavour physics experiment LHCb and the evolution of the established flavour physics role of the ATLAS and CMS general purpose experiments. We connect the dedicated flavour physics programme to studies of the top quark, Higgs boson, and direct high-$p_T$ searches for new particles and force carriers. We discuss the complementarity of their discovery potential for physics beyond the Standard Model, affirming the necessity to fully exploit the LHCu0027s flavour physics potential throughout its upgrade eras.
An analytical study is presented, aimed to determine the elemental composition of copper-based artefacts dated back from Copper Age to Early Iron Age (mid-fourth millennium to the VIIIth century B.C.), found on the Tyrrhenian side of the peninsula, corresponding to the Lazio region. The objects belong to different archaeological contexts and had various functions. They were analysed by the X-ray fluorescence technique. The results highlight the experimental character of Copper Age metallurgy, which will later evolve in the established use of copper-tin alloys. Regarding the Bronze Age, despite the typological and functional heterogeneity of the artefacts and the wide chronological range, the alloys are relatively homogeneous in composition, with regular changes that appear related to chronology, according to what is already known for the Italian peninsula. Such changes are supposedly due to variations in the availability of tin, which was not locally mined. Early Iron Age metallurgy is represented by the Selvicciola Hoard solely, which restricts the possibility of generalizing the conclusions. A striking feature of the alloys is the great compositional difference between the complete and the fragmented artefacts. The formers are made of tin bronze, whereas in the latter tin is replaced by antimony and/or lead. The use of such unusual alloys is unlikely due to lack of metallurgical knowledge. Considering the urbanized communities that arose in the Middle-Tyrrhenian area during the Early Iron Age, we suppose that such variability in a single context might be related to a production system capable of using alloys of different quality and value to satisfy a diversified demand.
The need of a fs-scale pulsed, high repetition rate, X-ray source for time-resolved fine analysis of matter (spectroscopy and photon scattering) in the linear response regime is addressed by the conceptual design of a facility called MariX (Multi-disciplinary Advanced Research Infrastructure for the generation and application of X-rays) outperforming current X-ray sources for the declared scope. MariX is based on the original design of a two-pass two-way superconducting linear electron accelerator, equipped with an arc compressor, to be operated in CW mode (1 MHz). MariX provides FEL emission in the range 0.2–8 keV with 108 photons per pulse ideally suited for photoelectric effect and inelastic X-ray scattering experiments. The accelerator complex includes an early stage that supports an advanced inverse Compton source of very high-flux hard X-rays of energies up to 180 keV that is well adapted for large area radiological imaging, realizing a broad science programme and serving a multidisciplinary user community, covering fundamental science of matter and application to life sciences, including health at preclinical and clinical level.
We present the study of the optimization of the optical cavity parameters, in order to maximise the flux of scattered photons in the Compton scattering process. In the optimisation, we compensate the losses of the photon number due to the elliptical shape of the laser pulse in optical cavity with a high focusing electron beam.
On the wake of the results obtained so far at the SPARC_LAB test-facility at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (Italy), we are currently investigating the possibility to design and build a new multi-disciplinary user-facility, equipped with a soft X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) driven by a ∼1 GeV high brightness linac based on plasma accelerator modules. This design study is performed in synergy with the EuPRAXIA design study. In this paper we report about the recent progresses in the on going design study of the new facility.
We briefly comment on the paper by Albaladejo et al., Chinese Phys. C 41 121001, rejecting its conclusions.
ELI-NP will be a new international research infrastructure facility for laser-based Nuclear Physics to be built in Magurele, south west of Bucharest, Romania. For the machine to operate as an intense γ rays’ source based on Compton back-scattering, electron beams are employed, undergoing a two stage acceleration to 320 MeV and 740 MeV (and, with an eventual energy upgrade, also to 840 MeV) beam energies. In order to assess the radiation safety issues, concerning the effectiveness of the dumps in absorbing the primary electron beams, the generated prompt radiation field and the residual dose rates coming from the activation of constituent materials, as well as the shielding of the adjacent environments against both prompt and residual radiation fields, an extensive design study by means of Monte Carlo simulations with FLUKA code was performed, for both low energy 320 MeV and high energy 720 MeV (840 MeV) beam dumps. For the low energy dump we discuss also the rational of the choice to place it in the building basement, instead of installing it in one of the shielding wall at the machine level, as it was originally conceived. Ambient dose equivalent rate constraints, according to the Rumenian law in force in radiation protection matter were 0.1 /iSv/h everywhere outside the shielding walls and 1.4 μiSv/h outside the high energy dump area. The dumps’ placements and layouts are shown to be fully compliant with the dose constraints and environmental impact.
Multiquark resonances are undoubtedly experimentally observed. The number of states and the amount of details on their properties have been growing over the years. It is very recent the discovery of two pentaquarks and the confirmation of four tetraquarks, two of which had not been observed before. We mainly review the theoretical understanding of this sector of particle physics phenomenology and present some considerations attempting a coherent description of the so called X and Z resonances. The prominent problems plaguing theoretical models, like the absence of selection rules limiting the number of states predicted, motivate new directions in model building. Data are reviewed going through all of the observed resonances with particular attention to their common features and the purpose of providing a starting point to further research.