A novel liquid argon purity monitor based on a 207 Bi radioactive source, emitting monochromatic internal-conversion electrons, is presented. This new monitor allows for a very precise and fast measurement of the electronegative impurities concentration in liquid argon. It can be operated continuously in liquid argon TPC experiments without interfering with the main detector operation. Different drift lengths can be assembled for the proposed device, to assess a large range of liquid argon purities while minimizing systematic uncertainties. Two prototypes have been built and successfully operated in dedicated test stands. The results and performance are reported.

The use of double-faced, metallized, perforated PCB planes, segmented into strips for the anodic read-out of ionization signals in liquid argon TPCs, is emerging as a promising technology for charge readout in liquid argon TPCs used in large volume detectors.As a proof of concept, a prototype liquid Argon TPC hosting this new anode configuration based on single side perforated PCB planes has been constructed and exposed to cosmic rays at LNL in Italy. Tests were performed with both the metallized and insulating sides of the anode facing the drift volume, providing the first evidence of the focusing effect on drift electron trajectories through the PCB holes due to charge accumulation on the insulator surface.

The ICARUS collaboration employed the 760-ton T600 detector in a successful 3-year physics run at the underground LNGS laboratory, performing a sensitive search for LSND-like anomalous ν _e appearance in the CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso beam, which contributed to the constraints on the allowed neutrino oscillation parameters to a narrow region around 1 eV ^2 . After a significant overhaul at CERN, the T600 detector has been installed at Fermilab. In 2020 the cryogenic commissioning began with detector cool down, liquid argon filling and recirculation. ICARUS then started its operations collecting the first neutrino events from the booster neutrino beam (BNB) and the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam off-axis, which were used to test the ICARUS event selection, reconstruction and analysis algorithms. ICARUS successfully completed its commissioning phase in June 2022. The first goal of the ICARUS data taking will be a study to either confirm or refute the claim by Neutrino-4 short-baseline reactor experiment. ICARUS will also perform measurement of neutrino cross sections with the NuMI beam and several Beyond Standard Model searches. After the first year of operations, ICARUS will search for evidence of sterile neutrinos jointly with the Short-Baseline Near Detector, within the Short-Baseline Neutrino program. In this paper, the main activities carried out during the overhauling and installation phases are highlighted. Preliminary technical results from the ICARUS commissioning data with the BNB and NuMI beams are presented both in terms of performance of all ICARUS subsystems and of capability to select and reconstruct neutrino events.

The ICARUS T600 liquid argon (LAr) time projection chamber (TPC) underwent a major overhaul at CERN in 2016-2017 to prepare for the operation at FNAL in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program. This included a major upgrade of the photo-multiplier system and of the TPC wire read-out electronics. The full TPC wire read-out electronics together with the new wire biasing and interconnection scheme are described. The design of a new signal feed-through flange is also a fundamental piece of this overhaul whose major feature is the integration of all electronics components onto the signal flange. Initial functionality tests of the full TPC electronics chain installed in the T600 detector at FNAL are also described.

GALILEO, a new 4π high-resolution γ-detection array, based on HPGe detectors, has been developed and installed at the Legnaro National Laboratories. The GALILEO array greatly benefits from a fully-digital read-out chain, customized DAQ, and a variety of complementary detectors to improve the resolving power by the detection of particles, ions or high-energy γ-ray transitions. In this work, a full description of the array, including electronics and DAQ, is presented together with its complementary instrumentation.

Road traffic contributes to atmospheric particulate matter with exhaust (fuel combustion) and non-exhaust (wear of vehicle parts such as brake, tires and abrasion of the road surface) emissions. Road dust is composed of particles belonging to natural and anthropogenic sources related in large part to road traffic. To date, understanding the relative contribution of road dust resuspension and particles directly emitted by abrasion to particulate matter is still a matter of debate. In this work, road dust and resuspended particles samples are collected at different heights and with increasing sampling time near a busy road of Venice mainland. Elemental composition and morphology of particles were investigated with a combination of techniques: inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), laser diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM–EDX). The differences between deposited and resuspended particles were highlighted and the main pollutant sources were identified to study the resuspension process related to the traffic flow. Resuspended particles were divided into six groups related to the presence of anti-ice material, to soil resuspension and to the road surface and vehicle parts wear. The contributions of clustered particles vary with the height from the road level. This study, the first one focusing on the road traffic particles resuspension in Veneto region, will provide topical information for the identification of this source in atmospheric particulate samples.

K. Hadyńska-Klȩk,1,2,3,4,5,* P. J. Napiorkowski,1 M. Zielińska,1,6 J. Srebrny,1 A. Maj,7 F. Azaiez,8 J. J. Valiente Dobón,4 M. Kicińska-Habior,2 F. Nowacki,9 H. Naïdja,9,10,11 B. Bounthong,9 T. R. Rodríguez,12 G. de Angelis,4 T. Abraham,1 G. Anil Kumar,7 D. Bazzacco,13,14 M. Bellato,13 D. Bortolato,13 P. Bednarczyk,7 G. Benzoni,15 L. Berti,4 B. Birkenbach,16 B. Bruyneel,16 S. Brambilla,15 F. Camera,15,17 J. Chavas,6 B. Cederwall,18 L. Charles,9 M. Ciemała,7 P. Cocconi,4 P. Coleman-Smith,19 A. Colombo,13 A. Corsi,15,17 F. C. L. Crespi,15,17 D. M. Cullen,20 A. Czermak,7 P. Désesquelles,21,22 D. T. Doherty,5,6,23 B. Dulny,7 J. Eberth,16 E. Farnea,13,14 B. Fornal,7 S. Franchoo,8 A. Gadea,24 A. Giaz,15,17 A. Gottardo,4 X. Grave,8 J. Grȩbosz,7 A. Görgen,3 M. Gulmini,4 T. Habermann,10 H. Hess,16 R. Isocrate,13,14 J. Iwanicki,1 G. Jaworski,1 D. S. Judson,25 A. Jungclaus,26 N. Karkour,22 M. Kmiecik,7 D. Karpiński,2 M. Kisieliński,1 N. Kondratyev,27 A. Korichi,22 M. Komorowska,1,2 M. Kowalczyk,1 W. Korten,6 M. Krzysiek,7,28 G. Lehaut,29 S. Leoni,15,17 J. Ljungvall,22 A. Lopez-Martens,22 S. Lunardi,13,14 G. Maron,4 K. Mazurek,7 R. Menegazzo,13,14 D. Mengoni,13 E. Merchán,10,30 W. Mȩczyński,7 C. Michelagnoli,13,14 B. Million,15 S. Myalski,7 D. R. Napoli,4 M. Niikura,8 A. Obertelli,6 S. F. Özmen,1 M. Palacz,1 L. Próchniak,1 A. Pullia,15,17 B. Quintana,31 G. Rampazzo,4 F. Recchia,13,14 N. Redon,29 P. Reiter,16 D. Rosso,4 K. Rusek,1 E. Sahin,4 M.-D. Salsac,6 P.-A. Söderström,32 I. Stefan,8 O. Stézowski,29 J. Styczeń,7 Ch. Theisen,6 N. Toniolo,4 C. A. Ur,13,14 R. Wadsworth,23 B. Wasilewska,7 A. Wiens,16 J. L. Wood,33 K. Wrzosek-Lipska,1 and M. Ziȩbliński7 1Heavy Ion Laboratory, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5A, PL 02-093 Warsaw, Poland 2Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, PL 00-681 Warsaw, Poland 3Department of Physics, University of Oslo, N-0316 Oslo, Norway 4INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Viale dell’Università, 2, I-35020 Legnaro, Italy 5Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom 6Irfu, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France 7Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL 31-342 Kraków, Poland 8Institut de Physique Nucléaire d’Orsay, F-91400 Orsay, France 9Université de Strasbourg, IPHC/CNRS, UMR7178, 23 rue du Loess, F-67037 Strasbourg, France 10GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, D-64291 Darmstadt, Germany 11LPMS, Université Constantine 1, Route Ain-El bey, 25000 Constantine, Algeria 12Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Departamento de Física Teórica, Madrid, Spain 13INFN Sezione di Padova, I-35131 Padova, Italy 14Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università degli Studi di Padova, I-35131 Padova, Italy 15INFN Sezione di Milano, I-20133 Milano, Italy 16Institut für Kernphysik, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Straße 77, D-50937 Köln, Germany 17Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università degli Studi di Milano, I-20133 Milano, Italy 18Department of Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden 19Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, Warrington WA4 4AD, United Kingdom 20Schuster Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom 21Université Paris-Sud, F-91400 Orsay, France 22Centre de Sciences Nucléaires et de Sciences de la Matière (CSNSM/IN2P3/CNRS), F-91405 Orsay, France 23Department of Physics University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom 24Instituto de Física Corpuscular IFIC, CSIC-University of Valencia, S-46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain 25Oliver Lodge Laboratory, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZE, United Kingdom 26Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Madrid, E-28006 Madrid, Spain 27Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions JINR, RU-141980 Dubna, Russia 28ELI-NP, Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, 077125 Magurele, Romania 29Universite Lyon 1, CNRS, IN2P3, IPN Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France 30Technische Universität Darmstadt, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany 31Laboratorio de Radiaciones Ionizantes, Departamento de Física Fundamental, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain 32Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden 33School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0430, USA

ACoulomb-excitation experiment to study electromagnetic properties of Ca-42 was performed using a 170-MeV calcium beam from the TANDEM XPU facility at INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro. gamma rays from excited states in Ca-42 were measured with the AGATA spectrometer. The magnitudes and relative signs of ten E2 matrix elements coupling six low-lying states in Ca-42, including the diagonal E2 matrix elements of 2(1)(+) and 2(2)(+) states, were determined using the least-squares code GOSIA. The obtained set of reduced E2 matrix elements was analyzed using the quadrupole sum rule method and yielded overall quadrupole deformation for 0(1),(+)(2) and 2(1,2)(+) states, as well as triaxiality for 0(1,2)(+) states, establishing the coexistence of a weakly deformed ground-state band and highly deformed slightly triaxial sideband in Ca-42. The experimental results were compared with the state-of-the-art large-scale shell-model and beyond-mean-field calculations, which reproduce well the general picture of shape coexistence in Ca-42.

PM 1 is widely believed to provide better information on the anthropogenic fraction of particulate 29 matter pollution than PM 2.5 . However, data on PM 1 are still limited in Europe as well as 30 comprehensive information about its chemical composition and source apportionment and this gap 31 is more evident in the pollution hot-spots still remaining in Europe, such as the Po Valley (Northern 32 Italy). Elemental and organic carbon, 7 water soluble inorganic ions and 17 elements were 33 quantified in 117 PM 1 samples collected at an urban background site in Venice-Mestre, a large city 34 located in the eastern Po Valley, during winter (December 2013 – February 2014) and summer 35 (May-July 2014) periods. 36 Results show a strong seasonality for PM 1 mass concentration (averages ranging from 6±2 in 37 summer to 34±24 µg m -3 in winter) and for most of the analyzed species. Components mainly 38 related to road traffic, residential heating, biomass burning and secondary inorganic aerosol 39 (ammonium nitrate) reached their highest levels in winter, while mineral dust and marine 40 components were elevated in summer. PMF analysis revealed 7 potential sources. Secondary 41 inorganic aerosol (33%) and biomass burning (33%) are the major contributor in winter followed by 42 EC-primary emissions (16%), aged sulphate (6%), road traffic (7%), fossil fuel combustion (%) and 43 marine aerosol (3%). During summer, these sources account for 12%, 14%, 20%, 22%, 8%, 14% 44 and 10%, respectively. 45

Abstract: A total of 85 PM2.5 samples were collected at a site located in a large industrial zone (Porto Marghera, Venice, Italy) during a one year-long sampling campaign. Samples were analyzed to determine water soluble inorganic ions, elemental and organic carbon and levoglucosan and results were processed to investigate the seasonal patterns, the relationship between the analyzed species and the most probable sources by using a set of tools, including: (i) conditional probability function (CPF), (ii) conditional bivariate probability function (CBPF), (iii) concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) and (iv) potential source contribution function (PSCF) analyses. Furthermore, the importance of biomass combustions to PM2.5 was also estimated. Average PM2.5 concentrations ranged between 54 μg m-3 and 14 μg m-3 in the cold and warm period, respectively. The mean value of total ions was 11 μg m-3 (range 1-46 μg m-3): the most abundant ion was nitrate with a share of 34% followed by sulfate (23%), ammonium (11%), potassium (3%) and chloride (3%). Levoglucosan accounted for 1.2% of the PM2.5 mass and its concentration ranged from few ng m-3 in warm periods to 2.6 μg m-3 during winter. Average concentrations of levoglucosan during the cold period were higher than those found in other European urban sites. This result may indicate a great influence of biomass combustions on particulate matter pollution. Elemental and organic carbon (EC, OC) showed similar behavior, with the highest

Shape parameters of a weakly deformed ground-state band and highly deformed slightly triaxial sideband in ^{42}Ca were determined from E2 matrix elements measured in the first low-energy Coulomb excitation experiment performed with AGATA. The picture of two coexisting structures is well reproduced by new state-of-the-art large-scale shell model and beyond-mean-field calculations. Experimental evidence for superdeformation of the band built on 0_{2}^{+} has been obtained and the role of triaxiality in the A∼40 mass region is discussed. Furthermore, the potential of Coulomb excitation as a tool to study superdeformation has been demonstrated for the first time.

The study of spatio-temporal variability of airborne bacterial communities has recently gained importance due to the evidence that airborne bacteria are involved in atmospheric processes and can affect human health. In this work, we described the structure of airborne microbial communities in two urban areas (Milan and Venice, Northern Italy) through the sequencing, by the Illumina platform, of libraries containing the V5–V6 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene and estimated the abundance of airborne bacteria with quantitative PCR (qPCR). Airborne microbial communities were dominated by few taxa, particularly Burkholderiales and Actinomycetales, more abundant in colder seasons, and Chloroplasts, more abundant in warmer seasons. By partitioning the variation in bacterial community structure, we could assess that environmental and meteorological conditions, including variability between cities and seasons, were the major determinants of the observed variation in bacterial community structure, while chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) had a minor contribution. Particularly, Ba, SO4 2− and Mg2+ concentrations were significantly correlated with microbial community structure, but it was not possible to assess whether they simply co-varied with seasonal shifts of bacterial inputs to the atmosphere, or their variation favoured specific taxa. Both local sources of bacteria and atmospheric dispersal were involved in the assembling of airborne microbial communities, as suggested, to the one side by the large abundance of bacteria typical of lagoon environments (Rhodobacterales) observed in spring air samples from Venice and to the other by the significant effect of wind speed in shaping airborne bacterial communities at all sites.

In this paper we want to demonstrate that an optical physical medium is compatible with the second generation of PCI Express. The benefit introduced by the optical decoupling of a PCI Express endpoint is twofold: it allows for a geographical detachment of the device and it remains compliant with the usual PCI accesses to the legacy I/O and memory spaces. We propose two boards that can bridge the PCI Express protocol over optical fiber. The first is a simple optical translator while the second is a more robust switch developed for connecting up to four devices to a single host. Such adapters are already working in the control and data acquisition system of a particle detector at CERN and hence they had been qualified for radiation hardness. The positive outcomes of the radiation tests of four types of off-the-shelf transceivers are finally reported.

Abstract. Physicochemical properties of aerosol were investigated by analyzing the inorganic water soluble content in PM2.5 samples collected in the eastern part of the Po Valley (Italy). In this area the EU limits for many air pollutants are frequently exceeded as a consequence of local sources and regional-scale transport of secondary inorganic aerosol precursors. Nine PM2.5-bound major inorganic ions (F−, Cl−, NO3−, SO42−, Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+) were monitored over one year in three sites categorized as semi-rural background, urban background and industrial. The acidic properties of the PM2.5 were studied by applying the recently developed E-AIM thermodynamic model 4 (Extended Aerosol Thermodynamics Model). The experimental data were also examined in relation to the levels of gaseous precursors of secondary inorganic aerosol (SO2, NOx, NO, NO2) and on the basis of some environmental conditions having an effect on the secondary aerosols generation processes. A chemometric procedure using cluster analysis on experimental [NH4+]/[SO42−] molar ratio and NO3− concentration has been applied to determine the conditions needed for ammonium nitrate formation in different chemical environments. Finally, some considerations on the secondary inorganic aerosol formation and the most relevant weather conditions concerning the sulfate-nitrate-ammonium system were also discussed. The obtained results and discussion can help in understanding the secondary aerosol formation dynamics in the Po Valley, which is one of the most critical regions for air pollution in southern Europe.

The new-generation spectrometer AGATA, the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array, requires sub-nanosecond clock synchronization among readout and front-end electronics modules that may lie hundred meters apart. We call GTS (Global Trigger and Synchronization System) the infrastructure responsible for precise clock synchronization and for the trigger management of AGATA. It is made of a central trigger processor and nodes, connected in a tree structure by means of optical fibers operated at 2Gb/s. The GTS tree handles the synchronization and the trigger data flow, whereas the trigger processor analyses and eventually validates the trigger primitives centrally. Sub-nanosecond synchronization is achieved by measuring two different types of round-trip times and by automatically correcting for phase-shift differences. For a tree of depth two, the peak-to-peak clock jitter at each leaf is 70 ps; the mean phase difference is 180 ps, while the standard deviation over such phase difference, namely the phase equalization repeatability, is 20 ps. The GTS system has run flawlessly for the two-year long AGATA campaign, held at the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories, Italy, where five triple clusters of the AGATA sub-array were coupled with a variety of ancillary detectors.

The Coulomb excitation experiment to study electromagnetic structure of low-lying states in Ca-42 with a focus on a possible superdeformation in this nucleus was performed at the Laboratori Naziona ...

The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) is a European project to develop and operate the next generation γ-ray spectrometer. AGATA is based on the technique of γ-ray energy tracking in electrically segmented high-purity germanium crystals. This technique requires the accurate determination of the energy, time and position of every interaction as a γ ray deposits its energy within the detector volume. Reconstruction of the full interaction path results in a detector with very high efficiency and excellent spectral response. The realisation of γ-ray tracking and AGATA is a result of many technical advances. These include the development of encapsulated highly segmented germanium detectors assembled in a triple cluster detector cryostat, an electronics system with fast digital sampling and a data acquisition system to process the data at a high rate. The full characterisation of the crystals was measured and compared with detector-response simulations. This enabled pulse-shape analysis algorithms, to extract energy, time and position, to be employed. In addition, tracking algorithms for event reconstruction were developed. The first phase of AGATA is now complete and operational in its first physics campaign. In the future AGATA will be moved between laboratories in Europe and operated in a series of campaigns to take advantage of the different beams and facilities available to maximise its science output. The paper reviews all the achievements made in the AGATA project including all the necessary infrastructure to operate and support the spectrometer.

In this work, the development and characterization of a multiple synchronous registers interface communicating with a high-speed serial link and using the Aurora protocol is presented. A detailed description of the developing process and the characterization methods and hardware test benches are also included. This interface will implement the slow control busses of the digitizer cards for the second generation of electronics for the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA).

In this work, the features and development process of the novel control card for the digitizers of AGATA are presented. The board is part of the new hardware proposed for the electronic system of the experiment. In particular, the control card provides the sampling clock for the digitizers, contributes to the synchronization of the digital data and performs the slow control of its associated digitizer cards.