tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58360677885678259262024-02-07T01:07:14.721-08:00Dark & OtherwiseGianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-86702155849325766952013-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:002013-06-17T13:51:40.796-07:00gianfrancobertone.net<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3MTkaEPgsWpKfwrB17g3E-cMu3aGg8-kZ4dVhI0pKJFNYDXOVMWzrEZBfR-Noh7666QHQe-X8xlwtEEv0j4jeUGHYmGxYHQO1ewdcbbceBET-WRE4An58AcIsWYHX_MxhfrQ9rSrFBY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-06-17+at+1.48.33+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3MTkaEPgsWpKfwrB17g3E-cMu3aGg8-kZ4dVhI0pKJFNYDXOVMWzrEZBfR-Noh7666QHQe-X8xlwtEEv0j4jeUGHYmGxYHQO1ewdcbbceBET-WRE4An58AcIsWYHX_MxhfrQ9rSrFBY/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-06-17+at+1.48.33+PM.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Dear readers of the 'Dark and Otherwise' blog, </span><span style="line-height: 19px;">I have moved my personal webpage and the "Dark and Otherwise" blog to a brand new new website: </span><span style="line-height: 19px;"></span><a data-mce-href="http://gianfrancobertone.net" href="http://gianfrancobertone.net/" style="line-height: 19px;">gianfrancobertone.net</a> (see snapshot of the homepage on the right). <span style="line-height: 19px;">Don't forget to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds! </span></span></div>
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Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-40885870345844397602012-11-20T06:07:00.001-08:002012-11-20T06:07:15.184-08:0018 million euros grant for the Delta Institute for Theoretical Physics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Physics research at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has received an enormous boost with the award of a new grant worth 18.3 million euros from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO ) as part of its ‘Gravitation Programme’. The money will be used for research into different forms of matter.</div>
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The research will be headed by Erik Verlinde, professor of Theoretical Physics at the UvA, in close cooperation with fellow UvA professor of Theoretical Physics Jan de Boer, and is a collaboration between scientists from the UvA, Leiden University and Utrecht University. The research will be conducted within the newly formed Delta Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP-D).</div>
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The main focus will be on big questions about matter at length scales ranging from atoms and molecules to stars and galaxies. These challenging theoretical questions relate to forms of matter, yet to be understood, which have been observed in both laboratories and in the universe. Examples of unanswered questions to be addressed include:</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the origin of the invisible ‘dark matter’;</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">an explanation for superconductivity at high temperature;</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the development of building blocks for a quantum computer.</li>
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‘My co-applicants and I are extremely pleased with this NWO grant for theoretical physics,’ stated Verlinde. ‘Thanks to this grant, we can dedicate ourselves to tackling these unanswered questions about the origin and properties of matter. At the same time, we will create a vibrant research environment for young researchers which will occupy a prominent place internationally.</div>
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The UvA is also involved in two other research projects that have received awards from the NWO. University Professor Johan van Benthem is going to conduct research as part of the project ‘Language in Interaction’, under the leadership of Radboud University Nijmegen. This group will examine language at genetic and cognitive levels, as well as dealing with how it relates to social interaction and linguistic structures.</div>
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In addition, Patti Valkenburg, UvA Professor of Youth and Media, will be involved in conducting research into the development of children. The scientists will look at the role of the development of the brain, how children’s’ opportunities are affected by their parents or grandparents, and how we can help children to develop better. Utrecht University is the lead organisation for this research project.</div>
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About the Gravitation Programme</h3>
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The contribution is part of the NWO’s Gravitation Programme, funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). A total of six research teams from various Dutch universities will receive money for the next ten years in order to jointly set up excellent scientific research programmes. The newly appointed Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker has made 167 million euros available for this purpose.</div>
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The OCW and NWO have given new impetus to cooperation at the highest scientific levels with the introduction of the Gravitation Programme. The establishment of these excellent research groups should lead to a higher public profile for top-quality research in the Netherlands.</div>
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<a href="http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_8QPCBG_Eng" style="border: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">More information about the Gravitation Programme</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.d-itp.nl/" style="border: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">More information about the Delta-Institute for Theoretical Physics</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.uva.nl/en/news-events/news/uva-in-the-spotlight/prof.-erik-verlinde/interview-with-prof.-erik-verlinde-introduction.html" style="border: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">‘UvA in the spotlight’ interview with Erik Verlinde</a></div>
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Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-15828300648710914282012-08-17T08:33:00.002-07:002012-08-17T08:33:14.836-07:00TeV Particle Astrophysics 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The 2012 edition of the TeV Particle Astrophysics series will be held from December 10 to 14 at the <a href="http://www.tifr.res.in/index.php/en/">Tata Institute of Fundamental Research</a>, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai">Mumbai</a>, India.<br />
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The preliminary website <a href="http://tevpa2012.tifr.res.in/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" target="_blank">http://tevpa2012.tifr.res.in</a> will soon be updated as the scientific programme shapes up.<br />
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Feel free to contact the chairs of the Scientific (Gianfranco Bertone, gf.bertone at gmail dot com) or Local Organizing Committees (Sunil K. Gupta, gupta at grapes dot tifr dot res dot in) for further information.<br />
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Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-20378280395273903122012-04-15T01:51:00.000-07:002012-04-15T01:53:56.099-07:00Amsterdam-Paris-Stockholm’ workshop on Dark Matter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 15px;">The GRAPPA Institute hosted on April 12 and 13 an <a href="http://grappa.science.uva.nl/amsterdam-paris-stockholm-workshop-12-13-april-2012/">‘Amsterdam-Paris-Stockholm’ workshop on Dark Matter</a>: an informal meeting with Astroparticle groups in Paris and Stockholm. The participants included: Chiara Arina (RWTH Aachen), Alexander Belikov (IAP Paris), Lars Bergstrom (OKC Stockholm), Gianfranco Bertone (GRAPPA Amsterdam), Maria Cabrera (U. Autonoma Madrid, soon GRAPPA Amsterdam), Marco Cirelli (CERN/CEA Saclay), Patrick Decowski (GRAPPA Amsterdam), Joakim Edsjo (OKC Stockholm), Silvia Galli (IAP Paris), Fabio Iocco (OKC Stockholm), Paul de Jong (NIKHEF Amsterdam), Joe Silk (IAP Paris), Tracy Slatyer (IAS Princeton).</span></span></div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-38295455512044360842011-11-15T01:21:00.002-08:002012-02-18T08:23:26.918-08:00GRAPPA jobs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchvfVUsYwe9GM9RLI0m6BDnT2DNn8_lCQd-N6qklpuyLy0pVZqyp2Mm_HYrQMN_Ck8sHohx7qjAEyCaEsOfVKLnPIqmPrsjS-TwRCPP2zy2f1CksOlpiKt3IU9S1UrBYiCay63oIQxUU/s400/grappa_header.png" width="400" /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">The GRAPPA Institute invites applications for a faculty (tenure-track or tenured) position as well as for several positions at the postdoctoral level. </span><br />
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The GRAPPA Institute seeks to appoint in 2012 an additional tenured-track or tenured professor with a proven record of interdisciplinary research in Astroparticle Physics, an excellent publication record, and ability to teach inspiringly and attract external research funding. The job will be announced <a href="http://uvaapp.nl/jobs/jobs.html">here</a>, along with the details of the application procedure (deadline will probably be around mid December 2011).<br />
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</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>GRAPPA Postdoctoral Fellowship</b></span></span><br />
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The GRAPPA (Gravitation AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam) Institute is a new initiative within the Science Faculty of the University of Amsterdam. Launched in October 2011, GRAPPA is a collaboration between the institutes for Theoretical Physics, Astronomy and High Energy Physics. Five new faculty have just been hired: Shin'ichiro Ando, Gianfranco Bertone, Patrick Decowski, Ben Freivogel and Jacco Vink, whose research interests include dark matter, dark energy, neutrinos, and cosmic rays, with a focus on both theoretical modeling of astrophysical source physics as well as (in)direct detection. In addition, there are about 15 affiliated GRAPPA faculty from the collaborating institutes, who are involved in experimental work at Antares/KM3NeT, ATLAS, XENON1T/XENON100, CTA and LOFAR, as well as theory.<br />
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We are pleased to announce the creation of the first GRAPPA Postdoctoral Fellowship, and we are currently looking for excellent researchers who would like to work on projects relevant to the GRAPPA interdisciplinary program, either independently or in collaboration with existing members. Candidates should have a background in a field related to astroparticle physics, and they should have obtained their PhD after January 2008 or expect to obtain it by September 2012. The Fellowship appointment will be for 3 years, with a salary set by Dutch labor law, including generous benefits and funds for travel, computers, etc.<br />
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Candidates should send a cover letter, a research statement, and a curriculum vitae including publications to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0739c8; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><u>itf@science.uva.nl</u></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">, with the subject "GRAPPA Fellowship". The research statement (maximum 4 pages) should include a summary of past research and an explanation of how the proposed research fits into the GRAPPA initiative. Candidates should also ensure that three letters of recommendation are sent to the same address by the deadline, December 15, 2011.</span></span><br />
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</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>ERC postdoctoral positions</b></span></span><br />
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</b> The GRAPPA Institute invites applications for one or two postdoctoral positions in the framework of the <a href="http://www2.iap.fr/users/bertone/Site/ERC.html">ERC Starting Grant "WIMPs Kairos: The moment of truth for WIMP Dark Matter"</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">, coordinated by G. Bertone. A strong background in in the phenomenology of Dark Matter is preferred, but all exceptional candidates will be considered. Candidates should have obtained their PhD after January 2008 or expect to obtain it by September 2012.<br />
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The GRAPPA (Gravitation AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam) Institute is a new initiative within the Science Faculty of the University of Amsterdam. Launched in October 2011, GRAPPA is a collaboration between the institutes for Theoretical Physics, Astronomy and High Energy Physics (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0739c8; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><u>http://uvaapp.nl/</u></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">). Five new faculty have just been hired: Shin'ichiro Ando, Gianfranco Bertone, Patrick Decowski, Ben Freivogel and Jacco Vink, whose research interests include dark matter, dark energy, neutrinos, and cosmic rays, with a focus on both theoretical modeling of astrophysical source physics as well as (in)direct detection. In addition, there are about 15 affiliated GRAPPA faculty from the collaborating institutes, who are involved in experimental work at Antares/KM3NeT, ATLAS, XENON1T/XENON100, CTA and LOFAR, as well as theory.<br />
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Candidates should send a cover letter, a research statement of up to 4 pages, and a curriculum vitae including publications to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0739c8; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><u>gf.bertone@gmail.com</u></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">, with the subject "ERC postdoc". Candidates should also ensure that at least two letters of recommendation are sent to the same address by the deadline, December 15, 2011.<br />
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All candidates will be automatically considered for other postdoctoral positions in the group, including the 3-year GRAPPA postdoctoral fellowship.<a href="http://uvaapp.nl/index.html">http://uvaapp.nl/index.html</a></span></span></div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-75736674092546509882011-10-30T04:05:00.000-07:002011-10-30T04:05:22.040-07:00Dark Workshop<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXOVWZSp3uSaolDRYCzIDzaX4i210_DlEQnGaRRJ1RhcRTsUosvNTTTLSs2oyqWqD-WOYyCZyaSsbNygEn2NZJj9jhRYUDJLMPXTxYqkXMki4Ity7sT14hHq-np54YF5V06w9a7O4tN48/s1600/foto.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXOVWZSp3uSaolDRYCzIDzaX4i210_DlEQnGaRRJ1RhcRTsUosvNTTTLSs2oyqWqD-WOYyCZyaSsbNygEn2NZJj9jhRYUDJLMPXTxYqkXMki4Ity7sT14hHq-np54YF5V06w9a7O4tN48/s320/foto.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The Galileo Galilei Institute (GGI) hosts workshops in theoretical particle physics (in a building overlooking the beautiful landscape of tuscan hills, photo). Last week, I have co-organized an event, the Dark Workshop, to discuss the present status and future lines of research of Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Thank you to all speakers and organizers! All presentations can be found on the workshop website<br />
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<a href="http://www.ggi.fi.infn.it//index.php?p=events.inc&id=96">http://www.ggi.fi.infn.it//index.php?p=events.inc&id=96</a></div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-63824910712500987332011-10-04T03:50:00.000-07:002011-10-04T03:50:56.933-07:00Nobel Prize 2011 for Accelerating Universe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqrUfV1-p3wphj8SaroDb_MPypBlwdKhqpRAWuS6ClyayvddpITg_mRtgjYra-che-coRjq5gs60LOJvrar6XV0BIwtzsdcy2PxBvNzzc50Oa83krAIEc2l-U6ZCpAejAzI_CzEnpv4ZE/s1600/Screen+Shot+2011-10-04+at+12.46.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqrUfV1-p3wphj8SaroDb_MPypBlwdKhqpRAWuS6ClyayvddpITg_mRtgjYra-che-coRjq5gs60LOJvrar6XV0BIwtzsdcy2PxBvNzzc50Oa83krAIEc2l-U6ZCpAejAzI_CzEnpv4ZE/s320/Screen+Shot+2011-10-04+at+12.46.15+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Congratulations to Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess </div><div style="text-align: center;">(image above: as a homage to the winners, a lambda-shaped word cloud produced with the press release of the Nobel committee).</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/press.html">http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/press.html</a></div></div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-62731008877731663022011-09-23T01:29:00.000-07:002011-09-23T09:39:43.867-07:00Drama at Opera <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/IMG/gif/logo_opera.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="127" width="169" src="http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/IMG/gif/logo_opera.gif" /></a></div><br />
When your non-physicists friends start to send emails with links to headlines of big newspapers (usually titled 'Einstein was wrong': that's apparently the best the average reporter can come up with) it means something potentially interesting is happening. In fact, after days of rumors, the results of the Opera experiment have been announced<br />
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897<br />
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And they are frankly bizarre. Ready? Neutrinos (in this specific case those fired from CERN to the Gran Sasso laboratories) seem to travel faster than the speed of light, therefore violating one of the pillars of modern physics. Now, the members of the Opera collaboration themselves are very cautious. Before throwing away our theories, let's see if other experiments are able to reproduce this result.Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-85814187234251784912011-08-05T12:18:00.000-07:002011-08-05T12:18:26.298-07:00TeV Particle Astrophysics 2011 (and 2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEr1o1ijwUxVsprHxqScHdAXY6CFeO5VV_qmxlhn6TpOgzG9ECbJ3dlTVDCOWKVJ-2rLIqT6k80cLVDctLV09Byc360iFM6xxceFeFtIxywpAPYbSHTpkLWabh425QczZXdJ5-QIQ1mM/s1600/tevpa-header.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEr1o1ijwUxVsprHxqScHdAXY6CFeO5VV_qmxlhn6TpOgzG9ECbJ3dlTVDCOWKVJ-2rLIqT6k80cLVDctLV09Byc360iFM6xxceFeFtIxywpAPYbSHTpkLWabh425QczZXdJ5-QIQ1mM/s320/tevpa-header.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Today was the last day of the <a href="http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=2600">TeV Particle Astrophysics 2011</a> conference in Stockholm. Tack så mycket to the LOC for the terrific job done! You can find the slides of most presentations on the conference website. Stay tuned for the 2012 edition, that will take place at the <a href="http://www.tifr.res.in/">Tata Institute of Fundamental Research</a> in Mumbai, India, from December 11 to 15. </div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-17617506949135867442011-07-17T04:41:00.000-07:002011-07-17T04:41:01.183-07:00GRAPPA - The new center of excellence of the U. of Amsterdam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNu5J6arw401VZsrihmbDzkfZ3Az25QznLOygDC4DuB1J93UWaD8YLlEudpktBqO8a9joumLJnH6QHGiOtNgP2ZwagZI5TuxvXxtnzjP-21S3PfmnGiJowM1UuvKteT4lbvgcm81nwZI/s1600/Site+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNu5J6arw401VZsrihmbDzkfZ3Az25QznLOygDC4DuB1J93UWaD8YLlEudpktBqO8a9joumLJnH6QHGiOtNgP2ZwagZI5TuxvXxtnzjP-21S3PfmnGiJowM1UuvKteT4lbvgcm81nwZI/s400/Site+logo.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://uvaapp.nl/">GRAPPA</a> (Gravitation and AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam) is the name of the new center of excellence of the <a href="http://www.uva.nl/start.cfm">University of Amsterdam</a>. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">In an unprecedented effort, the University hired 4 new professors in 2011 (Shin'Ichiro Ando, Patrick Decowski, Ben Freivogel and myself) and two additional positions will be opened at the end of the year. There will be a kick-off meeting this Fall, stay tuned! </span><br />
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</span></span>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-21625563190810237332011-06-16T05:28:00.000-07:002011-06-16T08:30:27.936-07:00ERC Starting Grant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYGG3GlfuEjktRxownpvWR73OUqttoRKbtmaftnG_LrScaN32OQ8GLnPnLODAjYYfvGtfSuiO3ad6i2PMtVt8dK-zdlDYSunY4xWVVqXxM86NJ3HiPXmIpRD83N6Zm4wLfqFAj67DdOA/s1600/erc-logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYGG3GlfuEjktRxownpvWR73OUqttoRKbtmaftnG_LrScaN32OQ8GLnPnLODAjYYfvGtfSuiO3ad6i2PMtVt8dK-zdlDYSunY4xWVVqXxM86NJ3HiPXmIpRD83N6Zm4wLfqFAj67DdOA/s1600/erc-logo.gif" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The proposal "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimps">WIMPs</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos">Kairos</a> - The Moment of Truth for WIMP dark matter" has been placed in the <i>priority list</i> by a panel of experts of the <a href="http://erc.europa.eu/index.cfm">European Research Council</a>, and it will be funded under the "<a href="http://erc.europa.eu/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&topicID=65">ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant</a>" scheme. The scope of this line of research is described in the proposal's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incipit">incipit</a>:</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Identifying Dark Matter is a top priority in Particle Physics and Cosmology: we know it contributes 85% of all the matter in the Universe, and we know that it cannot be made of ordinary baryonic matter. What is it then? Among Dark Matter candidates, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place, since they naturally arise from well motivated extensions of the standard model of particle physics, therefore providing an elegant explanation to the Dark Matter problem. With the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and of a new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for WIMPs, for we will either discover them in the next 5 to 10 years, or we will inevitably witness the decline of the WIMP paradigm.</i></div></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-50816236343618476062011-04-14T07:35:00.000-07:002011-04-14T07:35:12.348-07:00No WIMPs yet (and no HE neutrinos either)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVaFC1gnZvXdZh1-KTxAsntzA3jhygUbIdJvdXqunP4SMeJf6_wZKE89TUR6iVbm7TRff0CTlGfEgaLEDYCD2Fqx-woM_3WlQht36TjAxKYJRp6wr35pL6Nh7AyBV2C28e0d52JXrmYM/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-04-14+at+4.17.59+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDVaFC1gnZvXdZh1-KTxAsntzA3jhygUbIdJvdXqunP4SMeJf6_wZKE89TUR6iVbm7TRff0CTlGfEgaLEDYCD2Fqx-woM_3WlQht36TjAxKYJRp6wr35pL6Nh7AyBV2C28e0d52JXrmYM/s320/Screen+shot+2011-04-14+at+4.17.59+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There were big expectations for Xenon 100, a leading experiment in the race for the direct detection of Dark Matter. But the <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.2549">results</a> announced today are somewhat disappointing, since the collaboration announced the detection of 3 events, while the expected background is of 1.8±0.6 events. (see also the discussion at <a href="http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2011/04/xenon100-nothing.html">Resonaances</a>).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Should we panic? Not yet, in my opinion. As argued <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3532">elsewhere</a>, the best we can do is to stick to our plans, and see what ton-scale experiments (and the LHC) will tell us, before drawing our conclusions about WIMP Dark Matter.</div><br />
New results of the neutrino telescope IceCube have also been published recently (see <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.0075">here</a> and <a href="http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v106/i14/e141101">here</a>). As the collaboration acknowledges: "The results from all searches are compatible with a fluctuation of the background", which means that no point sources have been detected.Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-41352095760686694402011-04-05T02:12:00.000-07:002011-04-05T02:12:25.456-07:00Space traffic jam: AMS-02 launch postponed to April 29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ69Y2ITjkWw2JiVTVfb688-I_ZMygu09nNEWOpDTZrzwwivKwVSApq-IVmRifckOQB0BOEGy-kb3YmJx2xl7cH3RtH5MFC2s2UZK5KuOzK65UxzQftbWKWpSt9CmrjJn0e1A3smskfcE/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-04-05+at+10.18.51+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ69Y2ITjkWw2JiVTVfb688-I_ZMygu09nNEWOpDTZrzwwivKwVSApq-IVmRifckOQB0BOEGy-kb3YmJx2xl7cH3RtH5MFC2s2UZK5KuOzK65UxzQftbWKWpSt9CmrjJn0e1A3smskfcE/s320/Screen+shot+2011-04-05+at+10.18.51+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The launch date of the <a href="http://www.ams02.org/">Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer AMS-02</a> ("-02" because it is the successor of first AMS experiment, flown into space in June 1998) has been postponed to April 29 (above, an image of AMS-02 in the bay of the Shuttle Endeavor). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The delay is not due to the severe weather conditions of the past week, that produced only <a href="http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/03/sts-134-engineers-check-endeavour-damage-tcdt-work/">“very minor” damage</a>, but to a conflict with the docking operations of the Progress M-10M cargo ship, a russian vehicle that will deliver up to 2.5 t of propellant, scientific equipment, food, air, water, etc. to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for launch on April 27 from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/03/sts-134-nasa-russia-negotiating-potential-progress-conflict/">Apparently</a>, the problem comes from the time-sensitive nature of the Progress cargo, a biological experiment which needs to be placed into one of the ISS’ freezers within days of launch..</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Although postponing the launch by 10 days is not dramatic per se, the launch date is getting uncomfortably close to the end of the launch window (see <a href="http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/cit-adams.html">here</a> a description of how it is determined).</div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-2851328694307088782011-03-08T03:27:00.000-08:002011-03-08T03:27:40.461-08:00More surprises from PAMELA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9PKy9CsFrC_Bsxys8zjttiiIWbHtzYzmmAgaunkfpxykna0uQP4X7bE8f827ZzpCV919teY33Y6H5HiFX0spj_HpcGZKIe2sdRBrvG298s_a0tab6Qw085bWxUm6VbTjYxGJRs-He7w/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-03-08+at+10.36.54+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9PKy9CsFrC_Bsxys8zjttiiIWbHtzYzmmAgaunkfpxykna0uQP4X7bE8f827ZzpCV919teY33Y6H5HiFX0spj_HpcGZKIe2sdRBrvG298s_a0tab6Qw085bWxUm6VbTjYxGJRs-He7w/s320/Screen+shot+2011-03-08+at+10.36.54+AM.png" width="278" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The <a href="http://pamela.roma2.infn.it/index.php">PAMELA satellite</a> has been launched in 2006 and since then it has held many surprises. Back in 2008, the PAMELA collaboration found an <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4995">anomalous cosmic positron abundance</a>, which prompted the publication of <a href="http://inspirebeta.net/search?ln=en&p=refersto:recid:800801">hundreds of papers</a> (690 citations to the original paper as of March 8, 2011). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Last week, the collaboration has published on '<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/03/02/science.1199172.abstract">Science Express</a>' the measurement of proton and Helium spectra in the rigidity range 1 GV - 1.2 TV (see figure above). The shape of these spectra deviate significantly from the simple power-law behavior predicted by the current paradigm (see e.g.<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0701517"> this review paper</a>), which posits that cosmic rays in this energy range are accelerated in supernova remnants. </div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Interestingly, the deviations from the predictions are different from protons and He nuclei, a feature that is difficult to accomodate even in the <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.1925">most sophisticated</a> models of acceleration. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In short, this means that we are probably seeing the effect of new sources of cosmic rays (in the paper the authors cite e.g. <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601475">this study</a> of a multi-component population of cosmic rays).</div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-32683917953198331912011-03-07T04:13:00.000-08:002011-03-07T04:13:22.834-08:00Convincing proof of extraterrestrial life?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBZ5RlTzjW4jfCuUe4XsnKULS8My-VRL1gkqzChXJwknu9KIlBmmIcE5dhxebwIsto4Ctoyk5OT3-8mGvpg-0ECxAjD6FjQqsJc3_aETrtlH5Mx-DaVuy4qblDob_zvaeuOxlrCZ81TQ/s1600/HooverFigure4a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBZ5RlTzjW4jfCuUe4XsnKULS8My-VRL1gkqzChXJwknu9KIlBmmIcE5dhxebwIsto4Ctoyk5OT3-8mGvpg-0ECxAjD6FjQqsJc3_aETrtlH5Mx-DaVuy4qblDob_zvaeuOxlrCZ81TQ/s320/HooverFigure4a.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">On March 2, the Journal of Cosmology has sent an invitation to send a 1000 words commentary on a <a href="http://journalofcosmology.com/Life100.html">paper</a> of R. Hoover (go there only if you are interested, as they'll try to redirect you to the Amazon.com page of a book edited by Hoover. Very, <i>very</i> bad!), claiming the discovery of <b>indigeneous</b> microfossils in the interior of some meteorites, similar to fossilized Earth bacteria. The key-word in the sentence above is "indigenous", since it implies that these microfossils represent the remains of bacteria which lived outside the Earth.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Now, I found it rather bizarre that a journal requests a 1000 words commentary to anyone in the scientific community is willing to say something. They even specify: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><i>Commentaries may focus entirely on Dr. Hoover's paper, or you may speculate about the implications, e.g, the evolution of life on other planets, the origin of life on Earth, our genetic ancestry, "are we alone?" etc.</i></blockquote><br />
Oh, well. And to be honest, given the comments that actually appeared on the webpage of the Journal, I'd be surprised if they were actually peer-reviewed at all (as claimed by the editors).<br />
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Despite the premises, I tried to develop an informed opinion, to answer the questions of friends and family who read about the news everywhere on the web. After reading about it <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/nasa-scientist-sees-signs-of-life-in-meteorites/">here</a>, <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/05/has-life-been-found-in-a-meteorite/">here</a>, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/did_scientists_discover_bacter.php">here</a> and <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/aliens-riding-meteorites-arsenic-redux-or-something-new/">here</a>, I am tempted to say that the claim is far from robust, and, to say the least, it should be taken with a huge grain of salt.Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-72756700093042612402011-02-23T04:54:00.000-08:002011-03-08T03:28:52.787-08:00LHC early constraints on SUSY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUVYuVVjLVM0vuSe_W3Txf_573oyKOomIUUEbGuClERvg-a-zQY7tIom22m8bh20YgpBwRpPT37lEOX9V3otm7dnPVrkK6jev-7Mcjv7cmCpWLX1RDIDQeYbf2wX7atynqjL4mbLTjaC4/s1600/atlas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUVYuVVjLVM0vuSe_W3Txf_573oyKOomIUUEbGuClERvg-a-zQY7tIom22m8bh20YgpBwRpPT37lEOX9V3otm7dnPVrkK6jev-7Mcjv7cmCpWLX1RDIDQeYbf2wX7atynqjL4mbLTjaC4/s320/atlas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>The first analyses of the impact of early LHC data on the parameter space of Supersymmetry (SUSY) have been presented at several winter conferences.<br />
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The results the ATLAS and CMS papers have been recently posted on the arXiv (<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.2357">here</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.1628">here</a>), and they are actually based on 35 pb-1 of LHC data at 7 TeV.<br />
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A good discussion of their impact on SUSY can be found in the blogosphere at <a href="http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2011/02/more-susy-limits.html">Resonaances</a> and in Tommaso Dorigo's <a href="http://www.science20.com/quantum_diaries_survivor/lhc_excludes_susy_theories_theorists_clinch_hands-76556">blog</a>. For technical discussions see also the papers of <a href="http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/1101.2195v2">A. Strumia</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3149">B. Allanach</a>.<br />
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Looks like the <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3532">moment of truth</a> is coming for SUSY, and more in general for WIMP Dark Matter.Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-81639202102834059952011-01-31T06:24:00.000-08:002011-02-23T04:55:19.313-08:002011 Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://hep2011.insight-outside.fr/img/EPS-HEP2011-Poster2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://hep2011.insight-outside.fr/img/EPS-HEP2011-Poster2.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This summer <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Ralph Engel (KIT-Karlsruhe), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Patrick Dekowski (NIKHEF) and I will act as conveners </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">for the parallel session "Astroparticle Physics"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"> of the </span><a href="http://eps-hep2011.eu/">2011 Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics</a>, organized by the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><a href="http://eps-hepp.web.cern.ch/eps-hepp/">European Physical Society's High Energy Particle Physics Division Board</a>. The Conference will take place in the charming city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenoble">Grenoble</a>, from July 21 to 27, 2011. </span></span>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-67185844757358477702011-01-26T03:34:00.000-08:002011-01-26T03:35:38.028-08:00Solar Sail Stunner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9Gch5EOaknMXmAEj_hwLJQkgW7CAlUvofMWSfr2ANpHdNn_O73kzIDv473HdYUH3hI7VjqwDk14IdvjNkHD86Bj1Gqt1p_wvBZjMdg7YR4uT9tSz1Inn0DhN_4SIn75IIt4YvYWLiNc/s1600/image_full.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9Gch5EOaknMXmAEj_hwLJQkgW7CAlUvofMWSfr2ANpHdNn_O73kzIDv473HdYUH3hI7VjqwDk14IdvjNkHD86Bj1Gqt1p_wvBZjMdg7YR4uT9tSz1Inn0DhN_4SIn75IIt4YvYWLiNc/s320/image_full.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
From NASA Science News :<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i></i></span><br />
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: visible !important; overflow-y: visible !important; padding-bottom: 0.5em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>In an unexpected reversal of fortune, NASA's NanoSail-D spacecraft has unfurled a gleaming sheet of space-age fabric 650 km above Earth, becoming the first-ever solar sail to circle our planet.</i></div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: visible !important; overflow-y: visible !important; padding-bottom: 0.5em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>"We're solar sailing!" says NanoSail-D principal investigator Dean Alhorn of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. "This is a momentous achievement."</i></div><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; overflow-x: visible !important; overflow-y: visible !important; padding-bottom: 0.5em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Read more <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/24jan_solarsail/">here</a>..</i></div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-33794469824459292372011-01-20T07:42:00.000-08:002011-01-20T07:42:12.997-08:00Mt. Etna erupts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gallery/albums/phil-creation-3/iss_etna_2002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gallery/albums/phil-creation-3/iss_etna_2002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Directly from <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/">Bad Astronomy</a>, gorgeous images of Mt Etna (and other volcanoes) as seen from space. As a kid I used to watch Etna's eruptions "live" from the windows of our home in Reggio Calabria.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">There are a handful of volcanoes in the world that evoke an immediate recognition, dormant or not. Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Mt. St. Helens. Certainly, Sicily's Mt. Etna is another. At 3300 meters in elevation, it's the largest active volcano in Italy... and by active, I do mean <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">active</span>.<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif;" />In 2002, Etna erupted in a relatively large display of lava and ash. <a href="http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-5/html/iss005e19024.html" style="color: #df6615; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-decoration: none;">This view</a> was taken by Expedition 5 about the International Space Station, looking southeast at a low angle. This eruption let loose a river of lava down the flank of the volcano which set fire to pine trees there; the dark plume is from the eruption, but the whiter ones are from burning pine trees. The plume from this eruption blew south and was reported as far away as Libya, nearly 600 km distant.<br style="font-family: Georgia, serif;" /><br style="font-family: Georgia, serif;" />Unlike Earth observing satellites, which point straight down, astronauts on the ISS have the luxury of seeing things at an angle, providing a more natural - and in this case, more spectacular - view to our human eyes and brain.</span></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/20/mt-etna-erupts/">http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/20/mt-etna-erupts/</a></span></span>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-5479510686332226572011-01-13T02:02:00.000-08:002011-01-13T02:02:23.773-08:00Surprise of the day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/NAMA_Machine_d'Anticyth%C3%A8re_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/NAMA_Machine_d'Anticyth%C3%A8re_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Can you guess what the mechanism above is?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Answer (directly from Wikipedia): Antikythera mechanism fragment. The mechanism consists of a complex system of 32 wheels and plates with inscriptions relating to the signs of the zodiac and the months. The study of the fragments suggests that this was a kind of astrolabe used for marine navigation. The interpretation now generally accepted dates back to studies by Professor Derek de Solla Price, who was the first to suggest that the mechanism is a machine to calculate the solar and lunar calendar, that is to say, an ingenious machine to determine the time based on the movements of the sun and moon, their relationship (eclipses) and the movements of other stars and planets known at that time. The mechanism was probably built by an ingenious mechanic school Posidonius in Rhodes. Cicero, who visited the island in a. 79/78 C. reported that such devices were indeed designed by the Stoic philosopher Posidonius of Apamea. The design of the Antikythera mechanism appears to follow the tradition of Archimedes' planetarium, and may be related to sundials. His modus operandi is based on the use of gears. The machine is dated 89 a. C. around and comes from the wreck found off the island of Antikythera. National Archaeological Museum, Athens, No. 15987.</span>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-88698079163388682062011-01-12T00:47:00.000-08:002011-01-12T00:47:36.504-08:00Fermilab: Tevatron shut down in 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110111/images/news469141a-i1.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110111/images/news469141a-i1.0.jpg" /></a></div>A message from Fermilab's director Piero Oddone, appeared on "Fermilab Today" (see also <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110111/full/469141a.html">this Nature article</a>):<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
Yesterday we received the <a href="http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/Tevatron-brinkman-to-shochet.pdf" style="color: #114170;" target="_blank">news</a> that we will not receive funding for the proposed Tevatron extension and consequently the Tevatron will close at the end of FY2011 as was previously planned. The present budgetary climate did not permit the DOE to secure the additional funds needed to run the Tevatron for three more years as recommended by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel. Both Tevatron collaborations did a splendid job articulating the physics case and all the relevant issues to both our Physics Advisory Committee and the national advisory committees, which led to the recommendation to extend the Tevatron.<br />
We plan to extract every bit of physics we can from this final Tevatron running period. The Tevatron has already exceeded all expectations, and given the large datasets we will continue to find new results and discoveries in the Tevatron data for years to come. The life of this legendary machine has been marked by historic discoveries made possible by its innovative accelerator and detector technologies. The experience gained during its operation has also immensely helped the development of the LHC accelerator and detectors. Fermilab is and will remain a very strong part of the LHC program and will continue to pursue physics at the high-energy frontier together with our collaborators at CERN.<br />
As you can imagine I have answered many questions from the press over the last 24 hours. They are interested in the future of Fermilab, what may happen with jobs on our site and whether or not there will be any layoffs. There are about 100 jobs connected with the operations and maintenance of the colliding beam program. At this point the situation is very fluid because we do not have all the information we need to make decisions. In particular:<br />
<ul>a) We do not know the budget for FY11 since we are in a Continuing Resolution and Congress has not acted on any of the appropriations bills.</ul><ul>b) We do not know the President's budget request for the following year, FY12. We will know this only in mid February.</ul><br />
When the Tevatron concludes operations, we plan to move as many employees as possible to jobs on several new experiments and projects, many of which are already well underway and in need of extra help. Of course, this depends on the budget for FY11 and FY12 and on how fast the new projects ramp up. It will be a complex transition for the laboratory, and soon we will set up a Q&A website to answer questions about the issues that this transition entails.<br />
The Office of Science and Fermilab are committed to maintaining our laboratory as a world leader for particle physics research. We have the Office of Science's strong support to develop into the foremost laboratory at the Intensity Frontier with new neutrino experiments NOvA, MicroBooNE and the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE); the muon-to-electron conversion experiment (Mu2e); and ongoing experiments MINOS, MINERvA and MiniBooNE. Underlying our Intensity Frontier program we have the Office of Science’s support for the development of Project X. In addition we have leading programs at the Cosmic Frontier with the Dark Energy Survey, the dark-matter experiments CDMS and COUPP, and Pierre Auger. While we would have liked to run the Tevatron for three more years, our life going forward is full of promising projects and great opportunities for major discoveries.Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-12433496599223014982010-12-17T05:48:00.000-08:002010-12-17T05:48:38.090-08:00Complementarity of Dark Matter Direct Detection Targets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVxpnCuHjE4BNWPvGG8bvVIyvHPuzC1h2Ye_iVsDQ-_dKG8CVLsmc2XzhengGVibUfJ7ZgJhTPtkD09gAZTbLmlyTq45x37mnu1TSmjED2y0TbrEVsFB48XWm4GQTt0tnM81GJKL3NSOU/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-12-17+at+2.41.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVxpnCuHjE4BNWPvGG8bvVIyvHPuzC1h2Ye_iVsDQ-_dKG8CVLsmc2XzhengGVibUfJ7ZgJhTPtkD09gAZTbLmlyTq45x37mnu1TSmjED2y0TbrEVsFB48XWm4GQTt0tnM81GJKL3NSOU/s200/Screen+shot+2010-12-17+at+2.41.28+PM.png" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">We (i.e. Miguel Pato, <a href="http://www.physik.uzh.ch/~lbaudis/">Laura Baudis</a>, Roberto Ruiz de Austri, Louie Strigari, <a href="http://astro.ic.ac.uk/rtrotta/home">Roberto Trotta</a>, and <a href="http://www2.iap.fr/users/bertone">myself</a>) have posted a new paper on the arXiv today, that deals with the complementarity of different Dark Matter direct detection targets. In this paper, we investigate the reconstruction capabilities of Dark Matter mass and spin-independent cross-section from future ton-scale direct detection experiments using germanium, xenon or argon as targets. Adopting realistic values for the exposure, energy threshold and resolution of Dark Matter experiments which will come online within 5 to 10 years, the degree of complementarity between different targets is quantified. We investigate how the uncertainty in the astrophysical parameters controlling the local Dark Matter density and velocity distribution affects the reconstruction. For a 50 GeV WIMP, astrophysical uncertainties degrade the accuracy in the mass reconstruction by up to a factor of $\sim 4$ for xenon and germanium, compared to the case when astrophysical quantities are fixed. However, combination of argon, germanium and xenon data increases the constraining power by a factor of $\sim 2$ compared to germanium or xenon alone. We show that future direct detection experiments can achieve self-calibration of some astrophysical parameters, and they will be able to constrain the WIMP mass with only very weak external astrophysical constraints.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The abstract can be found <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.3458">here</a>, or you can directly download the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><a accesskey="f" href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/1012.3458v1" style="text-decoration: underline;">PDF</a>.</span>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-85756589549248001182010-12-09T06:08:00.000-08:002010-12-10T09:07:19.559-08:00Dark Matter All Around - Paris, 13-15 December 2010<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNf6ZIf6XnDhYwETixH2HB25qyrm0BlLnL2wg5joAr2PwNETvAbDy8B9lEC68qTrteDZQouT56zDh7-v9ZTcRhK7QiWcTj8IoZfeNff7OP15ssDpEeJjS_jWkAHlsTnt0AveG_HCia4U/s1600/droppedImage.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548686571266840930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNf6ZIf6XnDhYwETixH2HB25qyrm0BlLnL2wg5joAr2PwNETvAbDy8B9lEC68qTrteDZQouT56zDh7-v9ZTcRhK7QiWcTj8IoZfeNff7OP15ssDpEeJjS_jWkAHlsTnt0AveG_HCia4U/s320/droppedImage.jpg" style="display: block; height: 185px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>A focus workshop on Dark Matter detection phenomenology will take place at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, from December 13 to 15, 2010. More information <a href="http://www.iap.fr/DMaa">here</a>.Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-65856930877926588672010-12-09T06:04:00.000-08:002010-12-09T06:07:43.580-08:00What we can learn from procrastination: newyorker.com<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/11/101011crbo_books_surowiecki">What we can learn from procrastination: newyorker.com</a>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836067788567825926.post-59034593020415991762010-11-16T17:16:00.001-08:002010-11-16T17:44:57.532-08:00The moment of Truth for WIMP Dark Matter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www2.iap.fr/users/bertone/Site/Welcome_files/shapeimage_3.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 122px; height: 110px;" src="http://www2.iap.fr/users/bertone/Site/Welcome_files/shapeimage_3.png" border="0" alt="" /></a>The most promising candidates for the mysterious Dark Matter are new particles called WIMPs (for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). In a recent article published on <b>Nature</b>, I argue that the moment of truth has come for these particles, for we will either discover them, or we will inevitably witness the decline of the 'WIMP paradigm'.<div><br /></div><div>Here is the abstract of the <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3532">version posted on the arXiv</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', helvetica, arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; "><i>We know that dark matter constitutes 85% of all the matter in the Universe, but we do not know of what it is made. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates proposed, WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) occupy a special place, as they arise naturally from well motivated extensions of the standard model of particle physics. With the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and a new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for WIMPs: either we will discover them in the next five to ten years, or we will witness the inevitable decline of WIMP paradigm.</i></span><br /><div><br /></div></div></div>Gianfranco Bertonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09172604723854203898noreply@blogger.com