LARES/WEBER-SAT and the equivalence principle

It has often been claimed that the proposed Earth artificial satellite LARES/WEBER-SAT-whose primary goal is, in fact, the measurement of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect at a some percent level-would allow to greatly improve, among (many) other things, the present-day (10^-13) level of accuracy in testing the equivalence principle as well. Recent claims point towards even two orders of magnitude better, i.e. 10^-15. In this note we show that such a goal is, in fact, unattainable by many orders of magnitude being, instead, the achievable level of the order of 10^-9.Comment: LaTex, 4 pages, no figures, no tables, 26 references. Proofs corrections included. To appear in EPL (Europhysics Letters

Test beam measurement of the first prototype of the fast silicon pixel monolithic detector for the TT-PET project

The TT-PET collaboration is developing a PET scanner for small animals with 30 ps time-of-flight resolution and sub-millimetre 3D detection granularity. The sensitive element of the scanner is a monolithic silicon pixel detector based on state-of-the-art SiGe BiCMOS technology. The first ASIC prototype for the TT-PET was produced and tested in the laboratory and with minimum ionizing particles. The electronics exhibit an equivalent noise charge below 600 e- RMS and a pulse rise time of less than 2 ns, in accordance with the simulations. The pixels with a capacitance of 0.8 pF were measured to have a detection efficiency greater than 99% and, although in the absence of the post-processing, a time resolution of approximately 200 ps

The relativistic precession of the orbits

The relativistic precession can be quickly inferred from the nonlinear polar orbit equation without actually solving it.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

A Novel Approach for an Integrated Straw tube-Microstrip Detector

We report on a novel concept of silicon microstrips and straw tubes detector, where integration is accomplished by a straw module with straws not subjected to mechanical tension in a Rohacell $^{\circledR}$ lattice and carbon fiber reinforced plastic shell. Results on mechanical and test beam performances are reported on as well.Comment: Accepted by Transactions on Nuclear Science (2005). 11 pages, 9 figures, uses lnfprep.st

An analysis of materials used in the RPC detector and in the closed loop gas system of CMS at the LHC.

The results are reported of the study of materials used in the CERN Closed Loop recirculation gas system currently under test with the RPC muon detectors in the CMS experiment at the LHC. Studies include a sampling campaign in a low-radiation environment (cosmic rays at the CERN ISR test site). We describe the dedicated RPC chamber tests, the chemical analysis of the filters and gas used, and discuss the results of the Closed Loop system

The CMS RPC gas gain monitoring system: an overview and preliminary results

The status of the CMS RPC Gas Gain Monitoring (GGM) system developed at the Frascati Laboratory of INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) is reported on. The GGM system is a cosmic ray telescope based on small RPC detectors operated with the same gas mixture used by the CMS RPC system. The GGM gain and efficiency are continuously monitored on-line, thus providing a fast and accurate determination of any shift in working point conditions. The construction details and the first result of GGM commissioning are described.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, uses lnfprepCMS.sty, presented by L. Benussi at RPC07, Mumbai, INDIA 200

Gas Analysis and Monitoring Systems for the RPC Detector of CMS at LHC

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) detector of the CMS experiment at the LHC proton collider (CERN, Switzerland) will employ an online gas analysis and monitoring system of the freon-based gas mixture used. We give an overview of the CMS RPC gas system, describe the project parameters and first results on gas-chromatograph analysis. Finally, we report on preliminary results for a set of monitor RPC.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Presented by Stefano Bianco (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN) at the IEEE NSS, San Diego (USA), October 200

Regulation of the Bacteriophage MugemOperon

AbstractThegemoperon of bacteriophage Mu, responsible for the complex phenomenon of phage conversion, is included in the so called “semiessential early” region of phage DNA. Unlike the other early genes of the phage which are transcribed from the pepromoter, expression of thegemoperon is driven by its own promoter, which escapes the control of the repressor. In fact, the transcript corresponding togemwas detected in immune lysogens by using a combined reverse transcription and a subsequent amplification of the resulting cDNA. The transcription initiation site from pgemwas determined by primer extension mapping experiments and localized at 8217 bp from the left end of phage DNA. Two elements which could perform the negative control ofgemwere also identified. The first is a phage product, GemB, which presumably interferes withgemexpression at a posttranscriptional level, whereas the second is a structural element, an inverted repeat immediately downstream of pgem, which acts as a terminator for the transcripts starting from pe. These transcripts could regulategemexpression by interfering with the initiation of transcription from pgem