Neural correlates of emotion word processing: the complex relation between emotional valence and arousal

Poster Session 1: no. 2The Conference's website is located at http://events.unitn.it/en/psb2010Emotion is characterised by a two-dimensional structure: valence describes the extent to which an emotion is positive or negative, whereas arousal refers to the intensity of an emotion, how exciting or calming it is. Emotional content of verbal material influences cognitive processing during lexical decision, naming, emotional Stroop task and many others. Converging findings showed that emotionally valenced words (positive or negative) are processed faster than neutral words, as shown by reaction time and ERP measures, suggesting a prioritisation of emotional …published_or_final_versio

Searching for TeV dark matter by atmospheric Cerenkov techniques

There is a growing interest in the possibility that dark matter could be formed of weakly interacting particles with a mass in the 100 GeV - 2 TeV range, and supersymmetric particles are favorite candidates. If they constitute the dark halo of our Galaxy, their mutual annihilations produce energetic gamma rays that could be detected using existing atmospheric \u{C}erenkov techniques.Comment: 10 pp, LaTex (3 figures available by e-mail) PAR-LPTHE 92X

Is the EGRET source 3EG J1621+8203 the radio galaxy NGC 6251?

We discuss the nature of the unidentified EGRET source 3EG J1621+8203. In an effort to identify the gamma-ray source, we have examined X-ray images of the field from ROSAT PSPC, ROSAT HRI, and ASCA GIS. Of the several faint X-ray point sources in the error circle of 3EG J1621+8203, most are stars or faint radio sources, unlikely to be counterparts to the EGRET source. The most notable object in the gamma-ray error box is the bright FR I radio galaxy NGC 6251. If 3EG J1621+8203 corresponds to NGC 6251, then it would be the second radio galaxy to be detected in high energy gamma rays, after Cen A, which provided the first clear evidence of the detection above 100 MeV of an AGN with a large-inclination jet. If the detection of more radio galaxies by EGRET has been limited by its threshold sensitivity, there exists the exciting possibility that new high energy gamma-ray instruments, with much higher sensitivity, will detect a larger number of radio galaxies in the future.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, August 2002 issu

The Highest Energy Neutrinos

Measurements of the arrival directions of cosmic rays have not revealed their sources. High energy neutrino telescopes attempt to resolve the problem by detecting neutrinos whose directions are not scrambled by magnetic fields. The key issue is whether the neutrino flux produced in cosmic ray accelerators is detectable. It is believed that the answer is affirmative, both for the galactic and extragalactic sources, provided the detector has kilometer-scale dimensions. We revisit the case for kilometer-scale neutrino detectors in a model-independent way by focussing on the energetics of the sources. The real breakthrough though has not been on the theory but on the technology front: the considerable technical hurdles to build such detectors have been overcome. Where extragalactic cosmic rays are concerned an alternative method to probe the accelerators consists in studying the arrival directions of neutrinos produced in interactions with the microwave background near the source, i.e. within a GZK radius. Their flux is calculable within large ambiguities but, in any case, low. It is therefore likely that detectors that are larger yet by several orders of magnitudes are required. These exploit novel techniques, such as detecting the secondary radiation at radio wavelengths emitted by neutrino induced showers.Comment: 16 pages, pdflatex, 7 jpg figures, ICRC style files included. Highlight talk presented at the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Merida, Mexico, 200

Prospects for Observations of Pulsars and Pulsar Wind Nebulae with CTA

The last few years have seen a revolution in very-high gamma-ray astronomy (VHE; E>100 GeV) driven largely by a new generation of Cherenkov telescopes (namely the H.E.S.S. telescope array, the MAGIC and MAGIC-II large telescopes and the VERITAS telescope array). The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project foresees a factor of 5 to 10 improvement in sensitivity above 0.1 TeV, extending the accessible energy range to higher energies up to 100 TeV, in the Galactic cut-off regime, and down to a few tens GeV, covering the VHE photon spectrum with good energy and angular resolution. As a result of the fast development of the VHE field, the number of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) detected has increased from one PWN in the early '90s to more than two dozen firm candidates today. Also, the low energy threshold achieved and good sensitivity at TeV energies has resulted in the detection of pulsed emission from the Crab Pulsar (or its close environment) opening new and exiting expectations about the pulsed spectra of the high energy pulsars powering PWNe. Here we discuss the physics goals we aim to achieve with CTA on pulsar and PWNe physics evaluating the response of the instrument for different configurations.Comment: accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

A Search for Dark Matter Annihilation with the Whipple 10m Telescope

We present observations of the dwarf galaxies Draco and Ursa Minor, the local group galaxies M32 and M33, and the globular cluster M15 conducted with the Whipple 10m gamma-ray telescope to search for the gamma-ray signature of self-annihilating weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) which may constitute astrophysical dark matter (DM). We review the motivations for selecting these sources based on their unique astrophysical environments and report the results of the data analysis which produced upper limits on excess rate of gamma rays for each source. We consider models for the DM distribution in each source based on the available observational constraints and discuss possible scenarios for the enhancement of the gamma-ray luminosity. Limits on the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and velocity of the WIMP, , are derived using conservative estimates for the magnitude of the astrophysical contribution to the gamma-ray flux. Although these limits do not constrain predictions from the currently favored theoretical models of supersymmetry (SUSY), future observations with VERITAS will probe a larger region of the WIMP parameter phase space, and WIMP particle mass (m_\chi).Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

A Survey of the Northern Sky for TeV Point Sources

A search for steady TeV point sources anywhere in the northern sky has been made with data from the Milagrito air-shower-particle detector. Over 3 x 10**9 events collected from 1997 February to 1998 May have been used in this study. No statistically significant excess above the background from the isotropic flux of cosmic rays was found for any direction of the sky with declination between -5 degrees and 71.7 degrees. Upper limits are derived for the photon flux above 1 TeV from any steady point source in the northern sky.Comment: 2 Figure