New results on focusing of gamma-rays with Laue lenses

We report on new results on the development activity of broad band Laue lenses for hard X-/gamma-ray astronomy (70/100-600 keV). After the development of a first prototype, whose performance was presented at the SPIE conference on Astronomical Telescopes held last year in Marseille (Frontera et al. 2008), we have improved the lens assembling technology. We present the development status of the new lens prototype that is on the way to be assembled.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, to be Published in SPIE Proceedings, vol.7437-19, 200

A Laser Based Instrument for MWPC Wire Tension Measurement

A fast and simple method for the measurement of the mechanical tension of wires of Multi Wires Proportional Chambers (MWPCs) is described. The system is based on commercial components and does not require any electrical connection to the wires or electric or magnetic field. It has been developed for the quality control of MWPCs of the Muon Detector of the LHCb experiment in construction at CERN. The system allows a measurement of the wire tension with a precision better than 0.5% within 3-4 seconds per wir

Fast Seismic Vulnerability Evaluation of Historical Masonry Aggregates through Local Analyses: an Adaptive NURBS-based Limit Analysis Approach

An efficient computational tool for the local failures analysis in historical masonry aggregates is proposed. A NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) representation of geometry is adopted. NURBS entities, which are common in commercial CAD packages, have the great advantage to describe complex geometries (such as curved elements and walls with a high number of holes) with very few elements. An upper bound limit analysis formulation is implemented, in which the adopted NURBS elements are idealized as rigid bodies with dissipation allowed only along interfaces. The mesh of NURBS elements is progressively adjusted through a genetic algorithm in order to minimize the live load multiplier. This procedure is applied in the evaluation of the horizontal load multiplier associated with the activation of local mechanisms during a seismic event. Some case studies, referring to masonry aggregates located in the historical centers of Arsita (Abruzzo region, Italy) and Sora (Lazio region, Italy), are here presented. A quick evaluation of the seismic vulnerability is performed through the presented NURBS-based computational tool, showing the high importance of the local response in the study of the seismic behavior of masonry aggregates

A Cylindrical GEM Inner Tracker for the BESIII experiment at IHEP

The Beijing Electron Spectrometer III (BESIII) is a multipurpose detector that collects data provided by the collision in the Beijing Electron Positron Collider II (BEPCII), hosted at the Institute of High Energy Physics of Beijing. Since the beginning of its operation, BESIII has collected the world largest sample of J/{\psi} and {\psi}(2s). Due to the increase of the luminosity up to its nominal value of 10^33 cm-2 s-1 and aging effect, the MDC decreases its efficiency in the first layers up to 35% with respect to the value in 2014. Since BESIII has to take data up to 2022 with the chance to continue up to 2027, the Italian collaboration proposed to replace the inner part of the MDC with three independent layers of Cylindrical triple-GEM (CGEM). The CGEM-IT project will deploy several new features and innovation with respect the other current GEM based detector: the {\mu}TPC and analog readout, with time and charge measurements will allow to reach the 130 {\mu}m spatial resolution in 1 T magnetic field requested by the BESIII collaboration. In this proceeding, an update of the status of the project will be presented, with a particular focus on the results with planar and cylindrical prototypes with test beams data. These results are beyond the state of the art for GEM technology in magnetic field