Maxwell-like Lagrangians for higher spins

We show how implementing invariance under divergence-free gauge transformations leads to a remarkably simple Lagrangian description of massless bosons of any spin. Our construction covers both flat and (A)dS backgrounds and extends to tensors of arbitrary mixed-symmetry type. Irreducible and traceless fields produce single-particle actions, while whenever trace constraints can be dispensed with the resulting Lagrangians display the same reducible, multi-particle spectra as those emerging from the tensionless limit of free open-string field theory. For all explored options the corresponding kinetic operators take essentially the same form as in the spin-one, Maxwell case.Comment: 77 pages, revised version. Erroneous interpretation and proof of the gauge-fixing procedure for mixed-symmetry fields corrected. As a consequence, the mixed-symmetry, one-particle Lagrangians are to be complemented with conditions on the divergences of the fields; all other conclusions unchanged. Additional minor changes including references added. To appear in JHE

Gravitational diffraction radiation

We show that if the visible universe is a membrane embedded in a higher-dimensional space, particles in uniform motion radiate gravitational waves because of spacetime lumpiness. This phenomenon is analogous to the electromagnetic diffraction radiation of a charge moving near to a metallic grating. In the gravitational case, the role of the metallic grating is played by the inhomogeneities of the extra-dimensional space, such as a hidden brane. We derive a general formula for gravitational diffraction radiation and apply it to a higher-dimensional scenario with flat compact extra dimensions. Gravitational diffraction radiation may carry away a significant portion of the particle's initial energy. This allows to set stringent limits on the scale of brane perturbations. Physical effects of gravitational diffraction radiation are briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4. v2: References added. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Tuning Polyamidoamine Design to Increase Uptake and Efficacy of Ruthenium Complexes for Photodynamic Therapy

Nanomedicine holds great promises to change the way drugs are delivered to their target, owing to the use of nano-sized drug carriers capable to enter cells and be trafficked intracellularly via energy dependent pathways [1, 2]. This is very different from the way most drugs arrive to their target, often based simply on their solubility and partition coefficients in lipids and water. Despite some valuable successes, drug delivery remains rather challenging and several factors are still limiting its potential. Among such factors, it has emerged, for instance, that most nano-sized carriers entering cells via endocytosis are later trafficked along the endolysosomal pathway to the lysosomes, where the low pH and abundant proteases can degrade and destroy the internalised cargo. Strategies to escape the endosomes and lysosomes are being investigated. Among the many polymer species employed as drug delivery vectors, linear polyamidoamines (PAAs) are very interesting and promising materials. In this communication it will be presented a new polycationic PAA endowed with a luminescent Ru complex (Ru-PhenAN) and its ability to target the cell nucleus. It shows unique trafficking to the cell nucleus of all the treated cells, also at polymer doses as low as cytotoxicity is very low. Also, it will be shown the efficacy of Ru-PhenAN as photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy (PDT), a treatment of pathological conditions based on the photo-activation of a bioactive compound, which is not harmful in the absence of light irradiation [3]

ULF Geomagnetic Pulsations at High Latitudes: the Italian contribution

The study of geomagnetic field variations in Antarctica is important in that local field lines are close to extreme magnetospheric regions, such as the polar cusp, where several generation mechanisms for ULF waves are active. Since the eighties, the Italian scientific community developed a research activity in Antarctica at Mario Zucchelli Station (TNB, CGM latitude 80°S), where magnetic facilities are continuously operating. In this review we present the experimental results obtained by a number of investigations conducted in the last years on geomagnetic pulsations in the Pc3-Pc5 frequency range. We also show compared analyses with measurements from other Antarctic and low latitude stations, and, in particular, a statistical analysis of propagation characteristics of low frequency geomagnetic field fluctuations between the two Antarctic stations, TNB and Scott Base

Geomagnetic field variations at low and high latitude during the January 10-11, 1997 magnetic cloud

On Jan. 10-11, 1997 a wide magnetic cloud reached the Earth triggering intense geomagnetic activity. Observations performed at low and very high latitude show that the same features appear simultaneously in correspondence to different changes in the solar wind conditions. In particular, highly polarized modes are simultaneously observed at the same discrete frequencies after the passage of the high density solar wind region following the cloud. SI's and ULF waves polarization are also examined in a wide latitudinal and longitudinal extent

Using 3D Stringy Gravity to Understand the Thurston Conjecture

We present a string inspired 3D Euclidean field theory as the starting point for a modified Ricci flow analysis of the Thurston conjecture. In addition to the metric, the theory contains a dilaton, an antisymmetric tensor field and a Maxwell-Chern Simons field. For constant dilaton, the theory appears to obey a Birkhoff theorem which allows only nine possible classes of solutions, depending on the signs of the parameters in the action. Eight of these correspond to the eight Thurston geometries, while the ninth describes the metric of a squashed three sphere. It therefore appears that one can construct modified Ricci flow equations in which the topology of the geometry is encoded in the parameters of an underlying field theory.Comment: 17 pages, Late

Exploiting the Internet Resources for Autonomous Robots in Agriculture

Autonomous robots in the agri-food sector are increasing yearly, promoting the application of precision agriculture techniques. The same applies to online services and techniques implemented over the Internet, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, which make big data, edge computing, and digital twins technologies possible. Developers of autonomous vehicles understand that autonomous robots for agriculture must take advantage of these techniques on the Internet to strengthen their usability. This integration can be achieved using different strategies, but existing tools can facilitate integration by providing benefits for developers and users. This study presents an architecture to integrate the different components of an autonomous robot that provides access to the cloud, taking advantage of the services provided regarding data storage, scalability, accessibility, data sharing, and data analytics. In addition, the study reveals the advantages of integrating new technologies into autonomous robots that can bring significant benefits to farmers. The architecture is based on the Robot Operating System (ROS), a collection of software applications for communication among subsystems, and FIWARE (Future Internet WARE), a framework of open-source components that accelerates the development of intelligent solutions. To validate and assess the proposed architecture, this study focuses on a specific example of an innovative weeding application with laser technology in agriculture. The robot controller is distributed into the robot hardware, which provides real-time functions, and the cloud, which provides access to online resources. Analyzing the resulting characteristics, such as transfer speed, latency, response and processing time, and response status based on requests, enabled positive assessment of the use of ROS and FIWARE for integrating autonomous robots and the Internet