A Junta de Educação Nacional (JEN) e o apoio às instituições científicas (1929-1938)

A Junta de Educação Nacional (JEN) [16-Jan-1929] foi criada com o objectivo de desenvolver o trabalho científico nacional, não só o embrião que já existia nas Universidades, mas também em instituições científicas autónomas. Esperava-se ainda que a JEN criasse Centros de Investigação em diversas disciplinas e subsidiasse o seu funcionamento. Contudo, nos primeiros anos de funcionamento a JEN deparou-se com um panorama de “penúria” da actividade científica nacional e com os pedidos de financiamento de inúmeras instituições universitárias ou mesmo secções governamentais. A braços com orçamentos insuficientes, a JEN procurou representar o meio científico português perante o Governo, requisitando verbas e outros apoios. A actividade de apoio da JEN às instituições de investigação nacionais permite formar uma percepção acerca do campo institucional da ciência em Portugal. Ao longo da sua existência a JEN apoiou mais de 50 instituições científicas, em publicações ou no apetrechamento de material. Apoiou-as ainda, de forma indirecta, através da formação dos seus “cientistas profissionais” num âmbito internacional. No nosso trabalho analisamos os subsídios atribuídos pela JEN em termos geográficos e em relação à área científica bem como o tipo de Instituição subsidiada. Para a JEN, a reorganização das instituições de investigação a nível nacional e a criação de novos Centros de Investigação foram tarefas demoradas e quase impraticáveis. Foi o IAC (1936) que posteriormente começou a desenvolver estes desígnios

Dynamics of a Dirac Fermion in the presence of spin noncommutativity

Recently, it has been proposed a spacetime noncommutativity that involves spin degrees of freedom, here called "spin noncommutativity". One of the motivations for such a construction is that it preserves Lorentz invariance, which is deformed or simply broken in other approaches to spacetime noncommutativity. In this work, we gain further insight in the physical aspects of the spin noncommutativity. The noncommutative Dirac equation is derived from an action principle, and it is found to lead to the conservation of a modified current, which involves the background electromagnetic field. Finally, we study the Landau problem in the presence of spin noncommutativity. For this scenario of a constant magnetic field, we are able to derive a simple Hermitean non-commutative correction to the Hamiltonian operator, and show that the degeneracy of the excited states is lifted by the noncommutativity at the second order or perturbation theory.Comment: 18 pages, revtex

Aharonov-Bohm Effect in Cyclotron and Synchrotron Radiations

We study the impact of Aharonov-Bohm solenoid on the radiation of a charged particle moving in a constant uniform magnetic field. With this aim in view, exact solutions of Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations are found in the magnetic-solenoid field. Using such solutions, we calculate exactly all the characteristics of one-photon spontaneous radiation both for spinless and spinning particle. Considering non-relativistic and relativistic approximations, we analyze cyclotron and synchrotron radiations in detail. Radiation peculiarities caused by the presence of the solenoid may be considered as a manifestation of Aharonov-Bohm effect in the radiation. In particular, it is shown that new spectral lines appear in the radiation spectrum. Due to angular distribution peculiarities of the radiation intensity, these lines can in principle be isolated from basic cyclotron and synchrotron radiation spectraComment: 38 pages, LaTex fil

Higher Grading Conformal Affine Toda Teory and (Generalized) Sine-Gordon/Massive Thirring Duality

Some properties of the higher grading integrable generalizations of the conformal affine Toda systems are studied. The fields associated to the non-zero grade generators are Dirac spinors. The effective action is written in terms of the Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten (WZNW) action associated to an affine Lie algebra, and an off-critical theory is obtained as the result of the spontaneous breakdown of the conformal symmetry. Moreover, the off-critical theory presents a remarkable equivalence between the Noether and topological currents of the model. Related to the off-critical model we define a real and local Lagrangian provided some reality conditions are imposed on the fields of the model. This real action model is expected to describe the soliton sector of the original model, and turns out to be the master action from which we uncover the weak-strong phases described by (generalized) massive Thirring and sine-Gordon type models, respectively. The case of any (untwisted) affine Lie algebra furnished with the principal gradation is studied in some detail. The example of $\hat{sl}(n) (n=2,3)$ is presented explicitly.Comment: 28 pages, JHEP styl

A FORMAÇÃO NO TEMPO E NO ESPAÇO DA INTERNET DAS COISAS

RESUMO: A Internet das Coisas tem revolucionado a forma de produção e reprodução do conhecimento. Trata-se de um tipo de interface comunicacional entre humanos, máquinas e objetos que, ao fundir os mundos material e informacional, suscita as seguintes questões: (1) a possibilidade de obtenção imediata de quaisquer informações implicaria na produção do pensamento crítico, em uma espécie de relação causa-efeito?; (2) se é possível acessar as informações em quaisquer tempo e espaço, quais seriam as transformações decorrentes no processo formativo dos alunos e dos professores? Justamente essas questões motivaram os autores do artigo a elaborar o seguinte objetivo: refletir criticamente sobre a revitalização do conceito de formação (Bildung ) na temporalidade e localidade da Internet das Coisas

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters

Measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector with an integrated luminosity of 0.30 pb^-1 for jets with transverse momentum between 25 and 70 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5. D*+/- mesons found in jets are fully reconstructed in the decay chain: D*+ -> D0pi+, D0 -> K-pi+, and its charge conjugate. The production rate is found to be N(D*+/-)/N(jet) = 0.025 +/- 0.001(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) for D*+/- mesons that carry a fraction z of the jet momentum in the range 0.3 < z < 1. Monte Carlo predictions fail to describe the data at small values of z, and this is most marked at low jet transverse momentum.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (22 pages total), 5 figures, 1 table, matches published version in Physical Review