Landslide risk management through spatial analysis and stochastic prediction for territorial resilience evaluation

Natural materials, such as soils, are influenced by many factors acting during their formative and evolutionary process: atmospheric agents, erosion and transport phenomena, sedimentation conditions that give soil properties a non-reducible randomness by using sophisticated survey techniques and technologies. This character is reflected not only in spatial variability of properties which differs from point to point, but also in multivariate correlation as a function of reciprocal distance. Cognitive enrichment, offered by the response of soils associated with their intrinsic spatial variability, implies an increase in the evaluative capacity of the contributing causes and potential effects in failure phenomena. Stability analysis of natural slopes is well suited to stochastic treatment of uncertainty which characterized landslide risk. In particular, this study has been applied through a back- analysis procedure to a slope located in Southern Italy that was subject to repeated phenomena of hydrogeological instability (extended for several kilometres in recent years). The back-analysis has been carried out by applying spatial analysis to the controlling factors as well as quantifying the hydrogeological hazard through unbiased estimators. A natural phenomenon, defined as stochastic process characterized by mutually interacting spatial variables, has led to identify the most critical areas, giving reliability to the scenarios and improving the forecasting content. Moreover, the phenomenological characterization allows the optimization of the risk levels to the wide territory involved, supporting decision-making process for intervention priorities as well as the effective allocation of the available resources in social, environmental and economic contexts

Scattering induced dynamical entanglement and the quantum-classical correspondence

The generation of entanglement produced by a local potential interaction in a bipartite system is investigated. The degree of entanglement is contrasted with the underlying classical dynamics for a Rydberg molecule (a charged particle colliding on a kicked top). Entanglement is seen to depend on the structure of classical phase-space rather than on the global dynamical regime. As a consequence regular classical dynamics can in certain circumstances be associated with higher entanglement generation than chaotic dynamics. In addition quantum effects also come into play: for example partial revivals, which are expected to persist in the semiclassical limit, affect the long time behaviour of the reduced linear entropy. These results suggest that entanglement may not be a pertinent universal signature of chaos.Comment: Published versio

RFQD - a Decelerating Radio Frequency Quadrupole for the CERN Antiproton Facility

The RFQD is designed to decelerate antiprotons of momentum 100 MeV/c (kinetic energy 5.33MeV)down to a kinetic energy variable between ~10 keV and 120 keV. Inside the RFQ body, at ground potential, the rf structure of the four-rod type is mounted on insulating supports. It can be biased between plus/minus 60 kV dc to achieve the continuous adjustment of output energy required by the ASACUSA experiment at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator AD. The different parts of the system are described and the present status reported

Variational Estimates using a Discrete Variable Representation

The advantage of using a Discrete Variable Representation (DVR) is that the Hamiltonian of two interacting particles can be constructed in a very simple form. However the DVR Hamiltonian is approximate and, as a consequence, the results cannot be considered as variational ones. We will show that the variational character of the results can be restored by performing a reduced number of integrals. In practice, for a variational description of the lowest n bound states only n(n+1)/2 integrals are necessary whereas D(D+1)/2 integrals are enough for the scattering states (D is the dimension of the S matrix). Applications of the method to the study of dimers of He, Ne and Ar, for both bound and scattering states, are presented.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures. Minor changes (title modified, typos corrected, 1 reference added). To be published in PR

Beam lines

In this paper we describe the linearized beam dynamics in transfer lines in the context of the CAS School for Small Accelerators

A BIM-based PSS approach for the management of maintenance operations of building equipment

The service-centered economy has grown considerably in the last few years, shifting from product-based solutions towards service centered offerings, i.e., Product-Service System (PSS) solutions. Such an approach is also emerging in the context of building equipment, where maintenance activities play a fundamental role in facility management. In this field, Building Information Modeling (BIM) based tools are diffusely used to improve the performances of facility management. However, few studies have addressed the above issues while considering a shift from product-based approaches in favor of more advanced servitization models. The study aims at integrating BIM based approaches in a PSS context for the improvement of the management of maintenance operations of building equipment. A general framework for maintenance management has been developed, merging the implementation of the PSS components in a BIM model for the definition of maintenance management. A first application of this methodology to a real case study concerning the elevators of an existing building has shown the efficacy of the proposed approach. The study highlighted the benefits that can be achieved, especially in terms of reduced periods of equipment unavailability, reduced costs and augmented customer satisfaction, while enhancing the information exchange between the PSS actors. Hence, although further research is still needed for its validation, the proposed approach can offer practical insights for the development of promising BIM-based PSS solutions for facility management in the construction industry

A 40-80 MHz system for phase rotation and cooling

In this note a scheme for the collection, phase rotation and cooling of muons for a neutrino factory is reported. The scheme is sufficiently generic to be site independent also if some particular choices are influenced by the CERN design. The system discussed in this note is worked on as a possible alternative to the induction linac scheme [1]. The results presented assume the following overall set-up: the proton driver is constituted by a 2.2 GeV superconducting linac [2] followed by an accumulator and compressor ring [3]; the muon re-circulator and decay ring are assumed as described in PJK scenario [4]

The radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ)

In this paper we explain the function and the beam dynamics of a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) in the context of the CAS School for Small Accelerators

HST/ACS weak lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster RDCS 1252.9-2927 at z=1.24

We present a weak lensing analysis of one of the most distant massive galaxy cluster known, RDCS 1252.9-2927 at z=1.24, using deep images from the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By taking advantage of the depth and of the angular resolution of the ACS images, we detect for the first time at z>1 a clear weak lensing signal in both the i (F775W) and z (F850LP) filters. We measure a 5-\sigma signal in the i band and a 3-\sigma signal in the shallower z band image. The two radial mass profiles are found to be in very good agreement with each other, and provide a measurement of the total mass of the cluster inside a 1Mpc radius of M(<1Mpc) = (8.0 +/- 1.3) x 10^14 M_\odot in the current cosmological concordance model h =0.70, \Omega_m=0.3, \Omega_\Lambda=0.7, assuming a redshift distribution of background galaxies as inferred from the Hubble Deep Fields surveys. A weak lensing signal is detected out to the boundary of our field (3' radius, corresponding to 1.5Mpc at the cluster redshift). We detect a small offset between the centroid of the weak lensing mass map and the brightest cluster galaxy, and we discuss the possible origin of this discrepancy. The cumulative weak lensing radial mass profile is found to be in good agreement with the X-ray mass estimate based on Chandr and XMM-Newton observations, at least out to R_500=0.5Mpc.Comment: 38 pages, ApJ in press. Full resolution images available at http://www.eso.org/~prosati/RDCS1252/Lombardi_etal_accepted.pd