126 research outputs found
Tra storia e mito. Politiche e usi politici di Abraham Lincoln
Barack Obama's election brought to the forefront one of the key figures of the nineteenth century, Abraham Lincoln, considered to be a founder of the nation by the new American President. Like Lincoln, Obama put the accent on unity and national goodwill. Like Lincoln, Obama nourished the roots that connected to the common man. The deep desire for change in American politics that Obama espouses also occurred during Lincoln's presidency.This essay dwells on Lincoln's words that are impressive in many respects, especially in the way they are able to communicate the passion of political involvement, as well as are impressive the images which represent the Great Emancipator in the different period of American history. Words and images reinterpreted Lincoln's myth in a contemporary mood, showing the how Lincoln became a continuously changing icon, down to the current presidency of Barack Obama
Democrazia, schiavitù e razzismo negli Stati Uniti. Da Frederick Douglass a Black Lives Matter.
In his speech at the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C:, September 24, 2016, former President Barack Obama delivered a view of a history of African Americans in the United States. He spoke about a world of «real patriotism» rising from slavery, passing through segregation and racism, and ending successfully with his election. This happened because African Americans embraced «a lifetime of struggle and progress and enlightenment that we etched in Frederick Douglass’s mighty leonine gaze». This article started with Frederick Douglass, who put together the struggle with patriotism, reflecting on his life and writings in nineteenth century, but also in his legacies in the movement of today, such as Black Lives Matter, constantly probing American’s contradictions over race.In his speech at the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C:, September 24, 2016, former President Barack Obama delivered a view of a history of African Americans in the United States. He spoke about a world of «real patriotism» rising from slavery, passing through segregation and racism, and ending successfully with his election. This happened because African Americans embraced «a lifetime of struggle and progress and enlightenment that we etched in Frederick Douglass’s mighty leonine gaze». This article started with Frederick Douglass, who put together the struggle with patriotism, reflecting on his life and writings in nineteenth century, but also in his legacies in the movement of today, such as Black Lives Matter, constantly probing American’s contradictions over race
Search for spontaneous muon emission from lead nuclei
We describe a possible search for muonic radioactivity from lead nuclei using
the base elements ("bricks" composed by lead and nuclear emulsion sheets) of
the long-baseline OPERA neutrino experiment. We present the results of a Monte
Carlo simulation concerning the expected event topologies and estimates of the
background events. Using few bricks, we could reach a good sensitivity level.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Electron/pion separation with an Emulsion Cloud Chamber by using a Neural Network
We have studied the performance of a new algorithm for electron/pion
separation in an Emulsion Cloud Chamber (ECC) made of lead and nuclear emulsion
films. The software for separation consists of two parts: a shower
reconstruction algorithm and a Neural Network that assigns to each
reconstructed shower the probability to be an electron or a pion. The
performance has been studied for the ECC of the OPERA experiment [1].
The separation algorithm has been optimized by using a detailed Monte
Carlo simulation of the ECC and tested on real data taken at CERN (pion beams)
and at DESY (electron beams). The algorithm allows to achieve a 90% electron
identification efficiency with a pion misidentification smaller than 1% for
energies higher than 2 GeV
Procedure for short-lived particle detection in the OPERA experiment and its application to charm decays
The OPERA experiment, designed to perform the first observation of oscillations in appearance mode through the detection of
the leptons produced in charged current interactions, has
collected data from 2008 to 2012. In the present paper, the procedure developed
to detect particle decays, occurring over distances of the order of 1 mm
from the neutrino interaction point, is described in detail. The results of its
application to the search for charmed hadrons are then presented as a
validation of the methods for appearance detection
Determination of the muon charge sign with the dipolar spectrometers of the OPERA experiment
The OPERA long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment has observed the
direct appearance of in the CNGS beam. Two large muon
magnetic spectrometers are used to identify muons produced in the
leptonic decay and in interactions by measuring their charge and
momentum. Besides the kinematic analysis of the decays, background
resulting from the decay of charmed particles produced in
interactions is reduced by efficiently identifying the muon track. A new method
for the charge sign determination has been applied, via a weighted angular
matching of the straight track-segments reconstructed in the different parts of
the dipole magnets. Results obtained for Monte Carlo and real data are
presented. Comparison with a method where no matching is used shows a
significant reduction of up to 40\% of the fraction of wrongly determined
charges.Comment: 10 pages. Improvements in the tex
Limits on muon-neutrino to tau-neutrino oscillations induced by a sterile neutrino state obtained by OPERA at the CNGS beam
The OPERA experiment, exposed to the CERN to Gran Sasso beam,
collected data from 2008 to 2012. Four oscillated Charged Current
interaction candidates have been detected in appearance mode, which are
consistent with oscillations at the atmospheric within the "standard" three-neutrino framework. In this paper, the OPERA
appearance results are used to derive limits on the mixing
parameters of a massive sterile neutrino.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; reference to Planck result updated in the
Introduction. Submitted to JHE
Observation of nu_tau appearance in the CNGS beam with the OPERA experiment
The OPERA experiment is searching for nu_mu -> nu_tau oscillations in
appearance mode i.e. via the direct detection of tau leptons in nu_tau charged
current interactions. The evidence of nu_mu -> nu_tau appearance has been
previously reported with three nu_tau candidate events using a sub-sample of
data from the 2008-2012 runs. We report here a fourth nu_tau candidate event,
with the tau decaying into a hadron, found after adding the 2012 run events
without any muon in the final state to the data sample. Given the number of
analysed events and the low background, nu_mu -> nu_tau oscillations are
established with a significance of 4.2sigma.Comment: Submitted to Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (PTEP
Evidence for appearance in the CNGS neutrino beam with the OPERA experiment
The OPERA experiment is designed to search for oscillations in appearance mode i.e. through the direct observation
of the lepton in charged current interactions. The
experiment has taken data for five years, since 2008, with the CERN Neutrino to
Gran Sasso beam. Previously, two candidates with a decaying
into hadrons were observed in a sub-sample of data of the 2008-2011 runs. Here
we report the observation of a third candidate in the
decay channel coming from the analysis of a sub-sample of the
2012 run. Taking into account the estimated background, the absence of
oscillations is excluded at the 3.4
level.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table
Emulsion sheet doublets as interface trackers for the OPERA experiment
New methods for efficient and unambiguous interconnection between electronic
counters and target units based on nuclear photographic emulsion films have
been developed. The application to the OPERA experiment, that aims at detecting
oscillations between mu neutrino and tau neutrino in the CNGS neutrino beam, is
reported in this paper. In order to reduce background due to latent tracks
collected before installation in the detector, on-site large-scale treatments
of the emulsions ("refreshing") have been applied. Changeable Sheet (CSd)
packages, each made of a doublet of emulsion films, have been designed,
assembled and coupled to the OPERA target units ("ECC bricks"). A device has
been built to print X-ray spots for accurate interconnection both within the
CSd and between the CSd and the related ECC brick. Sample emulsion films have
been extensively scanned with state-of-the-art automated optical microscopes.
Efficient track-matching and powerful background rejection have been achieved
in tests with electronically tagged penetrating muons. Further improvement of
in-doublet film alignment was obtained by matching the pattern of low-energy
electron tracks. The commissioning of the overall OPERA alignment procedure is
in progress.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figure
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