Prospects for the detection of the chargino-neutralino direct production with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), currently under installation at CERN, is designed to provide high-energy proton collisions at the TeV energy scale, with a large instantaneous luminosity. This will allow to explore an energy region never reached by the previous accelerators and to search for new physics, also beyond the Standard Model (SM), as expected by a wide range of models. ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) is one of the four experiments which will be installed at the LHC. It is a general-purpose experiment which address the investigation of the full discovery potential provided by the LHC. Chapter 1 is dedicated to the description of the accelerator, the ATLAS experiment and its discovery capabilities. ATLAS is a large and complex experiment, accounting roughly $10^8$ electronic channels. Its trigger and data acquisition systems will be able to select and save few interesting events in between millions. Hence, to bring ATLAS to its maximum performances, a complete and effective monitoring system, able to facilitate the reaching of the correct running conditions and the assessing of the data quality, will be needed. The development of such monitoring tools started during the past beam tests and, at present, it continues supporting the detector commissioning and installation phase. In chapter 2, the development of a lightweight low-level monitoring framework, devoted to the hardware-functionality monitoring, is discussed. Presently the SM is not considered as an ultimate theory, and therefore new models are studied in order to find answers to open questions. Among these theories, the supersymmetries provide a framework that can possibly solve some theoretical problems, such as the hierarchy problem. Up to now, no experimental evidences of supersymmetries were found, however, if they exist, the LHC experiments could possibly find their signatures. An introduction to supersymmetrical theories, particularly focused on gaugino physics, is the object of chapter 3. Among the several signatures predicted by the supersymmetric models, the decay of $\tilde\chi_0^2\tilde\chi_1^\pm$ gaugino pairs into three leptons and missing transverse energy is particularly interesting. Indeed this channel has a low SM backgrounds, especially from QCD, and can provide information on the model parameters. Hence, we developed, through fast simulation data, a search strategy for the trilepton channel, within the ATLAS detector, for a large number of models. The results of this analysis are reported in chapter 4. Most of the LHC discovery potential is driven by its large target luminosity of $10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. However, to reach this target, fine optimizations of beam optics and tuning are necessary. Moreover, experiments may need to know the bunch-by-bunch luminosity, in order to correct physics results for pile-up events. Hence, a luminometer, able to high-precision bunch-by-bunch relative luminosity measurements, will be an effective tool both for the accelerator and the experiments. In chapter 5, the development of a LHC luminometer, based on a fast radiation-hard argon ionization chamber, performed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is discussed

El Consejo de Estado y la literatura

El estudio pretende acoger un aspecto particular y generalmente descuidado de la historia de las instituciones, subrayando como ésta a menudo se entrecruza, de manera relevante, con aquélla de la literatura. Como sucedió, en particular, en el Consejo de Estado: sobre todo, en Francia, donde del Consejo instituido por Napoleón han formado parte escritores y literarios de gran importancia, de Stendhal a Benjamin Constant, de León Blum a Régis Debray, hasta Jacques Attali. El fenómeno, además, se ha extendido a diversos países, en los que el modelo ha sido reanudado de modo diverso, a partir de Italia. Por otra parte, el órgano y la figura del consejero de Estado han constituido fuentes de inspiración para novelas y relatos: ya sea en alguna ocasión para lecturas irónicas o caricaturescas desde una posición de particular prestigio, como evidencia particularmente la literatura rusa, de Gogol a Dostoevskij (pero también si se piensa, en otro contexto, en el torpe consejero de Estado de la Bohéme); ya sea como en Flaubert o Pirandello, para representar las frustraciones de quien aspira a objetivos más grandes, como puede ser el de superar el arduo concurso para ingresar en el Consejo de Estado. En definitiva, desde varios perfiles, la historia de este órgano demuestra un rol significativo en un ámbito cultural que no puede ser circunscrito a la sola ciencia jurídica. La aportación del Consejo —y de los consejeros— de Estado se proyecta, así, también sobre el ámbito literario: donde la actitud de análisis, la capacidad de componer dinámicas contradictorias, la competencia de interpretar el sentido de las palabras encuentran desarrollos particularmente fecundos.The study sets the focus on an important but generally neglected aspect of the institution's history, which often crosses the history of literature. In French a lot of important writers and men of letters joined the Conseil, which was constituted by Napoleon: from Stendhal to Benjamin Constant, from Léon Blum to Régis Debray and son on to Jacques Attali. So it happened in many countries, inspired by the French model, and also in Italy. On the other side, the organ ant the role of a State Councilor inspired lots of novels and short stories: sometimes as occasion for ironical portrays and parodies of this prestigious position, son particularly in the Russian literature, from Gogol to Dostoevskij (but do not forget the clumsy State Councilor in the Bohéme); sometímes, as for example in Flaubert or Pirandello, to represent the frustration of small men in front of too big purposes, as the arduous competition to became a Councilor. At the end of the day the history of this organ shows the significant cultural role of it, which cannot be restricted to juridical science. The contribution by the Council of State —and by the Councilors— includes also a literary aspect: the analysis attitude, the capacity to compose contradictory dynamics, the competence to interpret the word's sense, all these skills find a particularly fruitful development therein

Quantum embedding methods in dual space for strongly interacting electronic systems

Derzeit besteht eine große methodische Lücke zwischen den numerischen Instrumenten, die in den ab-initio rechnergestützten Materialwissenschaften verwendet werden, und den Methoden, welche eingesetzt werden, um die Auswirkungen starker Korrelationen zu untersuchen.Erstere sind in der Lage, realistische große Systeme zu behandeln, während letztere sich auf Modelle mit geringerer Anzahl an Freiheitsgraden konzentrieren, die sehr akkurat gelöst werden können.Das Ziel vorliegender Arbeit besteht darin, Instrumente zu entwickeln, die eine Brücke zwischen diesen beiden Ansätzen bilden. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wurde der Pfad der dualen Theorien starker Korrelationen (Theorie dualer Fermionen und Bosonen) gewählt, welche diagrammatische Erweiterungen der dynamischen Molekularfeldtheorie sind. Die dualen Theorien beruhen auf der Aufteilung eines großen Systems in zwei Teile, d.h. in eine lokale Störstelle und einen nichtlokalen Teil. Dadurch wird das Anfangsproblem auf ein effektives Referenzproblem reduziert, welches exakt gelöst werden kann. In dieser Hinsicht gehören die dualen Theorien zur Klasse der quantenmechanischen Einbettungsmethoden.Das erste wichtige Resultat vorliegender Arbeit ist die Erweiterung einer Approximation der Theorie dualer Bosonen, die als D-TRILEX-Theorie bezeichnet wird. Die D-TRILEX-Theorie ist aus numerischer Sicht besonders attraktiv, da sie die Komplexität der Berechnung nichtlokaler, starker Korrelationen auf die Komplexität einer GW-Theorie reduziert und gleichzeitig exakte lokale Vertexkorrekturen nicht-störungstheoretisch berücksichtigt. Ein weiterer Großteil vorliegender Arbeit wurde der Implementierung eines effizienten Codes gewidmet, welcher die Berechnung von Multi-Band-Systeme mit mehreren Orbitalen mittels der D-TRILEX-Theorie ermöglicht. Obwohl physikalische Argumente zugunsten der D-TRILEX-Näherung vorgebracht werden können, ist ihr Gültigkeitsbereich nicht a-priori bekannt. Folglich wird ein Benchmark benötigt, um die Genauigkeit und die Grenzen des Anwendungsbereiches bewerten zu können.Des Weiteren stellt ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der vorliegenden Dissertation die Implementierung eines diagrammatischen Monte-Carlo-Schemas für die Theorie dualer Bosonen (DiagMC@DB) dar, die es erlaubt, alle Feynman-Diagramme der Theorie zusammenzufassen. In einer detaillierten Diskussion betrachten wir, wie die Analyse dieser Methode Ordnung-für-Ordnung es ermöglicht, Informationen über Phasenübergänge zu extrahieren. Insbesondere fassen wir die Instabilität der Ladungsdichtewellen des erweiterten Hubbard-Modells ins Auge. Später wurde DiagMC@DB verwendet, um die Genauigkeit der D-TRILEX Methode für das Hubbard-Modell mit einem Orbital (dotiert und bei halber Füllung), sowie für das erweiterte Hubbard-Modell mit nichtlokalen Wechselwirkungen zu untersuchen. Dabei wurden Bereiche ermittelt, in denen die D-TRILEX-Theorie die Ergebnisse der Theorie dualer Bosonen in guter Genauigkeit reproduziert.Ein weiterer wichtiger Teil dieser Arbeit besteht darin, die Gültigkeit dieser Näherung an einem System mit mehreren Orbitalen zu untersuchen. Der Grund dafür ist, dass leider nur wenige exakte Lösungen für solche Systeme bestehen. Deswegen haben wir die D-TRILEX-Methode mit der exakten Diagonalisierung für ein System mit mehreren Orbitalen bestehend aus einem Dimer verglichen. Dabei haben wir sehr genaue Übereinstimmungen in den Ergebnissen festgestellt, obwohl für solch einniederdimensionales System erwartet wird, dass DMFT kein gutes Referenzsystem ist. Außerdem haben wir sie mit der dynamischen Vertex-Approximation DΓA) für ein Modell mit zwei Orbitalen auf einem Gitter verglichen.Im letzten Teil diskutieren wir zwei Anwendungen der D-TRILEX-Methode. Die erste Anwendung besteht darin, Bleiadatomen auf einer Siliziumoberfläche zu untersuchen, wobei langreichweitige Wechselwirkungen und Fluktuationen entscheidend für die Beschreibung der Eigenschaften des Systems sind. Als zweite Anwendung untersuchen wir eine hoch interessante Situation, in der die Einbeziehung von nichtlokalen Fluktuationen das Bild einer rein lokalen Beschreibung der Korrelationen erheblich verändert und zu einer ausgedehnten Region mit koexistierenden metastabilen metallischen und isolierenden Phasen führt.There is currently a large methodological gap between the numerical tools used in ab-initio computational materials science and the methods used to investigate the effects of strong correlations.The former can treat realistic large-scale systems, while the latter focus on models with few degrees of freedom that can be solved very accurately.The purpose of this thesis is to develop tools that act as a bridge between these two approaches.The route chosen in this thesis is the dual theories of strong correlations (dual fermion and dual boson theories), that are diagrammatic extensions of the dynamical mean field theory.The dual theories rely on dividing a large system into two parts, an impurity and a non-local part, reducing the initial problem into an effective reference problem that can be solved exactly. From this perspective, the dual theories effectively belong to the class of quantum embedding methods.As first major result of this thesis, we extend an approximation of the dual boson theory, named D-TRILEX theory, to the multi-band framework. D-TRILEX is particularly attractive from a computational point of view, because it reduces the complexity of the calculation of non-local strong correlations to that of a GW calculation, while including exact local vertex corrections non-perturbatively. The development of this theory allowed us to implement an efficient code for multi-orbital and multi-site D-TRILEX calculations. Even though physical arguments can be made in favor of the D-TRILEX approximation, its regime of validity is not \emph{a-priori} known. As a consequence, a benchmark is needed to assess its accuracy and limitations.To this aim, an important portion of this work consisted in the implementation of a diagrammatic Monte Carlo scheme for the dual boson theory (DiagMC@DB), that allows to sum up all the Feynman diagrams of the theory in an unbiased way.We show that the order-by-order analysis of this method allows to extract information about phase transitions, in particular a charge density wave instability in the extended Hubbard model.We use the DiagMC@DB at later stages to assess the accuracy of the D-TRILEX method for the single-orbital Hubbard model at half-filling and in the doped regime, as well as for the extended Hubbard model with non-local interactions. Based on this analysis, we identify the regimes where it accurately reproduces the dual boson results.Moreover, we investigate the validity of the approximations in a multi-orbital framework, where exact results are rare. Specifically, we compare the D-TRILEX method with exact diagonalization for a multi-orbital dimer system, finding very accurate results even for this low-dimensional system, where the impurity problem is not a good reference system. we also present an additional comparison with the dynamical vertex approximation (DΓA) for a two-orbital model on a lattice.In the last part, we discuss two applications of the D-TRILEX method. The first consists in the study of lead adatoms (Pb) on a silicon surface, where long-range interactions and fluctuations are crucial to describe the properties of the system.As a second application, we investigate an intriguing situation where the inclusion of non-local fluctuations significantly changes the picture provided by a purely local description of the correlations and leads to an extended region of coexisting metastable metallic and insulating phases

Quantum embedding methods in dual space for strongly interacting electronic systems

Derzeit besteht eine große methodische Lücke zwischen den numerischen Instrumenten, die in den ab-initio rechnergestützten Materialwissenschaften verwendet werden, und den Methoden, welche eingesetzt werden, um die Auswirkungen starker Korrelationen zu untersuchen.Erstere sind in der Lage, realistische große Systeme zu behandeln, während letztere sich auf Modelle mit geringerer Anzahl an Freiheitsgraden konzentrieren, die sehr akkurat gelöst werden können.Das Ziel vorliegender Arbeit besteht darin, Instrumente zu entwickeln, die eine Brücke zwischen diesen beiden Ansätzen bilden. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wurde der Pfad der dualen Theorien starker Korrelationen (Theorie dualer Fermionen und Bosonen) gewählt, welche diagrammatische Erweiterungen der dynamischen Molekularfeldtheorie sind. Die dualen Theorien beruhen auf der Aufteilung eines großen Systems in zwei Teile, d.h. in eine lokale Störstelle und einen nichtlokalen Teil. Dadurch wird das Anfangsproblem auf ein effektives Referenzproblem reduziert, welches exakt gelöst werden kann. In dieser Hinsicht gehören die dualen Theorien zur Klasse der quantenmechanischen Einbettungsmethoden.Das erste wichtige Resultat vorliegender Arbeit ist die Erweiterung einer Approximation der Theorie dualer Bosonen, die als D-TRILEX-Theorie bezeichnet wird. Die D-TRILEX-Theorie ist aus numerischer Sicht besonders attraktiv, da sie die Komplexität der Berechnung nichtlokaler, starker Korrelationen auf die Komplexität einer GW-Theorie reduziert und gleichzeitig exakte lokale Vertexkorrekturen nicht-störungstheoretisch berücksichtigt. Ein weiterer Großteil vorliegender Arbeit wurde der Implementierung eines effizienten Codes gewidmet, welcher die Berechnung von Multi-Band-Systeme mit mehreren Orbitalen mittels der D-TRILEX-Theorie ermöglicht. Obwohl physikalische Argumente zugunsten der D-TRILEX-Näherung vorgebracht werden können, ist ihr Gültigkeitsbereich nicht a-priori bekannt. Folglich wird ein Benchmark benötigt, um die Genauigkeit und die Grenzen des Anwendungsbereiches bewerten zu können.Des Weiteren stellt ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der vorliegenden Dissertation die Implementierung eines diagrammatischen Monte-Carlo-Schemas für die Theorie dualer Bosonen (DiagMC@DB) dar, die es erlaubt, alle Feynman-Diagramme der Theorie zusammenzufassen. In einer detaillierten Diskussion betrachten wir, wie die Analyse dieser Methode Ordnung-für-Ordnung es ermöglicht, Informationen über Phasenübergänge zu extrahieren. Insbesondere fassen wir die Instabilität der Ladungsdichtewellen des erweiterten Hubbard-Modells ins Auge. Später wurde DiagMC@DB verwendet, um die Genauigkeit der D-TRILEX Methode für das Hubbard-Modell mit einem Orbital (dotiert und bei halber Füllung), sowie für das erweiterte Hubbard-Modell mit nichtlokalen Wechselwirkungen zu untersuchen. Dabei wurden Bereiche ermittelt, in denen die D-TRILEX-Theorie die Ergebnisse der Theorie dualer Bosonen in guter Genauigkeit reproduziert.Ein weiterer wichtiger Teil dieser Arbeit besteht darin, die Gültigkeit dieser Näherung an einem System mit mehreren Orbitalen zu untersuchen. Der Grund dafür ist, dass leider nur wenige exakte Lösungen für solche Systeme bestehen. Deswegen haben wir die D-TRILEX-Methode mit der exakten Diagonalisierung für ein System mit mehreren Orbitalen bestehend aus einem Dimer verglichen. Dabei haben wir sehr genaue Übereinstimmungen in den Ergebnissen festgestellt, obwohl für solch einniederdimensionales System erwartet wird, dass DMFT kein gutes Referenzsystem ist. Außerdem haben wir sie mit der dynamischen Vertex-Approximation DΓA) für ein Modell mit zwei Orbitalen auf einem Gitter verglichen.Im letzten Teil diskutieren wir zwei Anwendungen der D-TRILEX-Methode. Die erste Anwendung besteht darin, Bleiadatomen auf einer Siliziumoberfläche zu untersuchen, wobei langreichweitige Wechselwirkungen und Fluktuationen entscheidend für die Beschreibung der Eigenschaften des Systems sind. Als zweite Anwendung untersuchen wir eine hoch interessante Situation, in der die Einbeziehung von nichtlokalen Fluktuationen das Bild einer rein lokalen Beschreibung der Korrelationen erheblich verändert und zu einer ausgedehnten Region mit koexistierenden metastabilen metallischen und isolierenden Phasen führt.There is currently a large methodological gap between the numerical tools used in ab-initio computational materials science and the methods used to investigate the effects of strong correlations.The former can treat realistic large-scale systems, while the latter focus on models with few degrees of freedom that can be solved very accurately.The purpose of this thesis is to develop tools that act as a bridge between these two approaches.The route chosen in this thesis is the dual theories of strong correlations (dual fermion and dual boson theories), that are diagrammatic extensions of the dynamical mean field theory.The dual theories rely on dividing a large system into two parts, an impurity and a non-local part, reducing the initial problem into an effective reference problem that can be solved exactly. From this perspective, the dual theories effectively belong to the class of quantum embedding methods.As first major result of this thesis, we extend an approximation of the dual boson theory, named D-TRILEX theory, to the multi-band framework. D-TRILEX is particularly attractive from a computational point of view, because it reduces the complexity of the calculation of non-local strong correlations to that of a GW calculation, while including exact local vertex corrections non-perturbatively. The development of this theory allowed us to implement an efficient code for multi-orbital and multi-site D-TRILEX calculations. Even though physical arguments can be made in favor of the D-TRILEX approximation, its regime of validity is not \emph{a-priori} known. As a consequence, a benchmark is needed to assess its accuracy and limitations.To this aim, an important portion of this work consisted in the implementation of a diagrammatic Monte Carlo scheme for the dual boson theory (DiagMC@DB), that allows to sum up all the Feynman diagrams of the theory in an unbiased way.We show that the order-by-order analysis of this method allows to extract information about phase transitions, in particular a charge density wave instability in the extended Hubbard model.We use the DiagMC@DB at later stages to assess the accuracy of the D-TRILEX method for the single-orbital Hubbard model at half-filling and in the doped regime, as well as for the extended Hubbard model with non-local interactions. Based on this analysis, we identify the regimes where it accurately reproduces the dual boson results.Moreover, we investigate the validity of the approximations in a multi-orbital framework, where exact results are rare. Specifically, we compare the D-TRILEX method with exact diagonalization for a multi-orbital dimer system, finding very accurate results even for this low-dimensional system, where the impurity problem is not a good reference system. we also present an additional comparison with the dynamical vertex approximation (DΓA) for a two-orbital model on a lattice.In the last part, we discuss two applications of the D-TRILEX method. The first consists in the study of lead adatoms (Pb) on a silicon surface, where long-range interactions and fluctuations are crucial to describe the properties of the system.As a second application, we investigate an intriguing situation where the inclusion of non-local fluctuations significantly changes the picture provided by a purely local description of the correlations and leads to an extended region of coexisting metastable metallic and insulating phases

Friction and wear of the Durham finger prosthesis

Rheumatoid arthritis of the hand can cause deformities that may severally impair hand function. Surgical procedures including total joint replacement have been developed over the last thirty years to treat patients with metacarpophalangeal deformity. The Centre of Biomedical Engineering at Durham University contributed to this field of research by designing a new artificial metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint intended to operate in the same manner as the natural joint. The Durham MCP prosthesis is a non constrained two piece all XLPE device which allows flexion-extension, adduction-abduction and little rotation movements, hi order to test the wear behaviour of the Durham MCP prosthesis before implanting it, a new finger wear simulator was also designed at Durham University and the prosthesis gave acceptable results from a wear point of view, hi 1997 clinical trials started and to date five people have been implanted with the Durham MCP prosthesis. In order to investigate the in vitro wear behaviour of the Durham MCP prosthesis further, nine wear tests were undertaken during this research using the finger wear simulator. For the first time EtO-sterilized XLPE prostheses were tested and their performances in bovine serum were very promising. This might indicate that ethylene oxide gas is a valid alternative to gamma irradiation for sterilizing the Durham MCP prosthesis as it doesn't seem to influence its wear properties. Wear debris was also analyzed showing that the majority of the particles detected were less than lμm in size. In order to investigate the frictional properties of the Durham MCP prosthesis, a new finger friction simulator has been designed, manufactured and validated during this research. Various tests were undertaken using different pairs of materials in order to compare the results with literature and validate the simulator. The new finger friction simulator appears to give consistent results and might then be used to record the variations of the coefficient of friction in the all XLPE Durham MCP prosthesis during the wear tests

Geomorphological evolution of coastal landslides in Malta: integration of terrestrial and marine datasets

The paper shows the main results of multidisciplinary research carried out in the Island of Malta aiming at the integration of terrestrial and marine datasets. Identification, mapping, monitoring and dating of landslides, including submerged ones, have enabled to define a time frame for the development of landslides and to reconstruct the geomorphological evolution of the investigated areas. This has provided useful means for landslide susceptibility and hazard mapping, which is crucial for north-west coast of Malta

Tutela e valorizzazione di una risorsa per il territorio: la valle del Rio della Rocca (Appennino reggiano)

Le attività estrattive condotte a partire dagli anni ‘50 del XX secolo hanno profondamente modificato la porzione orientale e mediana del bacino del Rio della Rocca nel Comune di Castellarano (Appennino reggiano). Considerato l’elevato pregio degli elementi naturali dell’area e per contro il degrado ambientale – essenzialmente legato alla presenza di cave abbandonate – in cui essa versa, è emersa da tempo la necessità di una riqualificazione territoriale basata su una fruizione a fini turistico-ricreativi della valle, che tenga in debita considerazione i diversi aspetti naturalistici che la caratterizzano, compresi quelli di interesse geologico. Per definire opportune strategie e azioni di riqualificazione, si è resa necessaria un’analisi delle restrizioni e delle opportunità che il territorio presenta. A tale scopo è stata effettuata una dettagliata ricognizione della normativa vigente con particolare riguardo per le disposizioni previste dagli strumenti di gestione per i siti inclusi nella Rete Natura 2000, di cui la valle del Rio della Rocca fa parte come Sito di Importanza Comunitaria. Tra le risorse territoriali che l’area offre è emerso come la spettacolarità e l’esemplarità degli elementi del patrimonio geologico della valle rappresentino un’opportunità per operare una valorizzazione in chiave geoturistica. A tal proposito, sono stati individuati i siti di interesse geologico che meglio si prestano agli obiettivi di valorizzazione, al fine di indirizzare i primi interventi di riqualificazione e conservazione.Conservation and improvement of a natural territorial resource: the valley of Rio della Rocca (Italy). The quarrying activities carried out since the 1950s have deeply modified the lower-middle sector of the Rio della Rocca valley in the municipality of Castellarano (Reggio Emilia Apennines, Italy). The great value of the natural elements is, however, accompanied by environmental degradation, mainly due to abandoned quarries. Interventions aimed at territorial upgrading for the purpose of recreation and tourism had to be devised, taking into account the different naturalistic aspects of the area including its geological features. In order to define suitable strategies and actions, an analysis of territorial restrictions and opportunities was necessary. For this purpose, a detailed review of current legislation was carried out, with particular regard to the provisions stated by the management tools of “Natura 2000 Network”, in which the Rio della Rocca catchment is included as a Site of Community Importance. Among the territorial resources of the area, the scenic value and the exemplarity of its geological heritage are an opportunity to carry out territorial upgrading by assigning the valley to qualified geotourism activities. The sites of most considerable geological interest have therefore been selected, in order to establish preliminary requalification and conservation measures

Increasing Geoheritage Awareness through Non-Formal Learning

Non-formal learning can have a crucial role in increasing citizens’ literacy to geoscience providing the opportunity to raise the public profile of geology and geomorphology. Starting from these remarks, the project presented here is one of the first attempts, at national level, aimed at achieving the territorial upgrading based on geoheritage enhancement. The project started thanks to a bottom-up input and involved the collaboration between scholars and local administrations and stakeholders for the valorization of a fluvial area within the Municipality of Castellarano (Emilia Apennines, Northern Italy). To achieve this aim of non-formal learning activities, based on the interpretation of the geoheritage, have been implemented. In fact, the investigated area includes valuable geological and geomorphological features which have been used, in the frame of the project here presented, to promote local geodiversity and geotourism. In particular, three geosites of regional significance were considered for the creation of EarthCaches, interpretative panels and guided excursions. Interpretative contents were designed to be educational, providing accurate but non-technical explanations. Attention was given in including illustrations playing an important role in the learning process. The results revealed that the implemented activities positively contribute to raising public awareness on the value of geoheritage