Measurements of the CKM angle gamma in tree-dominated decays at LHCb

We review the first measurements of the CKM angle gamma from LHCb. These measurements have been performed with b-hadron decays dominated by b -> u and b -> c tree-level amplitudes, from which gamma can be determined without theoretical uncertainties. Precision is achieved by averaging results from B- -> Dh- (h= K,pi) decays with D -> h+h-, D -> K+pi-, and D -> K+pi-pi+pi-, and D -> K_S^0h+h-. Prospects for these and future measurements of gamma using neutral b-hadron decays are briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures. Proceedings of the HCP-2012 conferenc

Studies of b-hadron decays to charming final states at LHCb

We present studies from the LHCb experiment of decays of the type H_b to H_c X, where H_b represents a beauty hadron (B+, B0 or Lambda_b) and H_c a charmed hadron (D0, D(*)+, Ds or Lambda_c). Such decays are important for the determination of the CKM angle gamma, a key goal of the LHCb physics programme. We exploit the data accumulated in 2010, and in the early months of the 2011 run. We report on the observation of new decay modes, and first measurements on the road to a precise determination of gamma.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the DPF-2011 Conference, Providence, RI, August 201

Italian contribution to University Autonomy in Kazakhstan: the Erasmus+ project “Transition to University Autonomy in Kazakhstan” (TRUNAK)

University autonomy is the capacity of universities to be self-governin

Moving towards compulsory vaccination: The Italian experience

Vaccine hesitancy is a phenomenon that has increased widely in the last few years, in the Europe and in the USA, giving its consequences on vaccine coverage rates. The decrease in those rates caused an enormous spread of preventable infections that were quite rare in the past years, or, at least, presented mild consequences. Since immunization is an issue of coverage rates, the European Council prompted the National Health Authorities to face the challenge of reaching the target of 95% of the population, set by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), through the implementation of effective vaccination policies. In Italy, coverage rates have been decreasing in the last few years. In 2016, the following coverage rates at 24 months for birth cohort 2014 have been reported by Italian..

La Mafia da Sciascia a Calaciura: Dalla narrazione impossibile all’eruzione delle metafore narrative

Questa riflessione è uno studio della rappresentazione del fenomeno mafioso compiuto in riferimento alla violenza collettiva ma anche e soprattutto nella prospettiva di un’evoluzione narratologica quale emerge dal confronto tra Il giorno della civetta di Leonardo Sciascia e Malacarne di Giosuè Calaciura, opera sulla quale ci soffermiamo più a lungo per almeno due motivi essenziali. In primo luogo perché è più recente, dunque sintomatica delle nuove tendenze del romanzo italiano, in secondo lu..

Desiderio di realtà o realtà del desiderio?

Mercoledì 13 dicembre 2006: la RTBF, televisione pubblica belga di lingua francese, interrompe i programmi dalle 20:30 alle 21 per un collegamento in diretta dal Palazzo Reale, dove un noto giornalista annuncia che i fiamminghi hanno proclamato la loro indipendenza, il re Alberto II ha lasciato il paese e il Belgio non esiste più. Questo riuscitissimo esercizio di politique-fiction, come sarà definito dal responsabile della trasmissione, ha sconvolto per mezz’ora la placida vita dei belgi. Un..

Guided resonances in photonic quasicrystals

In this paper, we report on the first evidence of guided resonances (GRs) in aperiodically-ordered photonic crystals, tied to the concept of "quasicrystals" in solid-state physics. Via a full-wave numerical study of the transmittance response and the modal structure of a photonic quasicrystal (PQC) slab based on a representative aperiodic geometry (Ammann-Beenker octagonal tiling), we demonstrate the possibility of exciting GR modes, and highlight similarities and differences with the periodic case. In particular, we show that, as for the periodic case, GRs arise from the coupling of the incident plane-wave with degenerate modes of the PQC slab that exhibit a matching symmetry in the spatial distribution, and can still be parameterized via a Fano-like model. Besides the phenomenological implications, our results may provide new degrees of freedom in the engineering of GRs, and pave the way for new developments and applications.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Three figures added; Sec. 3.3 significantly expande