University Mohammed V- Rabat, Faculty of Sciences, Physics Department, Marocco

In doped ZnO (IZO), In-Al codoped ZnO (IAZO) and In-F codoped ZnO (IFZO) were deposited on glass substrates at 350 °C by spray pyrolysis technique. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of deposited thin films were investigated and compared. A polycrystalline and (002) oriented wurtzite crystal structure was confirmed by X-ray patterns for all films; and grains size were varied between 34-28.1 nm. Surface morphologies analyzed by scanning electron microscopy were varied depending on codoping elements. The investigation of the optical properties was performed using Uv-vis spectroscopy. The average transmittances of all the films were between 70 and 85%. Hall Effect measurements showed that the electrical resistivity of codoped films decreased as compared with IZO thin film. The lowest resistivity of about 6.1 10-2 Ω.cm was obtained for IFZO thin film.

Industrial University of Santander, Colombia

Hg_{1-x}Cd_{x}Se are II-VI semiconductors alloys with optoelectronic properties that depend upon the molar fraction x, these properties can be further controlled by nanostructuring. In this work is analyzed one electron confined in a zero-dimensional lens-shaped nanostructure of Hg_{1-x}Cd_{x}Se surrounded by a matrix of CdSe and his electronic properties are studied under the influence of magnetic and electric external fields. Our system was modeled by means of the 3D Schödinger equation in the framework of the effective mass approximation, which was solved using a finite element method. A meshed-refined discontinuous space with Daniel-Duke boundary conditions and the Flexible Generalized Minimal Residual method (FGMRES) was used as the solver. We calculated the energy spectrum and the probability density of the electron for some of the corresponding states to low-lying energy levels as function of: radius of the dot, electric field strength on plane and magnetic field strength applied along the growth direction. Also, the effect of the variation of the angle of incidence of the magnetic field was studied considering a fixed field strength. Our results shown, firstly, the electronic properties of Hg_{1-x}Cd_{x}Se quantum dots (QD) are highly sensitive to a threading magnetic field because the degenerate energy levels are split; secondly, electric field increases the energy levels. Finally, we found that the effect of simultaneously applying these fields over a QD can increase the system stability against external perturbation, e.g. thermal interactions.

University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy

We report the observation of anomalous waves as light propagates in the highly nonlinear regime that occurs when a photorefractive crystal is undergoing the ferroelectric phase-transition. The transmitted spatial light distribution contains bright-localized spots of extreme intensity that follow a signature long-tail statistics that disappears as the nonlinearity is weakened. The rogue events form as out-of-equilibrium response and disorder affect the Kerr-saturated nonlinearity at the critical point. Self-similarity of the individual filaments and numerical simulations suggest that cascading dynamics of soliton mergers and scale-invariance can microscopically play a key role in the observed rogue intensities and statistics.

Università "La Sapienza", Italy

Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) has been widely recognized as a potential characterization tool, as it exploits the same chemical selectivity of Raman technique along with the advantages of a coherent spectroscopy. Therefore, in imaging mode it provides fast scanning, high contrast and a better spatial resolution respect to the spontaneous approach. We perform the first coherent Raman spectromicroscopy of multilayer and monolayer graphene, demonstrating high vibrational sensitivity. By means of a time-delayed scheme, we are able to lead an efficient suppression of the non-resonant background, which represents the main drawback of this technique, as it distorts the lineshape of the Raman features. Then, we compare the imaging contrast in both vbrationally resonant and non-resonant condition, introducing an original method able to maintain high contrast along with vibrational information.

Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy

LUNA, the Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics, is an accelerator facility for measurements of nuclear cross sections of astrophysical interest. The greatly reduced background from cosmic rays at LUNA's underground location in the Gran Sasso National Laboratories allows for direct measurements of weak reactions and at low energies. One of the reactions currently under study at LUNA is 23Na(p,gamma)24Mg, which links the NeNa cycle and MgAl cycle in stellar burning. In the presentation the LUNA facility and the present experimental efforts at LUNA will be introduced, with a focus on the status of the current 23Na(p,gamma)24Mg studies.

Physik Institute - University of Zurich, Switzerland

Experiments searching of rare events, such as direct dark matter detection or neutrinoless double beta decay, that use liquid xenon as target and detection medium require ultra-low background to fully exploit the physics potential. Cosmogenic activation of the detector components, and even more importantly, of the xenon itself might have an undesired impact on the background if long-lived radioactive isotopes are produced in the activation process. Here will be presented the first dedicated measurement of the cosmogenic activation of a natural xenon sample after 245 days of exposure to the cosmic radiation at the Jungfraujoch research station at an altitude of 3470 m above sea level. The measurement was complemented with the study of a ultra pure copper sample that was activated together with the xenon. We directly observed, with gamma-ray spectrometry, the production of 7Be, 101Rh, 125Sb, 126I and 127Xe in xenon, out of which only 125Sb could potentially lead to a background relevant for multi-ton scale direct dark matter search. The production rates for five out of eight radioactive isotopes in copper are in good agreement with the only dedicated measurement present in literature. The production rates measured for both samples were compared with the predictions obtained with commonly used software packages. The latter showed a systematic under-estimatimation, especially for xenon.

"La Sapienza" University of Roma and INFN, Italy

Installed on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, at a depth of about 2.5 km, ANTARES is the largest undersea neutrino telescope currently operating. It is taking data since 2007 with the aim to detect high-energy neutrinos from galactic and extragalactic sources as result of the acceleration and subsequent interaction of hadronic particles. The search for point-like sources with neutrino telescopes is normally limited to a fraction of the sky, due to the selection of events where the direction of the neutrino candidate has been reconstructed as coming from below the horizon, usually referred to as "up-going" events, in order to significantly reduce the atmospheric muons background. In this contribution we show that we can search for high-energy neutrinos also in the "down-going" sample of events and the background can be effectively suppressed through an energy and direction dependent selection so that a part of the region above the horizon can be included in the search. In this way we aim at extending the field of view of ANTARES. The results for a list of predefined sources with an E^(-2) spectrum are presented.

Universita' di Napoli Federico II, Italy

For any experiment claiming to have detected dark-matter, a directional signature in the data would provide extremely strong evidence to distinguish a true WIMP dark-matter signal from that of an isotropic background. In a two-phase liquid argon detection, columnar recombination in liquid argon may provide an anisotropy exploitable for directionality. Two signals are produced: prompt scintillation light in the liquid argon (S1), and a signal from the ions (S2) that are accelerated by the electric field and extracted to the gas phase. Ions that recombine in the liquid phase will contribute to S1, whereas those that escape recombination contribute to S2. The efficiency of recombination and ergo the ratio of ionization to scintillation light depends on the angle between the nuclear recoil and the electric field (z-axis) of the TPC. The RED project at Universita di Napoli Federico II will use a novel small-sized Geiger avalanche photo-diode two-phase TPC to fully study and calibrate the potential of directional sensitivity in argon. A dedicated beam line of pulsed mono-energetic neutrons will be provided by the TANDEM accelerator. SiPMs will be used inside the TPC as light detectors, allowing 4pi coverage with improved light collection efficiency and resolution. The recoil energy will be assessed by detecting the scattered neutrons with liquid scintillator counters covering all the angles of interest. If a directional effect is present, then recoils with the same energy but different initial directions of momentum relative to the electric field should show different ratios of scintillation and ionization.

Universita' "Tor Vergata" di Roma, Italy

We investigate the possible directional dependence of Planck 2015 SMICA-derived third- order statistics by means of a needlet-based modal estimator (i.e. an estimator based on the modal decomposition technique that use needlets as basis functions). In other words, we analyse the behaviour of the needlet bispectrum on separate patches of the sky, and we study the fluctuations of the corresponding residuals. Rather than assuming a specific anisotropic model, we instead calculate the contribution to the local fNL from different regions of the sky and look for evidence of anisotropy in the result.

Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy

We make a systematic study of the strong lensing model of the CLASH-VLT galaxy cluster RX~J2284 ($z=0.348$). We present its detailed mass reconstruction, analyse the background source properties and present a collection of lens models for the sake of studying the systematics in our assumptions. We show that using the available data on this cluster it is possible to constraint the background cosmology and we give a first estimative of the line of sight structure effects on the multiple image positions.
We use the CLASH 16-band HST imaging and the spectroscopic follow-ups carried out with the VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph (VIMOS) instrument, as part of the CLASH-VLT program, and the Multi Unit Spectrograph Explorer (MUSE) during the science verification period. We present new spectroscopic redshifts measurements for background sources. A total of 16 background sources at different redshifts are multiply lensed creating 47 multiple images, of which 24 multiple images are spectroscopically confirmed to be originated from 10 different sources. We make used the position of the multiply imaged background sources to constraint the mass distribution of the cluster and also the background cosmology.
Analysing our collection of lens models we show that the best parametrisation for the cluster total mass is composed by a cored elliptical pseudo-isothermal mass distribution representing the smooth dark matter distribution, and truncated pseudo-isothermal mass distributions for the cluster galaxies. Our reference lens model reproduces the input positions of the multiple images with a offset of $0\arcsec.31$ in a fixed flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Allowing the cosmology to vary together with the cluster parameters, we find the $68\%$ confidence levels of $\Omega_m=0.25^{+0.13}_{-0.16}$ and $w=-1.07^{+0.16}_{-0.42}$ for a flat $\Lambda$CDM model and $\Omega_m=0.31^{+0.12}_{-0.13}$ and $\Omega_\Lambda=0.38^{+0.38}_{-0.27}$ for a universe with free curvature but $w=-1$. Finally, we built a toy-model and estimated the effects of the line of sight stricture to be $0\arcsec.3\pm-0\arcsec.1$, how ever it does not introduce any bias in the cosmological parameter constraints.

INFN-Ts, Italy

The XAFS beamline at Elettra Synchrotron in Trieste combines X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to provide chemically specific structural information of materials. It operates in the energy range 2.4-27 keV by using a silicon double reflection Bragg monochromator. The fluorescence measurement is performed in place of the absorption spectroscopy when the sample transparency is too low to allow for transmission measurements or the element to study is too diluted in the sample. We report on the development and first tests of a new prototype detector system based on Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) and SIRIO ultra low noise front-end ASIC able to reduce drastically the time needed to perform fluorescence measurements, while keeping a low level of dead time and adequate energy resolution to perform spectroscopy. The custom-made detector and front-end electronics system is designed specifically on the beamline requirements and developed within the framework of the INFN R&D projects ReDSoX and EUROFEL and it is produced in collaboration with FBK.

University of Vienna, Austria

The Fe based compounds constitute a widely studied class of materials showing superconductivity upon doping or applied pressure, after the recent discovery of this property in 2008 for F doped LaFeAsO samples. Structural distortions, disorder and changes in the magnetic alignment arising upon doping are of course entangled and often strictly dependent on the particular system so that it is very hard to understand which is the mechanism driving transition to the superconducting state. There are still many issues that still need careful investigation. For example, which is the reason why isovalent substitutions are able to favor onset of superconductivity and how it is possible that the same dopant in different (but still similar) compounds may induce completely different behaviors. This is the case of Ru doping on the transition metal sites of the Fe-As layers in BaFe2As2 (Ba-122): Ru is considered to be isovalent with Fe, therefore no charge addition and almost unchanged Fermi surface features should be expected. On the contrary, the electronic properties at the Fermi level are found to change considerably upon Ru-doping, together with the superconducting state arising and kept up to rather large Ru-concentrations (up to ~35%) where disorder is expected to provide strong pair-breaking effects. On the other hand, Ru doping in LaOFeAs (La-1111) is seen not to induce superconductivity in the pure samples and to disrupt the superconducting state in the F doped samples making the transition temperature decrease linearly with the Ru content. Thus, the question arises: why Ru doping has such different effects on 122 and 1111 systems? In the present work we concentrate on the effects of the structural changes - caused by atomic substitution - on the electronic properties of the compounds and we will show that these need to be carefully investigated in order to find a reasonable answer to the previous question. We perform conceptual simulated experiments to separate pure electronic from pure structural contributions to the states at the Fermi level and comparing step by step the two compounds. To that aim, we firstly developed a code integrated in the world wide known VASP software (Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package), able to implement the unfolding method in our calculations, in order to clearly analyze systems characterized by non-periodical elements, such as dopant atoms. Our systematic study shows that: states at the Fermi level in Ru doped Ba-122 are essentially affected by the structural changes brought about by the Ru substitution, while Ru doping is not effective in sensibly changing the local structure of the La-1111 compounds. The structural changes rather than the own chemical properties of Ru dopant atoms, have been found to be responsible of the electronic properties in Ba-122, thus suggesting a leading role of the atomic structure in the superconductivity. In this scenario, the absence of superconductivity together with the unchanged structures of La-1111 compounds upon Ru doping is no longer surprising.

Università di Roma ‘‘Sapienza’’, Italy

Ultrafast spectroscopy is a fundamental tool in scientific inquiry, due to its capability to reach picosecond and sub-picosecond time scales at which atomic and molecular systems evolve. Revealing dynamics that last for extremely short amounts of time has a central role in the understanding of many spectacular phenomena that appear in solid state and biochemical systems. The investigation of such dynamics, however, implies deciphering complex signals and a careful modeling is required in order to extract the information brought by the experimental measurements. We introduce a general theoretical description of non-resonant impulsive femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy in a multimode system. [1] In this technique the pump probe scheme is exploited to study the vibrational structure of the sample: an ultrashort Actinic pulse creates coherences of low frequency modes that are probed by the joint action of a narrowband Raman pulse and a broadband probe pulse, via stimulated Raman scattering through an higher frequency mode. Using closed-time-path-loop (CTPL) diagrams, the complete response of the system is calculated at the relevant perturbation order. We demonstrate that coherences created by the impulsive pump modify the resulting Raman signal, which oscillates from gain to loss features, depending on the time delay between the pump and probe pulses. The interplay of these features is responsible for a redistribution of photons between the red and the blue sides of the broadband pulse with respect to the narrowband Raman pulse. The total number of photons is conserved but the energy flows between fields and matter. Additionally, through this formalism, we address the limiting case where the dynamics under investigation have lifetimes of the same order of magnitude of the laser pulses used to probe them. In these conditions, the experimental signal is generated in the region of temporal overlap between the pump and the probe pulses. We found that, even in absence of photo-induced dynamics due to absorption of the Actinic pump pulse, the pulses overlap condition can generate time dependent features, generated by additional diagrams, which do not contribute for well separated pulses. [2] Our work shows that the correct evaluation of these contributions is a critical issue for assessing the resolution limit of pump probe techniques and for future analysis and design of spectroscopic experiments on ultrashort time scales.
References:
[1] Energy flow between spectral components in 2D Broadband Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy, G. Batignani, G. Fumero, S. Mukamel and T. Scopigno, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 10454{10461 (2015). DOI: 10.1039/c4cp05361c.
[2] On the resolution limit of Femtosecond Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy: modelling fifth-order signals with overlapping pulses, G. Fumero, G. Batignani, K. E. Dorfman, S. Mukamel and T. Scopigno, accepted ChemPhysChem. DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201500548R1.

Università degli studi dell'Aquila, Italy

Manipulating the macroscopic phases of solids via optical stimuli is a fascinating possibility hitting at the core of the wider context of optical control of fundamental interactions in condensed matter physics, such as metal–insulator transitions and superconductivity. Since the demonstration of sub-picosecond demagnetization in 1996 [1], manipulating and controlling magnetization with ultrashort laser pulses has become a challenging research area. However, very little is still known on the underlying mechanisms ruling the light induced response of magnetic structures and in particular on the optical control of a fundamental interaction in condensed matter such as the exchange interaction J. This is mostly due to the difficulty of disentangling the timescales relevant for the contributions of the exchange interaction and spin dynamics to the exchange energy. Here we introduce femtosecond stimulated Raman scattering to study the ultrafast photoinduced dynamics of magnetic excitations at the edge of the Brillouin zone. By measuring different coherent transient Raman signals, in a condition in which pump and probe pulses start to overlap, and by performing a careful analysis of the time-dependent response, we demonstrate how to unravel the light-induced magnetic response from the fifth order non-linear optical response in a prototype Heisenberg antiferromagnet, the cubic perovskite KNiF3. By tracking the photo-induced two-magnon line evolution, which is strikly related to the J, we observe a dissipative sub-100fs dynamics, and we find that the exchange interaction is increased by the electromagnetic stimulus [2]. The relevance of probing the ultrafast dynamics of the exchange interaction strikes a chord of interest from both the fundamental and applied science standpoint. On the one hand, the determination of how fast angular momentum can be exchanged and if it may become possible to reach the timescale of the spin orbit-coupling are basic challenges in femtomagnetism. On the other hand, the study of the fundamental and practical limits of the speed of manipulation of the magnetic ordering is obviously of great importance for magnetic recording and information processing technologies.
References:
[1] E. Beaurepaire, J. C. Merle, A. Daunois and J. Y. Bigot, Ultrafast spin dynamics in ferromagnetic Nickel. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 4250–4253 (1996).
[2] G. Batignani, D. Bossini, N. Di Palo, C. Ferrante, E. Pontecorvo, G. Cerullo, A. Kimel and T. Scopigno, Probing ultrafast photo-induced dynamics of the exchange energy in a Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Nature Photon. 9, 506-510 (2015).

ISM-CNR, Italy

A physical property depends on the size of an object, if its size is comparable to a dimension relevant to that property. In magnetism, typical sizes are in the nanometer range, leading to a drastic change of magnetic properties at the nanoscale. In particular, magnetic nanoparticles have generated much interest because of their possible applications in high density data storage, ferrofluid technology, catalysis and biomedicine (drug delivery, contrast enhanced MRI). In addition NPs play an important role in nature, as they are commonly found in soils, sediments and rocks and may store information on the past Earth’s magnetic field as well as environmental conditions at the time of sediment deposition For this reason in the last two decades great attention is directed towards these materials, mainly discussing physical properties in term of their dependence on particle size. However, recent studies have demonstrated that besides the particle size, other factors such as, chemical composition, magnetic structure, and magnetic interactions strongly influence magnetic features of nanocrystals. On the other hand, changing the physical properties without significant variation of the particle size is not trivial and for this reason few examples of comprehensive studies are present in literature. In this view, this contribution focuses on the design of magnetic nanostructured in order to govern the magnetic properties beyond the effect of particle size. Particular attention will be devoted to discuss interparticle magnetic interactions and magnetic structure (e.g. cationic distribution and spin canting) as a tool to modify magnetic properties of nanoparticle based materials. Magnetic Structure Magnetic properties of spinel ferrite nanoparticles are strictly dependent on the magnetic structure that is due to the complex interplay between cationic distribution and spin-canting. An overview of such interplay will be given, showing as a careful control of the magnetic structure allows tuning the saturation magnetization and magnetic anisotropy. 1,2 Cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) will be used as a model system, being it attractive in the biomedical field for its high magnetic anisotropy and saturation magnetization. Magnetic Interactions In the physics of nanostructured magnetic materials, interactions between nano-objects play an important role. The strong advances to create suitable nano-architectures (e.g core shell and structure, particle embedded in host materials) allows one to modulate magnetic properties of nanostructured materials by tuning interparticle interactions. The dependence of static and dynamic magnetic properties on interparticle interactions will be discussed, showing that these properties can be tuned by designing a suitable magnetic nano-architecture. Some example of magnetic interactions between different magnetic phase (e.g. exchange bias) will be also given3–5.
1. D. Peddis. in Magn. Nanoparticle Assem. (Trohidou, K. N.) 7, 978–981 (Pan Stanford Publishing, 2014).
2. D. Peddis, N. Yaacoub, M. Ferretti, A. Martinelli, G. Piccaluga, A. Musinu, C. Cannas, G. Navarra, J.M. Greneche, and D. Fiorani. Cationic Distribution and Spin Canting in CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 23, 426004 (2011).
3. D. Fiorani, and D. Peddis. Understanding Dynamics of Interacting Magnetic Nanoparticles: From the Weak Interaction Regime to the Collective Superspin Glass State. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 521, (2014).
4. D. Peddis, P.E. Jonsson, G. Varvaro, and S. Laureti. in Nanomagnetism Fundam. Appl. (Binns, C.) (Elsevier B.V, 2014).
5. C. Binns, M.T. Qureshi, D. Peddis, S.H. Baker, P.B. Howes, A. Boatwright, S.A. Cavill, S.S. Dhesi, L. Lari, R. Kroger, and S. Langridge. Exchange Bias in Fe@Cr Core-Shell Nanoparticles. Nanoletters 13, 3334–3339 (2013).

Università di Tor Vergata, Italy

Protein conformational disorders represent a vast class of pathologies (more than 20) in which endogenous proteins or peptides undergo a misfolding process by switching from the physiological soluble configuration to a pathological fibrillar insoluble state. An important, but not yet fully elucidated, role in these processes appears to be played by transition metals (mainly copper and zinc). X-ray absorption spectroscopy is one of the techniques of election for the structural characterization of biological molecules-metal ions complexes. In particular, owing to its chemical selectivity and sensitivity to the local atomic geometry around the absorber, it can be successfully used to study the environment of metal ions in complex with proteins and peptides in physiological conditions. In this talk we present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the copper and zinc coordination modes in samples where metals are complexed with specific amyloid peptides. We will show results concerning the Amyloid β peptide (involved in Alzheimer’s disease) and the Prion protein (responsible for the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy). Our findings suggest that the interaction of copper and zinc ions with these biomolecules are quite subtle and appear to play a crucial role in their aggregation and fibril formation processes. Elucidating these interactions is a key preliminary step before any viable therapy can be conceived or designed.

UCTM University, Bulgaria

Demands for developing optical nanobiosensors for controlling the quality of food, pharmaceuticals, environmental activities and industrial processes have encountered an enormous increase over the last decade. A lot of effort was devoted to design highly sensitive and selective methods for that purpose. Sol–gel approach has rapidly become a fascinating new field of research in materials science. The use of nanosystems and organic molecules in the gel formation process to influence the dimensions of the formed pores represents another strategy to construct optical nanobiosensors and increase the immobilized enzyme activity for more efficient sensing. The aim of our work is a construction of optical nanobiosensors based on horseradish peroxidase (HRP) for quantitative and qualitative detection of oxidizable drugs and contaminants and pharmaceutical products. Different categories of hybrid matrices were fabricated contained silica nanopartices, cellulose derivatives and Poly (amido amine) dendrimers (PAMAM) as perspective carriers for covalent immobilization. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was used as a model enzyme. Conditions were optimized, kinetic parameters, pH and temperature optimums were determined. Constructed nanobiosensors were implemented to optically detect compounds like phenol, resorcinol, epinephrine and acetaminophen. Results showed that the highest parameters were achieved by TMOS/CAB/PAMAM based matrices, where records of relative activity reached 92% while having a shift for the optimum pH that recorded 6.5 and the optimum temperature that recorded 40 °C. The applied system demonstrated enhanced operational potential towards designing biosensor for medical, pharmaceutical, food industry as well as environmental monitoring purposes.

INFN Roma, Italy

This presentation reports on the Monte Carlo optimization studies of detections systems for Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) with radionuclides and Bremsstrahlung Imaging (BSI) in nuclear medicine. MBI requires competing performances of the detectors: high efficiency and high spatial resolutions; in this direction, it has been proposed an innovative device which combines images from two different, and somehow complementary, detectors at the opposite sides of the breast. The dual detector design allows for spot compression and improves significantly the performance of the system. Thanks to Monte Carlo simulation it was possible to optimize the layout of the detection system. In recent years, BSI potentiality in internal radiotherapy (with beta-radiopharmaceuticals) has been clearly emerged; BSI is currently performed with existing detector generally used for single photon radioisotopes. We are evaluating the possibility to adapt and optimize by Monte Carlo a compact, high spatial resolution, gamma camera to detect the Bremsstrahlung photons emitted by beta- from 90Y. The Monte Carlo results have been validated by experimental measurements.

Università La Sapienza Roma, Italy

The correlation between the formation and evolution of the galaxies and their central region is a very discussed topic in astrophysics. It is a open question if the Nuclear Star Clusters (NSCs) are an essential ingredient for the formation of a Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH) in the galaxy nucleus, in this case, both NSC and SMBH can co-exist. A good way to investigate the mechanisms behind these scaling correlations is to study the dependence of the central region masses on various properties of the host galaxy, such as bulge luminosity, mass, velocity dispersion, and light concentration. These dependence showed a tight correlation between the galaxies and their central region. These correlations also established that most of the galaxies we know, elliptical and spiral, host a SMBH in their centers, whose mass is between 10e7 and 10e9 solar masses, suggesting that the formation and evolution of the galaxies and their SMBH are linked.

Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy

The normalized excess variance (NXS) is a popular method used by many authors to estimate the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN), especially in the X-ray band. Even if this estimator provides an easy and straightforward way to constrain the variability of individual sources, it has the disadvantage of depending on the length of the light curve. Usually the available light curves do not have standard fixed duration, and for high redshift sources the cosmological expansion further reduces their rest-frame length. I show that, due the cosmological time dilation effect, the NXS method produces incorrect results, thus it cannot be applied in a naive way, and it must be appropriately modified. This is particularly important for ensemble analyses of AGN samples distributed in wide redshift intervals. I propose a formula to correct this estimator, based on the use of the structure function. To verify the presence of the cosmological effect and the reliability of the proposed correction, I use data extracted from the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue, data release 5 (XMMSSC-DR5), cross-matched with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalogues, data release 7 and 12 (SDSS-DR7Q, SDSS-DR12Q ). I also discuss how this affects the dependence of variability on the luminosity of the sources.

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

A significant fraction of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are characterised by a fast rise and exponential decay (FRED) temporal structure. This is not a distinctive feature of this class, since it is observed in many Galactic transients and is likely descriptive of a sudden release of energy followed by a diffusion process. Possible evidence has recently been reported by Tello et al. (2012) for a Galactic contamination in the sample of FRED GRBs discovered with Swift. We searched for possible Galactic intruders disguised as FRED GRBs in the Swift catalogue up to September 2014. We selected 181 FRED GRBs (2/3 with unknown redshift) and considered different subsamples. We tested the degree of isotropy through the dipole and the quadrupole moment distributions, both with reference to the Galaxy and in a coordinate-system-independent way, as well as with the two-point angular autocovariance function. In addition, we searched for possible indicators of a Galactic origin among the spectral and temporal properties of individual GRBs. We found marginal (~3 sigma) evidence for an excess of FREDs with unknown redshift towards the Galactic plane compared with what is expected for an isotropic distribution corrected for the non-uniform sky exposure. However, when we account for the observational bias against optical follow-up observations of low-Galactic latitude GRBs, the evidence for anisotropy decreases to ~2 sigma. In addition, we found no statistical evidence for different spectral or temporal properties from the bulk of cosmological GRBs. We found marginal evidence for the presence of a disguised Galactic population among Swift GRBs with unknown redshift. The estimated fraction is f=(19 +- 11)%, with an upper limit of 34% (90% confidence).

LPT Orsay, France

I will present a MSSM scenario in which gravitino Dark Matter and the Baryon asymmetry of the Universe are contemporary produced by the decay of a Wimp-like neutralino. The relevant quantities are determined through the numerical solution of a System of Boltzmann equations including wash-out effects.

Università "La Sapienza" - INFN RM1, Italy

The rare semileptonic $B_d \to K^*\mu^+\mu^-$ decay has been extensively studied within the Standard Model and beyond. Recently, data provided by the LHCb experiment suggested the presence of new physics given the discrepancy found between the theoretical and the experimental value of a certain observable ($P'_5$) at low $q^2$. We critically reassess the theoretical uncertainties in the Standard Model calculation of the $B_d \to K^*\ell^+\ell^-$ angular observables, focusing on this kinematic region. We point out that even optimized observables are affected by sizable uncertainties, since hadronic contributions generated by current-current operators with charm are difficult to estimate, especially for $q^2 \sim 4m_c^2$. Taking these uncertainties into account, we perform a detailed numerical analysis and present both predictions and fit results obtained using different sets of data, showing agreement between theory and experiment.

University of Silesia, Poland

The Standard Model is the best theory we have to describe particles and their interactions. However, it struggles to explain many things, including the existence of three families of quarks, their masses and mixing matrices. These mysteries are part of the so-called “Flavour Problem” and until 2012 it was thought that we were on the right path to finding a solution: TBM mixing explained parameters appearing in the PMNS matrix fully. However, thanks to more precise measurements, we discovered that the reactor angle cannot be assumed to be zero. This fact results in the need to find another pattern to describe mixing. After 2012, many ideas aimed at solving this problem appeared in the literature, most of them based on the simplest extension of the Standard Model (if there’s only one group) by the addition of a discrete symmetry group (or more than one group) by additional discrete symmetry groups. For this reason, we have decided to add not only the discrete group, but also n Higgs doublets. We believe that the relationship between these doublets by means of the n-dimensional representation of the chosen group can provide some information about the mixing matrix and also explain the hierarchy problem.

University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Presently there is a great deal of interest to experimentally observe signatures of physics beyond the standard model. One such sub-field of research entails searches for neutrinoless double beta (0nbb) decays. As the name suggests, in a 0nbb decay the parent nucleus decays via the emission of two electrons, in the absence of neutrinos. The observation of a 0nbb decay would imply that neutrinos and their corresponding anti-neutrinos are the same, thus requiring the need for a theory that incorporates new physics. Furthermore, a 0nbb decay rate can be used to determine the absolute scale of neutrino masses. However, given the current state of affairs, if this exotic decay mode is indeed observed in the future, uncertainties from theoretical calculations of 0nbb decay matrix elements present severe challenges to absolute neutrino mass determination. One of the most promising candidate for observing this decay mode, is the decay of 136Xe to 136Ba. Several experiments are planned world-wide to observe the 0nbb in 136Xe [1-3]. In this talk I will present preliminary results from a 138Ba(d,a) reaction that was used to study low-lying excited states in 136Cs, the intermediate nucleus in 136Xe 0nbb decay. I will also present future plans to study the 138Ba(p,t) reaction using the same approach. It is anticipated that these spectroscopic information will contribute in reducing the uncertainties in nuclear matrix element calculations for 0nbb studies.
[1] EXO-200 Collaboration , Phys.Rev.Lett, 107 212501 (2011).
[2] KamLAND-Zen Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 062502 (2013).
[3] XMASS Collaboration, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 120 042022 (2013); http://www-sk.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/xmass/index-e.html.

University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy

The meson spectroscopy plays nowadays a central role in the investigation of the gluons contribution in quarks bound states and in the confinement mechanism thanks to the possible presence of exotic states, postulated by several theories. These exotic mesonic states, such as the glue-balls and the hybrid mesons, are characterized by explicit gluonic degrees of freedom which contribute to the final JPC quantum numbers, resulting in a configuration not allowed by the Gell-Mann model. In addition to this clear signature, a hybrid meson decay event is expected to have a large multiplicity, requiring an experimental apparatus with high performances in terms of rate capability, together with a good resolution and an almost full acceptance in order to apply Partial Wave Analysis (PWA) to disentangle the different JPC contributions. New-generation experiments are planned at Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory (VA, USA) for which an unprecedented statistics of large multiplicity decay events with fully reconstructed kinematics will be available. In particular for the MesonEx experiment in Hall B a wide scientific program that will start in 2016 has been deployed to study the meson spectrum at energies up to 11 GeV. A key role in such program is played by the Forward Tagger apparatus of the experiment, which will allow to extend the study of meson electro-production to very low Q2 values, in a quasi-real photo production kinematical region, where the production of hybrid mesons is expected to be favorite. Currently a new analysis framework for the search of the hybrid mesons is being set up by the HASPECT network, an international structure which gather people involved into theoretical and experimental hadronic physics all over the world. The goal of the network is to develop new analysis models and statistical techniques to unfold the signal and background distributions in high-statistics datasets: it is being tested using the existing CLAS data and in this work the first preliminary results for the f1(1285) and nu' mesons decay will be shown.

Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences

The Sieroszowice Underground Laboratory (SUNLAB) in Poland had been studied in the years 2008-2011 in a framework of the FP7 design study LAGUNA as an option for the realization of a next-generation large-volume neutrino observatory in Europe. In addition, detailed capability studies for the SUNLAB laboratory have been performed within the project UMO-2011/03/N/ST2/01971 of the Polish National Science Centre. They include sensitivity calculations, focused on the delta CP measurement and performed using the GLOBES package, for a large LarTPC detector at a distance of 950 km from CERN in a long baseline neutrino experiment. For this purpose we have simulated the neutrino beam based on the SPS proton accelerator at CERN and used the latest LAr data to simulate the detector response. Apart from the anhydrite rock, considered to locate the giant LAr detector, the geological structure in this region includes salt-rock characterized by extremely low level of natural radioactivity. This offers good conditions for a smaller very low background SUNLAB laboratory. Several detectors have been developed to be used in SUNLAB. For example, a low background Ge detector constructed at IFJ PAN in Kraków tested in the Sieroszowice mine in 2014. We will present a comparison of the CP violation discovery potential in neutrino sector for SUNLAB, DUNE and LBNO and the latest measurements of natural radioactivity from Sieroszowice mine.