What is gravity? How do planets, stars and galaxies move in the Universe? What do Einstein describe with his Theory of Relativity? Let’s find it out together with this interactive activity that will allow us to build and use our own spacetime model! In this way we will discover that masses can deform spacetime, bend light, and create black holes and gravitational waves.

Adriana Postiglione

Adriana Postiglione is a researcher in physics education and a science communicator at the Frascati National Laboratory, INFN. After her PhD in physics about the large scale structure of the Universe, she dedicated herself to disseminating and teaching physics to a public of non-experts. She now works on the development of new methodologies and techniques to talk about her discipline, especially with high school students and teachers.

Plan of the working group activity
The simulation of the interaction of particles and radiation with materials is fundamental for the design of particle physics experiments and the study of their expected performances, but it can also be exploited for more everyday life applications, for instance related to medicine.
In particular, in medical field it is important to resort to simulations to estimate the energy released in biological tissues following the treatment with particle beams or radiation, its effect and the possible damage.
To this perspective, simulations provide fundamental information to prepare radiotherapic plans with beams or radiopharmaceuticals, for radiodiagnostic and radioprotection purposes, and also for the design of shielding for radiospatial applications in extraterrestrial environments.
Complete simulation tools are based on very complicated software packages, of course beyond the scope of this class.
Nonetheless, in this working group the students will approach a user-friendly interface based on the GEANT4 simulation package that will allow them to learn how to setup a system with a particle beam of desired shape,energy and intensity, interacting on simplified (but realistic) phantoms of some body organs, as well as on simple solid shapes invented by themselves.
The output from the simulation at the microscopical level will be analyzed and discussed in term of the possibile reactions that the particles will undergo in the materials of the experimental setup.
The students will visualize the interaction of particles or radiation with the materials, that will disclose the fundamental mechanisms at the basis of the medical investigation techniques, in particular those based on X-rays and radioactive beams or sources.

Alessandra Filippi

Graduated in theoretical physics in 1991, PhD in nuclear physics in 1996, Alessandra is currently Senior Scientist at INFN Torino (Italy).
Her field of interest covers the experimental nuclear and hadronic physics at intermediate and low energies, with activity focus on data analysis, interpretation of the obtained results and the development of codes for the simulation of physical processes and detector setups as well as event pattern recognition and reconstruction.
She’s been working in International Collaborations at several Laboratories (CERN, LNF, Julich, SLAC) also covering leading roles. She’s presently involved in experiments at the Jefferson Laboratory (USA), where her activity is mostly dedicated to hadron spectroscopy and light dark matter searches.
She’s author of more than 400 scientific papers on International Physics Journals.
Since 2019 she’s been holding classes for the Speciality School of Medical Physics at the Torino University, on Information Technology and Montecarlo Methods for Dose Evaluation.

The participants in the experience “Determination of nuclides through gamma spectrometry” will learn the basics of gamma spectrometry through Scintillation detectors. Particularly, they will learn about (1) physics of a scintillation detector (2) Analog electronics to transform the light pulses in the scintillator into measurable electrical pulses (3) Digital electronics to measure the electrical pulses and produce a pulse height distribution (4) Basics of nuclide identification though the gamma rays signature.

The quality of the air we breathe is a central issue in contemporary society; its punctual and distributed monitoring becomes increasingly accessible thanks to low-cost sensors based on nanotechnologies.The workshop will introduce nanotechnologies and chemical-physical characterization methods used in the realization of solid-state gas sensors based on nanostructured semiconductors and in hands-on hardware and software integration activity. Some of these devices are produced at the Bruno Kessler Foundation and others are commercially available, the integration will take place on a STMicroelectronics STM32-Nucleo platform through Arduino IDE environment.

Andrea Gaiardo

Obtained the M.Sc. degree in Chemistry (Magna cum Laude) from the University of Ferrara, (Ferrara, Italy) in 2013. He received the Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Ferrara in 2018. His work is focused on the research and development of gas sensing systems for several applications, including health screening, precision agriculture and outdoor air quality monitoring. In this field, he has published more than 40 articles (H-Index = 14, source Scopus, 01/2023), and he has been guest editor of three special issues. He has collaborated in both national and European projects. Currently, he is a researcher in the Micro-Nano Facilities group of the Bruno Kessler Foundation.

Pietro Tosato

Obtained the M.Sc. degree in mechatronic engineering and the Ph.D. in electronic engineering from the University of Trento in 2015 and 2019, respectively. His work mainly focused on low-power electronics for Internet of Things and Smart Grid applications. He currently works in the Micro-Nano Facility group in Bruno Kessler Foundation developing sensor electronic interfaces for diverse applications, like gas sensing and radiation detectors.

Matteo Valt

Obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physics in March 2020 with a thesis titled: “2D materials for room-temperature chemiresistive gas sensing” at the University of Ferrara. Previously, he obtained his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry with a thesis on Functionalization of Graphene Oxide for Gas Sensing and Cation Trapping. Currently, he is a researcher in the Micro-Nano Facilities group of the Bruno Kessler Foundation. His current research interests are related to the development and employment of novel materials for chemiresistive gas sensing in diverse fields of applications.

Plasma – The fourth state of matter (A. Biagioni, C. Mariani, INFN-LNF)

What is a plasma, the state of matter that composes the 99% of the universe? How can it be investigated? Let’s find it out together with this interactive activity that will allow us to study it and detect it! In this way we will discover, with some basic physics principles, how spectroscopy works and how to measure the plasma.

Angelo Biagioni

Angelo Biagioni has graduated from University of Rome La Sapienza in electronic engineering, where he also earned a doctorate degree in electromagnetism. He made teaching activities at the University of Rome La Sapienza for courses in classical mechanics, electromagnetism and thermodynamics. He is supervisor for the PhD in accelerator Physics. Since 2014, he has conducted research activity at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics – section of National Laboratory of Frascati. He has currently a permanent position at INFN LNF – Accelerator Division. He collaborates to the SPARC_LAB project to implement the plasma module for the plasma-based acceleration. In particular, his research activity is devoted to the design of specific devices for producing and confining plasmas for acceleration. He has gained experience in the field of plasma physics and, in particular, have acquired capabilities to design plasma diagnostic systems for plasma sources characterization. He has contributed to establish the Plasma laboratory at the LNF, of which he is currently the responsible.

Cristina Mariani

Cristina Mariani is a graduate of the Polytechnic of Milan in B.Sc. Chemical Engineering and is currently finishing the M.Sc. of Nuclear Engineering. She has conducted research activity at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics – section of National Laboratory of Frascati in the context of the Master Thesis, concerning the design plasma module for producing and confining plasmas for plasma–based acceleration. Her expertise spans from an understanding of the background plasma physical phenomena to the capability to use the instrumentation required for the experimental investigation of the key parameters.