INFN establishes a new centre in Trento
On 15 January 2013 the University of Trento opened the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Application [TIFPA]. The TIFPA was created through the collaboration of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics [INFN], the University of Trento, Fondazione Bruno Kessler [FBK] and the Provincial Agency for Proton Therapy Trento [ATreP].
The new centre conducts research in basic physics, and in innovation and technology transfer, taking advantage of infrastructure, skills and human resources existing in the participating institutions. The Centre will benefit from…
Italy revises its SuperB Project
The results of an international commission appointed by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research [MIUR] for the costing review of the Italian “flagship project” SuperB in the Frascati area were made public at the end of November 2012. SuperB is included in the future European scenario for particle physics. The project involves the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics [INFN] and the newborn Cabibbo-Lab.
Neither the relevance nor the quality of the SuperB program were brought into question by the MIUR review…
EPS’s Caterina Biscari to head synchrotron facility
Caterina Biscari is being appointed the director of the Laboratory of Synchrotron Light CELLS-ALBA, in Barcelona, it was announced on 13 July. Biscari, a researcher with the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, will begin her new duties from September this year. The ALBA laboratory – which has been in operation since March 2012 – uses synchrotron light for a wide variety of experiments.
An internationally renowned expert in particle accelerator technologies, Biscari has…
Neutrino research uncovers Mediterranean vortices
Chains of marine vortices have been discovered for the first time in the eastern Mediterranean by an Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare [INFN] neutrino research project. This unexpected observation, which is relevant to studies of climate change in the Mediterranean Sea, is described in a paper published in the online journal Nature Communications last month.
The vortices were uncovered by the Neutrino Mediterranean Observatory [NEMO] project…
SuperB accelerator to gain Free Electron Laser
The SuperB accelerator will soon expand its scientific offerings through a multidisciplinary infrastructure: the Free Electron Laser [FEL]. This will add to the accelerator apparatus – based at Cabibbolab, Italy – which will be completed in the next five years.
The FEL contains a long magnetic “ondulator”, comprising a large number of magnets of alternating polarities, which force electrons into a slalom-type path. This nano-beam of light has the characteristics of typical laser light…
OPERA: second neutrino tau interaction
The observation of a second neutrino tau interaction at the Gran Sasso Laboratory was announced by the OPERA Collaboration during the 25th Neutrino Conference, in Kyoto, earlier this month. This result follows on from the first observation, made in 2010.
With this new result the OPERA detector is back on track to its original motivations, after a noisy excursion over the measurement of the neutrino time of flight. The OPERA experiment was designed to search for the rare…
Fernando Ferroni appointed as the new INFN president
Fernando Ferroni was appointed the president of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare [INFN], by a ministerial decree, on 26 October this year. Ferroni replaces former head Roberto Petronzio, who led the INFN for the last seven years.
The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare – the National Institute for Nuclear Physics – was founded in 1951 to oversee astroparticle, nuclear and particle physics in Italy. With sections in four of Italy’s national laboratories and most major Italian Universities, the INFN acts as the main funding agency for high energy physics in Italy, and engages in collaborations with many laboratories worldwide, including CERN and Fermilab…
