Editoria - giugno 2018
La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento Vol. 41 N. 7 (2018)
Dissipative many-body physics of cold Rydberg atoms
O. Morsch, I. Lesanovsky
"More is different", P. W. Anderson famously wrote in the 1970's. Understanding how complex phenomena emerge from the simple macroscopic rules of many-body systems has a long history and is an ongoing challenge today. Modern experimental techniques such as ultra-cold atomic systems make it possible to create near-perfect realizations of many-body theories. In particular, strongly interacting cold gases of atoms in excited states with high principle quantum number (Rydberg atoms) can be used to study phenomena ranging from kinetic constraints reminiscent of glassy systems to non-equilibrium phase transitions characterizing the spreading of diseases or the onset of turbulence. Here we review our recent experimental and theoretical studies of such a system, which can be regarded as a semiclassical many-body simulator.
Il Nuovo Cimento Vol. 40 N. 6 (2017)
Physics in Collision 2017
Edited by R. A. Briere, M. Kreps, W. F. Lohmann, M. Marcisovsky, R. Voss
The 2017 symposium on Physics in Collision (PIC) was held in 2017 in Prague. It belongs to the well-established series of international symposia that began in 1981 in Blacksburg, Virginia. The aim of PIC is to provide an overview of the recent topics of high energy physics and to encourage informal discussions on new experimental results and their implications. The topics at the symposium cover a wide range of physics subjects from experimental and theoretical accelerator-based particle physics to astroparticle physics. Specifically, the meeting topics include electroweak phenomena, neutrino physics, QCD, heavy flavor physics, heavy ion physics, Higgs physics, searches for BSM physics, and astroparticle physics.
EPJ A – Highlights
The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF): Overview, research programs and future plans
Israel Mardor et al.
The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF) is under construction in the Soreq Nuclear Research Center at Yavne, Israel. Phase I of SARAF (SARAF-I) is already in operation, generating scientific results in several fields of interest, especially the astrophysical s-process. When completed at the beginning of the next decade, SARAF-II will be a user facility for basic and applied nuclear physics, based on a 40 MeV, 5 mA CW proton/deuteron superconducting linear accelerator. This review presents first a technical overview of SARAF-I and II, including a description of the accelerator and its irradiation targets, and provides a survey of existing research programs at SARAF-I. It then describes in some detail the research potential at the completed facility. SARAF-II’s cutting-edge specifications, with its unique liquid lithium target technology, will enable world-competitive research plans in several disciplines: precision studies of beyond-Standard-Model effects by trapping light exotic radioisotopes (including meaningful studies already at SARAF-I); extended nuclear astrophysics research with higher-energy neutrons, including generation and studies of exotic neutron-rich isotopes relevant to the astrophysical r-process; nuclear structure of exotic isotopes; high-energy neutron cross sections for basic nuclear physics and material science research, including neutron-induced radiation damage; neutron-based imaging with an imaging plane flux similar to that of a 5 MW research reactor; accelerator-based neutron therapy; and, last but not least, novel radiopharmaceuticals development and production.
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EPJ E – Colloquium
How to simulate patchy particles
L. Rovigatti, J. Russo, F. Romano
Patchy particles is the name given to a large class of systems of mesoscopic particles characterized by a repulsive core and a discrete number of short-range and highly directional interaction sites. Numerical simulations have contributed significantly to our understanding of the behaviour of patchy particles, but, although simple in principle, advanced simulation techniques are often required to sample the low temperatures and long time-scales associated with their self-assembly behaviour.
In this EPJ E colloquium paper, Rovigatti et al. review the most popular simulation techniques that have been used to study patchy particles, with a special focus on Monte Carlo methods.
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EPJ – Call for papers
EPJE Topical Issue: Dielectric Spectroscopy Applied to Soft Matter
The submission is open to everyone working in the field. We invite contributors to communicate their intention to submit manuscripts for this Special Issue to the Guest Editor as soon as possible. Please provide the tentative title of the paper and a short abstract. The full manuscripts should be submitted before the deadline directly to the EPJE Editorial Office at
https://articlestatus.edpsciences.org/is/epje
EPJ Plus – Highlights
A thermostatted kinetic theory model for event-driven pedestrian dynamics
C. Bianca, C. Mogno
Ever found yourself crushed in a metro station at rush hour? The mathematician Carlo Bianca and physicist Caterina Mogno, both from the engineering research lab ECAM-EPMI in Cergy-Pontoise, France, have developed a new model to study the movement of crowds exiting a metro station. In a recent study published in EPJ Plus, they have for the first time employed models typically used to study gases consisting of a large number of molecules that collide at random (known as thermostatted kinetic theory) to study the consequences of the different interactions occurring among pedestrians in a crowd while exiting a metro station.
The authors assume that what motivates pedestrians to leave a metro station can be modelled as an external force that explains the conditions under which they leave due to the crowd pressure. Their model combines aspects representing the interactions between pedestrians and governed by thermostatted kinetic theory with the cooperation between pedestrians as intelligent and self-organised decision-makers, which is governed by game theory.
The model thus depicts what happens to a crowd of pedestrians trying to leave a metro station consisting of different exits at rush hour. Bianca and Mogno seek an approximate solution to the problem by starting from the exact solution of a simpler, related problem. The results show how, as pedestrians try to make their way out of the station, the interaction dynamics among them can in fact be negligible, as they do not influence the flow of pedestrians toward the exit as much as their motivation to leave (the external force) does.
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EPL – Highlights from the previous volumes
Disordered configurations of the Glauber model on two-dimensional networks
by Iva Bačić et al.
Rare events in "noisy" networks
by J. Hindes and I.B. Schwartz
Spatial scales in electricity system modelling
by M. Schäfer et al.
Weyl states mean magnetic protectorates
by M.M. Doria and A. Perali
EPL Highlights are published in the first issue of each volume, i.e. four times a year, as well as in
