Ocean heat content and its role on some climatic processes
Heat fluxes at the air-sea interface depend on the dynamical and thermodynamical unbalance between oceans and atmosphere. The oceanic response to variable surface fluxes will be discussed in relation to intermittent forcing, climate variability, and climate change. The
effects of ocean stratification and water column heat content on surface temperatures and on atmospheric processes will be discussed. The interactions between upper ocean heat content and tropical cyclones will be presented with some detail.
Friday, 25 November 2016, ore 15:00 — Aula Magna
The Large Hadron Collider and Beyond: Future Paths in High Energy Physics
The first run of the LHC has redefined the boundary conditions for the discussion of future HEP facilities. On one side, the discovery of the Higgs and the knowledge of its mass clearly define the needs, the challenges and the prospects of future precise measurements of its properties. On the other, the lack on new physics signals stimulates reconsideration of theoretical scenarios, and opens a broad discussion of the best ways to move forward. I will informally review these issues, summarize the most recent initiatives, and provide some personal perspective.
Friday, 18 November 2016, ore 15:00 — Aula Magna
The Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition
The 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz. In this talk I will introduce the 1973 paper by Kosterlitz and Thouless describing a new kind of phase transition related to che concept of topological order.
Tuesday, 11 November 2016, ore 14:30 — Aula A
Glauber documentary (Manhattan project)
Nobel laureate Prof. Roy J. Glauber is the last surviving scientist from the Theory Division of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. His clear, fluent and articulate narration brings first hand information on the life at Los Alamos, the main scientific characters there, the Trinity test of the first ever nuclear weapon, the bombing of Japan and the political aftermath of the project. Glauber's account is documented with audiovisual material from the Los Alamos Archive.
Friday, 28 October 2016, ore 15:00 — Aula Magna
Factorization and high-precision jet-physics
Friday, 7 October 2016, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin
Pentaquark structures
We study the possibility that at least one of the two pentaquark structures recently reported by LHCb could be described as a compact pentaquark state and we give predictions for new channels that can be studied by the experimentalists if this hypothesis is correct. We use very general arguments, dictated by symmetry considerations, in order to describe the pentaquark states within a group theory approach. A complete classification of all possible states and quantum numbers, which can be useful both to the experimentalists in their search for new findings and to theoretical model builders, is given, without the introduction of any particular dynamical model. Some predictions are finally given using a simple Guersey and Radicati inspired mass formula, that breaks the SU(4) symmetry. We reproduce the mass and the quantum numbers of the lightest pentaquark state reported by LHCb (the J^P = 3/2^- state), with a parameter-free mass formula, fixed on the well-established baryons. We predict other pentaquark resonances (giving their masses, and suggesting possible decay channels) which belong to the same multiplet as the lightest one.
Friday, 30 September 2016, ore 14:30 — Sala Wataghin