O objetivo desta dissertação é a busca de anisotropias em grandes escalas angulares no fluxo de raios cósmicos acima de 4 × 10^{18} eV e o confronto dos resultados obtidos com as previsões dos principais modelos astrofísicos na região de ultra altas energias. Com esse propósito foram analisados os dados de chuveiros atmosféricos extensos registrados pelo Observatório Pierre Auger no período de 01 de janeiro de 2004 até 31 de agosto de 2016, compreendendo um total de 108 480 eventos detetados com ângulos zenitais entre 0 e 80 graus acima de 4 × 10^{18} eV. Efeitos sistemáticos locais como a influência da variação das condições atmosféricas e a influência do campo geomagnético nos estimadores de energia das cascatas atmosféricas foram corrigidos cuidadosamente para evitar a introdução de sinais espúrios de anisotropias na análise. Especial ênfase foi dedicada à construção de um mapa bidimensional na esfera celeste com os valores da exposição para cada direção no céu, calculado com uma precisão de 1% a partir da informação da área de coleção efetiva no Observatório Pierre Auger a cada minuto. Da mesma forma, a distribuição das direções de chegada dos eventos foi registrada em mapas bidimensionais na esfera celeste que, após corrigidos pela exposição, são transformados nos mapas de fluxo usados na análise quantitativa para a busca de anisotropias. Neste trabalho procurou-se padrões dipolares de anisotropias, os quais foram quantificados usando o método de expansão multipolar em harmônicos esféricos. Diferentemente do método bidimensional de Rayleigh usado na maioria dos estudos deste tipo, o método aqui utilizado fornece de maneira direta as três componentes cartesianas do dipolo, por meio das quais a reconstrução da amplitude e orientação espacial do dipolo é feita de maneira mais natural. A busca de anisotropias foi realizada em dois intervalos de energia independentes, assim foram analisados por separado os eventos com energias entre 4 × 10^{18} e 8 × 10^{18} eV e de energias maiores que 8 × 10^{18} eV. No primeiro intervalo não foi encontrado nenhum sinal de anisotropia estatisticamente significativo. No segundo intervalo foi encontrada uma anisotropia dipolar de amplitude d = (7.9 ± 1.1)% com coordenadas equatoriais (_d , _d ) = (103 ± 10 , 38 ± 7 ) graus e uma probabilidade de ocorrência ao acaso de 6.90 × 10^{8} , correspondendo a uma significância estatística acima do limiar de descoberta de 5 . Tal amplitude e direção são melhor explicadas assumindo-se uma origem extragaláctica para os raios cósmicos com energias acima de 8 × 10^{18} eV. / The aim of this dissertation is the search for large scale anisotropies in the cosmic ray flux above 4 × 10^{18} eV and the comparison of the results with the predictions of the main astrophysical models in the ultra high energy region. With this purpose we analyzed the data of extensive air showers detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory in the period of 1st January 2004 to 31st August 2016 comprising a total of 108 480 events with zenith angles between 0 and 80 degrees above the threshold of 4 × 10^{18} eV. Local systematic effects such as the influence of the variation of the atmospheric conditions and the effect of the geomagnetic field in the energy estimators were properly corrected to avoid the introduction of spurious anisotropy signals in the analysis. Special emphasis was placed on the construction of a two-dimensional map on the celestial sphere with the exposure values for each direction on the sky, calculated with an accuracy of 1% from the information of the effective collection area of the observatory at every minute. Likewise, the arrival directions distribution of the events was recorded in two-dimensional maps on the celestial sphere that after correcting by the exposure were transformed into the flux maps to be used in the quantitative analysis for the anisotropies search. In this work we search for dipolar-like anisotropy patterns, which were quantified by performing a spherical harmonics decomposition of the cosmic ray flux map. Unlike the traditional two-dimensional Rayleigh method used in the majority of the studies of this kind, the method used here directly provides the three cartesian components of the dipole, allowing the reconstruction of its amplitude and orientation in a more natural way. The anisotropy search was made in two independent energy bins, so the distributions of the events with energies between 4 × 10^{18} and 8 × 10^{18} eV and those with energies greater than 8 × 10^{18} eV were analyzed separately. In the first energy bin no statistically significant departure from isotropy was found. In the second energy bin a dipole anisotropy of amplitude d = (7.9 ± 1.1)% with equatorial coordinates (_d , _d ) = (103 ± 10 , 38 ± 7 ) degrees and a chance probability of 6.90 × 10^{8} was found, corresponding to a statistical significance above the discovery threshold of 5 . Such amplitude and direction for the reconstructed dipole is better explained if an extragalactic origin is assumed for the bulk of cosmic rays above 8 × 10^{18} eV.

Ce travail de thèse présente la pensée de Grégoire de Nysse sur la corrélation entre le cosmos et l’homme. La recherche a pour ambition d’expliquer et de comprendre la conception grégorienne de la création et l’interprétation du rôle de l’homme dans la création pour voir si elle apporte ou non un complément potentiel au débat contemporain sur la crise écologique. Il s’avère que cette problématique contemporaine conduit à renouveler notre regard sur les textes de Grégoire et à dégager ses réflexions sur un mode de comportement envers la création, propre à sa vision théologique de Grégoire. L’analyse des concepts concernant le cosmos et l’homme démontre une bipolarité de leurs relations possibles, qui s’exprime dans l’idée d’ontologie et d’éthique cosmique. L’éthique semble alors être la liberté vécue de l’homme sur cette terre, avec pour résultat le principe agissant de son rapport avec le reste de la création au cours de sa vie. D’après Grégoire, l’approche humaine en ce qui concerne l’environnement n’est qu’une question de liberté de choix qui pourtant marque le cheminement de l’homme vers la nouvelle création, celle créée par le Christ. / This thesis presents Gregory of Nyssa’s point of view about the relation between man and the cosmos. The current analysis aims to understand and explain Gregory’s concept of creation and the way this concept perceives the role of the human in the creation; this is in order to verify if it makes any eventual addition to the contemporary debate on ecological crises. Actually, this contemporary problematic contributes in renewing our view on Gregorian texts and shows a way of behaviour towards the nature/creation itself in accordance with the theological vision of Gregory. The analysis of concepts concerning the human and the cosmos stresses a twofold relation between them, expressed through the idea of ontology and cosmic ethics. In this case ethics seem to be the experimental liberty of man on this earth and as a consequence, the active principle of the relation with the rest of the creation in the frame of life. According to Gregory, the human approach towards the environment is only a question of free will which nevertheless determines the way of man to the new creation established by Christ.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2014-08-15T15:17:28Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Dissertacao Michelle M de Medeiros.pdf: 2738633 bytes, checksum: e1e98c1ee5ac88193602d29a282e5c6b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-15T15:17:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Dissertacao Michelle M de Medeiros.pdf: 2738633 bytes, checksum: e1e98c1ee5ac88193602d29a282e5c6b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-09-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Celestial objects / Objetos celestes como a Lua e o Sol bloqueiam os raios cósmicos que vem de suas direções para a Terra, produzindo um défcit chamado de sombra. A medida deste défcit possibilita a determinação da resolução angular e do alinhamento de detectores de raios cósmicos, o estudo dos campos magnéticos terrestre, solar e interplanetário e a determinação da razão antipróton/próton na escala de energia TeV. Vários experimentos já observaram a sombra de raios cósmicos da Lua e/ou do Sol com o objetivo de calibrar seus detectores. Descrevemos neste trabalho o experimento MINOS e seus resultados da sombra da Lua e do Sol. Simulamos a sombra da Lua levando em conta seu movimento no céu e, para tanto, de nimos e testamos métodos de simulação e diferentes composições para os raios cósmicos. Também avaliamos várias proporções para antiprótons no fluxo de raios cósmicos a m de comparar com os resultados do experimento MINOS e conjecturar uma possível razão p=p para os dados observados. Ambos os métodos que de nimos, método do dé cit e da fonte de raios cósmicos, permitiram uma análise qualitativa da sombra. No entanto, só foi possível realizar uma análise quantitativa na simulação tendo a Lua como um défcit. Dessa forma, adotamos este método para as simulações subsequentes. Notamos algumas diferenças para as sombras obtidas usando próton e núcleo de hélio como partículas primárias de raios cósmicos. Todavia, a sombra encontrada combinando prótons (90%) e núcleos de hélio (10%) foi semelhante à sombra obtida apenas para prótons. Na simulação incluindo o movimento da Lua, avaliamos os efeitos do campo geomagnético na partícula primária, desde a Lua até a atmosfera terrestre, e nos múons (partícula secundária) desde sua produção até o nível do mar. Como esperado, obtivemos uma sombra da Lua mais similar com os resultados do experimento MINOS ao incluir a de exão tanto das partículas primárias dos raios cósmicos quanto das partículas do chuveiro do que considerando apenas o desvio destas últimas. Nossa simulação foi capaz de reproduzir a sombra provocada pela Lua com a localização do maior dé cit comparável àquela encontrada pelo experimento MINOS. Entretanto, ainda acrescentamos núcleos de hélio e antiprótons na simulação incluindo o movimento da Lua com o objetivo de melhorar o resultado. Obtivemos um défcit localizado o mais próximo possível do obtido pelo experimento MINOS usando a proporção p=p = 0;45. Tal resultado deve ser melhor estudado e a simulação aprimorada para que se determine esta razão entre antiprótons e prótons com a precisão adequada.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a high-energy particle physics detector operating on the International Space Station (ISS) since May 2011. Since its launch, the AMS-02 provided a large amount of data whose precision was never before achieved, opening a new path for the study of cosmic rays (CRs). The first published results of AMS-021-3 show tension with the current understanding of the cosmic ray theory, particularly at higher energies. These tensions are directly linked to many fundamental questions like the dark matter nature, the CR origin and their propagation through the galaxy. This work presents the measurement of the electron flux and the positron flux in primary cosmic rays, based on the data collected between May 2011 and November 2016, an extended data set with respect to the published AMS-02 results.3 The results extend the energy range explored up to 1 TeV for electrons and up to 700 GeV for positrons, being consistent with the published results when using the same data set. A discrepancy between the new measurement and the published flux is observed in the low energy region of the electron flux, while the positron flux is in good agreement. This can be explained by a charge dependent solar modulation effect. This hypothesis was investigated by studying the time evolution of the fluxes, focusing on the energy region below 40 GeV, where an electron and positron flux is computed over 74 time bins of 27 days width, corresponding to the suns rotation period as seen from the Earth. The time dependent analysis confirms hints of charge dependent solar modulation, that are also observed by other independent analysis that have been carried out in parallel within the collaboration. / O Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) é um experimento de física de partículas instalado na Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS) desde Maio de 2011. Desde seu lançamento, AMS-02 coleta uma quantidade de dados com tal precisão que até então nunca foram jamais vistos, abrindo o caminho para o estudo dos Raios Cósmicos (CRs). Os primeiros resultados publicados pelo AMS-021-3 apresentam tensões com o modelo atual da teoria de CRs, particularmente nas altas energias. Essas tensões são diretamente ligadas a diversas questões fundamentais como a natureza da Matéria Escura (DM), a origem dos CRs e suas propagações pela galáxia. Este trabalho apresenta a medição do fluxo de elétrons e pósitrons em CRs primários, baseando-se nos dados coletados entre Maio de 2011 e Novembro de 2016, período extendido com relação aos resultados públicados pelo AMS-02.3 Os resultados extendem o intervalo de energia explorado para 1 TeV para elétrons e 700 GeV ára pósitrons, consistentes com os resultados públicados usando o mesmo período. Discrepância entre a nova medição e o fluxo públicado é observada na região de baixas energias para o fluxo de elétrons, enquanto o fluxo de pósitrons continua em bom acordo. O resultado pode ser explicado por uma dependência na carga causada pela modulação solar. Tal hipótese é investigada estudando-se a evolução temporal dos fluxos, focando-se no intervao de energia abaixo de 40 GeV, onde um fluxo de elétrons e pósitrons é medido durante 74 intervalos temporais de 27 dias, correspondendo à rotação do sol vista da Terra. A análise dependente do tempo confirma a existência da dependência de carga da modulação solar, também observada por outras análises independentes que foram feitas dentro da colaboração.

Neste trabalho estudam-se três aplicações de mecanismos de produção de partículas no universo pós inflacionário. Apesar da motivação inicial para esses mecanismos ter sido o reaquecimento do universo, eles foram utilizados, posteriormente, para produzir partículas supermassivas. A produção de partículas, sejam elas supermassivas ou não, depende essencialmente do modelo inflacionário utilizado. Aqui, trabalha-se com modelos inflacionários caóticos gerados por um campo escalar, o inflaton. A primeira aplicação estuda a produção de partículas supermassivas pelo mecanismo de pré-aquecimento instantâneo que é não perturbativo. Estabelece-se os limites dos parãmetros desse mecanismo impondo que essas partículas constituam parte da matéria escura e que seu decaimento, hoje, produzam os raios cósmicos de altíssimas energias. A segunda aplicação é um estudo numérico de como teria sido o reaquecimento do universo, num modelo inflacionário quintessencial, com partículas tendo sido produzidas através do mecanismo de pré-aquecimento instantâneo. Esses modelos inflacionários são utilizados para explicar a origem da energia escura que parece dominar o universo hoje. Obtém-se a faixa de temperaturas de reaquecimento permitidas. A terceira aplicação também estuda a produção de partículas supermassivas para explicar os raios cósmicos de altíssimas energias, mas por um mecanismo perturbativo. As partículas seriam o produto do decaimento direto do inflaton após a inflação. Obtém se limites para razão de ramificação deste decaimento, impondo restrições para a vida média das partículas supermassivas e para a sua abundância hoje. / We studied three applications of the mechanisms of particle production in the early universe. Although such mechanisms were first proposed to reheat the universe they were used lately to produce supermassive particles. The production of supermassive or massless particles depends mainly on the inflationary model that we work with. Here, we chose the chaotic inflationary models generated by one scalar field, the inflaton. In the first application we studied the production of supermassive particles by the non-perturbative instant preheating mechanism. We used cosmic ray flux and cold dark matter observational data to constrain the parameters of the model, since we are supposing that such particles may account for a fraction of the cold dark matter as well as decay into high energy cosmic rays. In the second application we perform a numerical study of the instant preheating mechanism of particle production in a model of quintessential inflation. Such inflationary models are used to explain the dark energy that seems to dominate the universe nowadays. We obtained the reheating temperatures allowed by this mechanism. The third application studied the supermassive particle production by a perturbative mechanism to explain high energy cosmic rays. The inflaton would have decayed into such particles after inflation. By constraining their lifetime and present abundance we obtained the branching ratio of such decay.

N.c. / N.c.

Die Suche nach Neutrino-Punktquellen bietet eine Möglichkeit, astrophysikalische Teilchenbeschleuniger als Quellen der Kosmischen Strahlung zu identifizieren. Eine etablierte Methode in der Neutrinoastronomie ist die Messung der Tscherenkow-Strahlung induzierter Myonen in unterirdischen Detektoren. Die hier vorgestellte Analyse basiert auf Daten, die zwischen 2007 und 2008 mit IceCube, dem größten Neutrinoteleskop dieser Art, gesammelt wurden. Bisherige Neutrino-Punktquellensuchen waren auf eine Hemisphäre beschränkt gewesen, da nur aufwärts laufende Ereignisse betrachtet wurden, um den atmosphärischen Myon-Untergrund zu eliminieren. Hier wird gezeigt, dass der Bereich über dem Horizont durch eine energieabhängige Selektion miteinbezogen werden kann. Dies erhöht die Sensitivität für Energien oberhalb einiger PeV, die bisher aufgrund von Neutrinoabsorption unterhalb des Horizonts vollkommen unzugänglich waren. Zum Nachweis richtungsabhängiger Neutrinosignale wurde eine Musterung beider Himmelshälften durchgeführt. Modellvorhersagen für Aktive Galaktische Kerne dienten als Grundlage für separate Tests anhand einer Liste von Quellkandidaten und mittels einer zeitabhängigen Suche nach kurzen Neutrinoemissionen vom Blazar 3C279. Es konnten keine signifikanten Ereignisüberschüsse über dem Untergrund beobachtet werden. Daraus leiten sich die ersten oberen Neutrino-Flussgrenzen für Punktquellen am Südhimmel bei Energien bis in den EeV Bereich ab. Für bestimmte Quellkandidaten sind es die besten Einschränkungen für Neutrinovorhersagen bei PeV Energien. Mit den gleichen Ereignissen wurde eine Suche nach Korrelationen zwischen Neutrinos und den höchstenergetischen geladenen Teilchen der Kosmischen Strahlung durchgeführt. Die Ursprungsrichtungen von Luftschauern, veröffentlicht durch das HiRes Experiment und das Pierre Auger Observatorium, dienten zur Bestimmung solcher Koinzidenzen. Das Ergebnis ist im Einklang mit den Untergrunderwartungen. / Searching for point-like neutrino signals provides a chance of identifying astrophysical particle accelerators as sources of cosmic rays. An established approach to realise high energy neutrino astronomy is the observation of Cherenkov radiation from induced muon tracks in subsurface detectors. Presented here is an analysis based on data taken between 2007 and 2008 with IceCube, the largest of these neutrino telescopes. Neutrino point source searches had been so far restricted to one hemisphere, due to the exclusive selection of upward going events as a way of rejecting the atmospheric muon background. This work demonstrates that the region above the horizon can be included by suppressing the background through an energy-sensitive event selection. The approach improves the sensitivity above PeV energies, previously not accessible at all due to absorption of neutrinos from below the horizon. Both celestial hemispheres were scanned to identify neutrino fluxes from individual directions. Based on model predictions for Active Galactic Nuclei, separate tests were performed by compiling a list of specific neutrino source candidates and by searching for short neutrino flares from the blazar 3C279. No significant excesses above the atmospheric background were found. The resulting upper limits on neutrino fluxes are the first that cover point sources in the southern sky up to the EeV energy range. For certain source candidates, these limits provide the best constraints on models predicting neutrinos above PeV energies. Based on the same event sample, a search for correlations between neutrinos and the most energetic charged cosmic rays was performed. The arrival directions of air showers, reported by the HiRes experiment and the Pierre Auger Observatory, were used to determine such coincidences. The result of this study is compatible with the background hypothesis.

<p>Three long sediment cores (BDP-98 – 600 m, BDP-96 – 200 m and BDP-93 – 100 m) drilled in Lake Baikal (Siberia) have been studied with the aims of establishing an absolute chronology and reconstructing paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes in the region. The location of the lake at relatively high latitude and continental interior and a thick continuous sedimentary archive that developed in a rift system tectonic setting provide unique material for this investigation. The cosmogenic isotope ¹⁰Be was used for dating and the results indicate time spans of 8 (+0.8\-0.6) Myr for BDP-98, 5.5 (±0.13) Myr for BDP-96 and >0.7 Myr for BDP-93. Two major sedimentary facies (deltaic and hemipelagic) are distinguished by textural geochemical and mineralogical data. Detrital mineral composition suggests negligible change in provenance during the period studied. Formation of authigenic minerals, such as framboidal pyrite, vivianite and siderite, reflects variable environmental conditions in the lake and climate change in the region. Biogenic silica content shows climatic influence, which is modified by the supply of detrital material and postdepositional alterations. ¹⁰Be dating, combined with lithological analysis of the sediments, makes it possible to place temporal constrains on climate cooling at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary (5 Myr ago) and at the Early/Late Pliocene boundary (3.6 Myr ago) as well as the beginning of the northern hemisphere glaciation at about 2.5–2.6 Myr ago. The regional east-west tectonic extension of south-east Asia, related to Tibetan Plateau uplift, was confined in the Baikal area to between about 7 and 5 Myr ago, with a rifting rate calculated at 7 mm year^-1. Furthermore, the ¹⁰Be data suggest that geomagnetic field intensity strengthened around the Miocene/Pliocene boundary.</p>

Three long sediment cores (BDP-98 – 600 m, BDP-96 – 200 m and BDP-93 – 100 m) drilled in Lake Baikal (Siberia) have been studied with the aims of establishing an absolute chronology and reconstructing paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes in the region. The location of the lake at relatively high latitude and continental interior and a thick continuous sedimentary archive that developed in a rift system tectonic setting provide unique material for this investigation. The cosmogenic isotope 10Be was used for dating and the results indicate time spans of 8 (+0.8\-0.6) Myr for BDP-98, 5.5 (±0.13) Myr for BDP-96 and &gt;0.7 Myr for BDP-93. Two major sedimentary facies (deltaic and hemipelagic) are distinguished by textural geochemical and mineralogical data. Detrital mineral composition suggests negligible change in provenance during the period studied. Formation of authigenic minerals, such as framboidal pyrite, vivianite and siderite, reflects variable environmental conditions in the lake and climate change in the region. Biogenic silica content shows climatic influence, which is modified by the supply of detrital material and postdepositional alterations. 10Be dating, combined with lithological analysis of the sediments, makes it possible to place temporal constrains on climate cooling at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary (5 Myr ago) and at the Early/Late Pliocene boundary (3.6 Myr ago) as well as the beginning of the northern hemisphere glaciation at about 2.5–2.6 Myr ago. The regional east-west tectonic extension of south-east Asia, related to Tibetan Plateau uplift, was confined in the Baikal area to between about 7 and 5 Myr ago, with a rifting rate calculated at 7 mm year-1. Furthermore, the 10Be data suggest that geomagnetic field intensity strengthened around the Miocene/Pliocene boundary.

Software size estimation/measurement has been the objective of a lot of research in the software engineering community due to the need of reliable size estimates. FSM Methods have become widely used in software project management to measure the functional size of software since its first publication, late 1970s. Although all FSM methods measure the functional size by quantifying the FURs, each method defined its own measurement process and metric. Therefore, a piece of software has several functional sizes when measured by different methods. In order to be able to compare functional sizes of software products measured by different methods, we need to convert them to each other. In this thesis study, the similarities and differences between four FSM methods, IFPUG FPA, Mark II FPA, COSMIC FFP and ARCHI DIM FSM are investigated and the common core concepts are presented. Accordingly a unification model of the measurement process of all four methods is proposed. The main objective of this model is to measure the functional size of a software system by applying all four methods simultaneously, using a single source of data. In order to have an infrastructure to validate the unification model by conducting empirical studies, a software tool is designed and implemented based on the unification model. Two empirical studies are conducted by utilizing the data of a real project to evaluate both the unification model proposed and the developed tool and the measurement results are discussed.