We present here the hypothesis of a possible relationship between metal atom clusters and the formation of organic molecules in the interstellar medium and on small bodies as a possible pathway to the origin of such molecules. Two distinct stages are díscussed: a) the possible formation and presence of atom clusters in space and on the primitive Earth, and b) the synthesis of interstellar and terrestrial prebiotic organic molecules, a process in which metalclusters could be the active catalysts. The confirmatíon of these suggestions might be very important in arder to explain the presence of extra-terrestrial organic molecules in the interstellar medium, small bodies and planetary systems, and therefore would have great relevance in cosmochemistry and in the current theories about the origins of life.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:34:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T13:59:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Neste trabalho, cujo objetivo foi fornecer subsídios que permitam estabelecer um sistema de dosimetria para as tripulações de aeronaves que operam no território nacional, foi desenvolvida uma técnica para realizar medições do equivalente de dose ambiente em aeronaves. Foi testado um detector ativo, para uso embarcado em aeronaves, avaliando-se sua adequação a este tipo específico de medição, assim como sua suscetibilidade às interferências magnética e eletromagnética. O equipamento foi calibrado em campos metrologicamente rastreados e foi verificado em um campo especial do laboratório europeu CERN, que reproduz com grande proximidade o espectro de partículas existentes em altitudes de voo de aeronaves, sendo a seguir testado em diversos ensaios em voo, em uma aeronave da Força Aérea Brasileira. Os resultados foram avaliados e comparados com aqueles obtidos por diversos programas computacionais de estimativa de dose oriunda de radiação cósmica, com respeito à sua adequação para uso na região da América do Sul e foi selecionado o programa CARI-6 para avaliar as doses efetivas médias estimadas a que estão sujeitas as tripulações que operam nesta região. Foi efetuada uma avaliação estatística da distribuição de doses efetivas das tripulações dos voos que operam na região da América do Sul e Caribe e concluiu-se que grande parte destas tripulações estão sujeitas a doses efetivas anuais que ultrapassam o limite estabelecido para membros do público. Adicionalmente, foi proposto um dosímetro passivo preliminar, baseado em detectores termoluminescentes, e foram ainda estabelecidas colaborações internacionais com grupos de pesquisa do Reino Unido e da Itália, para a realização de medições conjuntas do equivalente de dose ambiente em aeronaves. / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Orientador: Anderson Campos Fauth / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T00:09:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tavares_DenisBorgarelli_M.pdf: 5623442 bytes, checksum: 17583c9607ed6e94cf631816f4ccb01f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Um dos fenômenos previstos por Einstein na dedução da relatividade geral foi a existência de pequenas perturbações da métrica que ele nomeou de ondas gravitacionais.Essas ondas ao atravessarem a matéria fazem com que a mesma oscile de acordo com a polarização da onda gravitacional.Esta é a única previsão importante da Relatividade Geral que ainda não foi comprovada completamente.O pequeno sinal gerado pela passagem de uma onda gravitacional em comparação com os ruídos existentes no sistema de detecção torna a sua detecção direta um dos principais desafios da ciência moderna.Neste trabalho estudamos o ruído gerado por raios cósmicos na antena gravitacional Mario Schenberg,localizada na cidade de São Paulo.Medidas do fluxo de múons e hádrons isolados realizadas no hemisfério norte foram utilizadas para calcular o fluxo esperado dessas partículas na cidade de São Paulo.O cálculo da energia depositada no detector de ondas gravitacionais pelos raios cósmicos foi realizado através de simulações de Monte arlo utilizando o Geant4.A passagem de múons e prótons,com diversas energias e alguns ângulos de incidência,pelo prédio e pela esfera ressonante da antena gravitacional,foi simulada.Desenvolvemos um modelo termo-acústico, denominado de multiponto,adequado para calcular as energias depositadas nos modos normais de vibração da esfera a partir da energia depositada na esfera por partículas elementares.om esses resultados calculamos a taxa esperada de sinal de raios cósmicos no principal modo de detecção de ondas gravitacionais,nl=12,do detector Mario Schenberg para temperaturas de operação Tnoise entre 10 -5 e 10 -7 K.Os resultados obtidos mostraram que para a sensibilidade projetada para 4,2K do detector Mário Schenberg a taxa de sinais devido aos raios cósmicos é muito pequena,sendo da ordem de 5 eventos por dia.Porém,quando for atingido o limite quântico,será preciso uma análise mais detalhada do sinal de saída da antena,já que o número de partículas esperado aumenta consideravelmente, alcançando cerca de 250 sinais por dia / Abstract: One of the phenomena predicted by Einstein in the derivation of general relativity is the existence of small perturbations of the metric that he named gravitational waves.As they travel through space oscillates the space-time according to its polarization.This is the only major prediction of general relativity not yet proven completely.The small signal generated by the passage of a gravitational wave compared to the noise in the system of detection makes their direct detection one challenge of modern science.In this paper we study the noise generated by cosmic rays in the gravitational antenna Mario Schenberg,located in the city of Sao Paulo.Single muons and hadrons flux measurements held in the northern hemisphere were used to calculate the expected flux of these particles in the city of Sao Paulo. The calculation of the energy deposited in the detector of gravitational waves from cosmic rays was performed by Monte arlo simulations using Geant4.The transport of muons and protons,with several energy and some different angles of incidence,across the building and the resonant sphere was simulated.We developed a thermo-acoustic model,called multi-point,suitable for calculating the energy deposited in the normal modes from the energy deposited on the sphere by elementary particles. With these results we calculate the expected rate of cosmic ray signals in the main detection mode of gravitational waves,nl =12,of the Mario Schenberg detector,for temperatures Tnoise between 10 -5 and 10 -7 K.The results showed for the designed for 4.2 K sensitivity of the Mario Schenberg detector that the rate of signals due to cosmic rays is very small,being around 5 events per day.However,when it will reach the quantum limit will be needed a more detailed analysis of the antenna signal output,since the expected number of cosmic ray noise increases considerably,reaching about 250 signals per day / Mestrado / Física das Particulas Elementares e Campos / Mestre em Física

Neste trabalho, cujo objetivo foi fornecer subsídios que permitam estabelecer um sistema de dosimetria para as tripulações de aeronaves que operam no território nacional, foi desenvolvida uma técnica para realizar medições do equivalente de dose ambiente em aeronaves. Foi testado um detector ativo, para uso embarcado em aeronaves, avaliando-se sua adequação a este tipo específico de medição, assim como sua suscetibilidade às interferências magnética e eletromagnética. O equipamento foi calibrado em campos metrologicamente rastreados e foi verificado em um campo especial do laboratório europeu CERN, que reproduz com grande proximidade o espectro de partículas existentes em altitudes de voo de aeronaves, sendo a seguir testado em diversos ensaios em voo, em uma aeronave da Força Aérea Brasileira. Os resultados foram avaliados e comparados com aqueles obtidos por diversos programas computacionais de estimativa de dose oriunda de radiação cósmica, com respeito à sua adequação para uso na região da América do Sul e foi selecionado o programa CARI-6 para avaliar as doses efetivas médias estimadas a que estão sujeitas as tripulações que operam nesta região. Foi efetuada uma avaliação estatística da distribuição de doses efetivas das tripulações dos voos que operam na região da América do Sul e Caribe e concluiu-se que grande parte destas tripulações estão sujeitas a doses efetivas anuais que ultrapassam o limite estabelecido para membros do público. Adicionalmente, foi proposto um dosímetro passivo preliminar, baseado em detectores termoluminescentes, e foram ainda estabelecidas colaborações internacionais com grupos de pesquisa do Reino Unido e da Itália, para a realização de medições conjuntas do equivalente de dose ambiente em aeronaves. / The objective of this work is the establishment of a dosimetric system for the aircrew in the domestic territory. A technique to perform measurements of ambient dose equivalent in aircrafts was developed. An active detector was evaluated for onboard aircraft use, testing its adequacy to this specific type of measurement as well as its susceptibility to the magnetic and electromagnetic interferences. The equipment was calibrated in standard radiation beams and in a special field of the European Laboratory CERN, that reproduces with great proximity the real spectrum in aircraft flight altitudes; it was also tested in several flights, in an Brazilian Air Force\'s aircraft. The results were evaluated and compared with those obtained from several computational programs for cosmic radiation estimatives, with respect to its adequacy for use in the South American region. The program CARI-6 was selected to evaluate the estimated averaged effective doses for the aircrew who operate in this region. A statistical distribution of aircrew effective doses in South America and Caribe was made, and the results show that a great part of this aircrew members are subjected to annual effective doses that exceed the dose limits for the members of the public. Additionally, a preliminary passive dosemeter, based in thermoluminescent detectors, was proposed; international collaborations with United Kingdom and Italy were established for joint measurements of the ambient equivalent doses in aircrafts.

Ett identifierat riskområde inom hälso- och sjukvården är hantering av läkemedel och för att höja patientensäkerheten bör läkemedelshanteringen säkerställas. Vi har i en kvalitativ studie genom att använda flera olika metoder, så kallad triangulering, undersökt och beskrivit processen delning av läkemedel inom slutenvården. Vårt syfte var att identifiera risker och förbättringsmöjligheter och genom en fallstudie på två vårdavdelningar har vi kunnat identifiera skillnader i arbetssätt mellan vårdavdelningarna men också mellan sjuksköterskorna. För informationshantering i processen använder sig båda vårdavdelningarna av läkemedelsmodulen i vårdinformationssystemet Cosmic. Delningsprocessen på de studerade vårdavdelningarna fungerar bra men vi har kunnat identifiera förbättringsmöjligheter i den tekniska utrustningen, det vårdadministrativa systemet samt i organisationen och dess kvalitetsarbete. För att uppnå en hög patientsäkerhet är det av stor vikt att informationsflödet fungerar optimalt i delsystemen och i relationen mellan dem vilket kan uppnås genom en övergripande kvalitetssäkring där ett systemsynsätt appliceras. Med ett effektivt ledningssystem kan organisationer arbeta med ständiga förbättringar och prioritera de ur patientsäkerhetssynpunkt viktigaste åtgärderna.

We develop a simple one-zone model of the steady-state Crab nebula spectrum encompassing both the radio/soft X-ray and the GeV/multi-TeV observations. By solving the transport equation for GeV-TeV electrons injected at the wind termination shock as a log-parabola momentum distribution and evolved via energy losses, we determine analytically the resulting differential energy spectrum of photons. We find an impressive agreement with the observed spectrum of synchrotron emission, and the synchrotron self-Compton component reproduces the previously unexplained broad 200-GeV peak that matches the Fermi/Large Area Telescope (LAT) data beyond 1 GeV with the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) data. We determine the parameters of the single log-parabola electron injection distribution, in contrast with multiple broken power-law electron spectra proposed in the literature. The resulting photon differential spectrum provides a natural interpretation of the deviation from power law customarily fitted with empirical multiple broken power laws. Our model can be applied to the radio-to-multi-TeV spectrum of a variety of astrophysical outflows, including pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants, as well as to interplanetary shocks.

In this thesis a characterization of air showers induced by magnetic monopoles is presented. Monopoles are predicted to exist and be accelerated to relativistic velocities. High energy monopoles traversing earth’s atmosphere continuously deposit energy, inducing an air shower. These air showers have been described based on simulations run in CORSIKA. It was found that monopole air showers are continuous; they plateau after the shower maximum, and have a large electromagnetic component. As such,they can easily be distinguished from normal cosmic rays and most other air shower sources. Very high energy photons and muons could induce similar showers but do not produce identical signals in track-following detectors such as IceCube.

The existence of cosmic strings was proposed in the mid-seventies as a by-product of the various phase transitions that occured in the early Universe. Cosmic strings are one-dimensional topological defects; structures of extremely high energy density with infinitesimal widths and lengths of cosmological size. After they were proposed, cosmic strings with GUT energy scales became very popular as a potential source for galaxy formation, but after CMB observations ruled out this possibility, they stopped attracting much scientific attention. The whole field was revived as part of superstring theory, where the formation of cosmic (super)string networks is a very common characteristic of brane inflation models, allowing them to acquire energies over a much more extended range. Attempts to detect cosmic strings centers on the three most basic observational signatures they create: CMB anisotropies, gravitational lensing events and the stochastic gravitational wave background they are expected to have created. So far, no detection of cosmic strings has been achieved. Their non-detection has inevitably led to setting constraints on their most important characteristic; their lineal energy density (or tension) which describes their energy scale. The topic of this thesis is how to use pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) in order to set constraints on the string tension. The limits PTAs can set on the amplitude of the stochastic gravitational wave background at ~nHz frequencies can be used to set constraints on the string tension. Such an effort is much more complicated than CMB or gravitational lensing investigations due to the large number of unknown cosmic string model parameters which are involved and for which, not only we do not have any observational evidence for their value, but moreover, they can acquire values over very wide ranges. So far, previous investigations were based on assumptions about these parameters and on the specific gravitational wave emission mechanism from cosmic string loops. In this work we have constructed a new code to reproduce the gravitational wave background from a cosmic string network, based on the widely accepted one scale model. Using this, we have performed numerous simulations to study the effects on the gravitational wave spectrum for each cosmic string model parameter, covering the whole parameter space of interest for each of them. Moreover, we have also extended the application of our code in order to describe cosmic string networks which create loops on more than one scale, models of which have recently appeared in the literature. In particular, we have investigated cosmic string networks which create loops at two distinct scales and loops with scales described by a log-normal distribution After studying the properties of the gravitational wave spectrum from cosmic strings, we combined our simulations with the most stringent limit so far on the stochastic gravitational wave background imposed by the EPTA. This limit is provided as a function of the slope of the gravitational wave background and we have also used this information for the first time to acquire even more accurate results. In our approach, we did not make any assumption about the values of the cosmic string model parameters, investigating all possibilities and we managed to compute a conservative and completely general constraint on the cosmic string tension, G mu<5.3x10 -7, which is slightly weaker than the current constraints set by CMB and gravitational lensing. We concluded our work by estimating the projected constraints that are expected to be achieved by near future experiments like LEAP, and ultimately by the SKA, to find an improvement of at least two orders of magnitude, significantly outperforming the expected constraints by future CMB investigations.

A basket weaving technique for making radio continuum maps has been developed at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO). This data reduction technique significantly reduces scanning effects by using independent maps scanned in orthogonal directions. The observation and data analysis procedures that were developed are presented. The technique was used to map the supernova remnant MSH 15-52 at frequencies of 5000 MHz and 8500 MHz. The flux spectral index for this supernova remnant was found to be 0.83 ± 0.02 in this frequency range. Two regions (A and B) of the Galactic plane were observed at 8500 MHz with a resolution of 6'. Region A covered the 5°x5° area 47.5°< k 52.5°, Ibl < 2.5°, and region B was the 4.2°x3° area 320.4°< I <334.6°, Ibl < 1.5°. Far infrared observations at 60 !lm were used in conjunction with the radio maps to separate the thermal and non-thermal components of the radio emission. The technique can be used to map the Galactic plane at 8500 MHz using dual polarisation once the receiver at HartRAO has been upgraded. This would fulfil a need for a medium resolution, high frequency survey of the southern Galactic plane. / Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.4.6 / Adobe Acrobat 9.46 Paper Capture Plug-in

We present a cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map produced from a linear combination of South Pole Telescope (SPT) and Planck temperature data. The 150 GHz temperature data from the 2500 deg(2) SPT-SZ survey is combined with the Planck 143 GHz data in harmonic space to obtain a temperature map that has a broader l coverage and less noise than either individual map. Using a quadratic estimator technique on this combined temperature map, we produce a map of the gravitational lensing potential projected along the line of sight. We measure the auto-spectrum of the lensing potential C-L(phi phi), and compare it to the theoretical prediction for a.CDM cosmology consistent with the Planck 2015 data set, finding a best-fit amplitude of 0.95(-0.06)(+0.06) (stat.)(-0.01)(+0.01)+ (sys.). The null hypothesis of no lensing is rejected at a significance of 24 sigma. One important use of such a lensing potential map is in cross-correlations with other dark matter tracers. We demonstrate this cross-correlation in practice by calculating the cross-spectrum, C-L(phi) G, between the SPT+ Planck lensing map and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) galaxies. We fit C-L(phi G) to a power law of the form p(L) = a(L/L-0)(-b) with a, L-0, and b fixed, and find eta(phi G) = C-L(phi G)/p(L) = 0.94(-0.04)(+0.04), which is marginally lower, but in good agreement with eta(phi G) = 1.00-(+0.02)(0.01), the best-fit amplitude for the cross-correlation of Planck-2015 CMB lensing and WISE galaxies over similar to 67% of the sky. The lensing potential map presented here will be used for cross-correlation studies with the Dark Energy Survey, whose footprint nearly completely covers the SPT 2500 deg(2) field.