The main goal of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is the study of the properties of the matter at very high temperatures and energy densities. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) predicts in these conditions the existence of a new phase of the matter whose components are deconfined in a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Heavy quarks (charm e bottom) are produced in the first stages of the collisions, before to interact with the medium. Therefore, the measurement of the quarkonia (cc and bb mesons) is of particular interest for the study of the QGP: their dissociation mainly due to the colour screening is sensible to the initial temperature of the medium. Previous measurements at the SPS and RHIC allowed to understand some characteristics of the system produced, but they also opened many questions. With an energy 14 times higher than RHIC, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN opened a new era for the study of the QGP properties. ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC experiment fully dedicated to the study of the Quark-Gluon Plasma produced in Pb-Pb collisions at an energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon. The experiment also participates to the proton-proton data taking in order to obtain the fundamental reference for the study of ion-ion and proton-ion collisions and for testing the predictions at very small Bjorken-x values of the perturbative QCD. Quarkonia, D and B mesons and light vector mesons are measured at forward rapidity by a Muon Spectrometer exploiting their (di)muonic decay. This detector is composed of a front absorber, a dipole magnet, five stations of tracking (Muon Tracking) and two stations of trigger (Muon Trigger). The work presented in this thesis has been carried out from 2011 to 2013 during the first period of data taking of ALICE. After a detailed introduction of the heavy-ion physics and a description of the experimental setup, the performance of the Muon Trigger in Pb-Pb collisions are shown. A particular attention is devoted to the stability of the detector during the time and to the trigger effectiveness. Moreover, the cluster size, corresponding to the number of adjacent strips hit by a particle, is studied as a function of different variables. The experimental results will be compared to simulations in order to obtain a good parametrization of this phenomenon. Finally, the Ç production in Pb-Pb collisions is carefully analysed and compared to that in pp collisions at the same energy. The results are then compared to the J/ψ measurements obtained by ALICE, to the CMS results and to some theoretical predictions.

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The hydrolysis reaction of N2O5 was investigated at room temperature on two aerosol types using a flow tube coupled to a newly built Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS). This instrument was fully constructed and optimized during this research period, as well as employed to conduct one of two aerosol studies. The first examined the reaction on ammonium bisulphate aerosols using a new ion detection method, I-•N2O5 cluster formation, which proved to be highly advantageous over the common approach of dissociative charge transfer, yielding a sensitivity for I-•N2O5 of 0.024 Hz/pptv. The uptake coefficients at 30% and 50% relative humidity were 0.0067 ± 0.0002 and 0.0120 ±0.0014, respectively. The second study was performed using a different CIMS previously assembled in the laboratory. In this case, the reaction was investigated on secondary organic aerosols produced through the ozonolysis of α-pinene, and resulted in an uptake coefficient of 8.5x10-5 ± 7x10-6 at 0% relative humidity.

The hydrolysis reaction of N2O5 was investigated at room temperature on two aerosol types using a flow tube coupled to a newly built Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS). This instrument was fully constructed and optimized during this research period, as well as employed to conduct one of two aerosol studies. The first examined the reaction on ammonium bisulphate aerosols using a new ion detection method, I-•N2O5 cluster formation, which proved to be highly advantageous over the common approach of dissociative charge transfer, yielding a sensitivity for I-•N2O5 of 0.024 Hz/pptv. The uptake coefficients at 30% and 50% relative humidity were 0.0067 ± 0.0002 and 0.0120 ±0.0014, respectively. The second study was performed using a different CIMS previously assembled in the laboratory. In this case, the reaction was investigated on secondary organic aerosols produced through the ozonolysis of α-pinene, and resulted in an uptake coefficient of 8.5x10-5 ± 7x10-6 at 0% relative humidity.

To study electron emissions and dark currents in the accelerating structures in particle colliders, a test facility with a spectrometer has been constructed at CERN. This spectrometer has been simulated in the C++ toolkit GEANT4 and in this project the simulation has been improved to handle new realistic input data of the emitted electrons. The goal was to find relations between where the electrons are emitted inside the accelerating structure and the energy or position of the particles measured by the spectrometer. The result was that there is a linear relation between the initial position of the electrons and the width in the positions of the particles measured by the spectrometer. It also appears to be a relations between energy the emitted electrons get in the accelerating structure, which is related to the position, and the energy they deposit in the spectrometer. Further studies where the simulations are compared with real measurement data are required to determine whether these relations are true or not, find better reliability in the relations and get a better understanding of the phenomena.

In this master thesis, during 2009, 2010 and 2011, has been done measurement of total content of mercury in ambient air and soil air in urban and rural locations agglomeration of České Budějovice. The goal was to develop suitable method in order to provide sampling of air to evaluate rate of contamination from chosen locations. The aquaristic compressor was used for admission of air, thus collected air could pass through external amalgamator, which secured pre-concentration of mercury from air. Consecutively, captured mercury has been determined in laboratory by atomic absorption spectrometer AMA-254. In urban background locations has been found total average concentration of mercury in rate 4,01 +/- 3,5 ng.m-3 and urban locations influenced by traffic in rate 29,5 +/- 50,07 ng.m-3. The concentration of mercury in soil air taken from filter bed of constructed wetland (CW) was 16 +/- 9,44 ng.m-3 with average mercury flux 14,5 +/- 8,3 ng.m-2.h-1. In rural compared location has been concentration of mercury in rate 15,4 +/- 7,83 ng.m-3 and mercury flux in soil air was 16 +/- 9,3 ng.m-2.h-1 at this location. Significant differences in contamination of mercury among partial locations have not been ascertained to the exception. The statutory limit for amount of mercury in atmosphere is 50 ng.m-3, whose value has not been mostly reached in any of measured locations. Thus, it has been proved that air contamination is low at selected locations.

A back scatter time of flight neutron spectrometer consisting of two scintillation detectors is simulated in Geant4 to examine whether it is possible to perform a proof of concept test at the NESSA facility at Uppsala University. An efficiency of ε = 2.45 · 10^-6 is shown to be large enough for a neutron generator intensity of 1.9 · 10^10 neutrons per second to achieve a minimal required signal count rate of 10000 counts per hour. A corresponding full width at half maximum energy resolution of 8.3% is found. The background in one of the detectors is simulated in MCNP and found to be a factor 62 larger than the signal for a given set of pulse height thresholds in the detectors. Measures to increase the signal to background ratio are discussed and an outlook for future work concerning testing the spectrometer at NESSA is presented.

SWIFTS (pour Stationary-Wave Integrated Fourier-Transform Spectrometer) est un concept de spectromètre s'appuyant sur l'optique intégrée pour proposer un système de mesure compact et de très haute résolution. Il combine une technique d'interférométrie développée par Gabriel Lippmann avec des technologies de microélectroniques actuelles. La technologie SWIFTS sera ici utilisée en tant qu'interrogateur de fibre de Bragg. En effet, combiner ce spectromètre avec des fibres de Bragg très sensibles, telle qu'une cavité Fabry-Perot à réseaux de Bragg (GFPC) d'une longueur de 20 mm, permettra de mesurer des variations de température et de déformation très précises. Les applications des fibres de Bragg sont nombreuses, particulièrement dans la surveillance de structure de génie civil ou dans la sureté nucléaire avec des précisions de l'ordre du microstrain. Cependant, les capteurs par fibres de Bragg n'ont jamais atteint la sensibilité nécessaire aux observations en science de la terre. Une précision de quelques dizaines de nanostrain serait pourtant d'un intérêt majeur dans l'étude des processus volcaniques et sismologiques. Je présente dans cette thèse la première utilisation d'un tel spectromètre de Fourier associé à des capteurs de Bragg pour mesurer des déformations dans différentes gammes allant du millistrain au nanostrain. Dans un premier temps, des déformations sur une petite structure en béton armé amenée jusqu'à l'état limite de fissuration permettront de qualifier différents capteurs à fibres de Bragg dans leur milieu d'usage. Dans un deuxième temps, des mesures de déformations liées au phénomène de la marrée terrestre sont proposées. Ces mesures, effectuées au Laboratoire Souterrain à Bas Bruit (LSBB) de Rustrel, donnent des précisions de l'ordre de 30 nanostrains sur une courte base et ouvrent la voie à d'autres mesures de phénomènes géophysiques pour cet instrument. / SWIFTS, or Stationary-Wave Integrated Fourier-Transform Spectrometer, is an extremely integrated very high resolution spectrometer. This spectroscopy technology represents a major advance in the field and will be used here as a Fiber Bragg Gratings interrogator. Combining such a spectrometer with very sensitive Bragg sensors, like grating Fabry-Perot cavity (GFPC) as long as 20 mm, will allow to measure high precision temperature or strain variation. Applications of Bragg sensors are numerous, especially in structure monitoring and nuclear power plants safety. Despite promising capabilities, Bragg sensors never reached the desired sensibility for earth-science observation purposes. Present applications are restricted to civil-engineering strain-gauge sensors with microstrain sensitivity. However, the ability to detect and record signals of the order of a few tens of nanostrain is of great interest to monitor and model the volcanic and seismological processes. I demonstrate in this thesis the first use of a Fourier-Transform spectrometer combined with Fiber Bragg Sensors in a field configuration to achieve extremely high precision measurement on earth's crustal deformation. Precisions of thirty nanostrains on a very short base were achieved in the Low-Noise Underground Laboratory (LSBB) at Rustrel. Crustal monitoring opens the way for numerous applications especially in geophysics. A second study presented in this thesis aims at benchmarking several strain sensors based on optical fiber Bragg grating. For this purpose, two reinforced concrete beams have been tested in three points bending up to ultimate limit state.

Submitted by Claudinei Pracidelli (cpracide@ipen.br) on 2015-12-10T17:59:26Z No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-10T17:59:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Tese (Doutorado em Tecnologia Nuclear) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Neste trabalho foram estudados vinhos provenientes de microvinificações das variedades Merlot e Cabernet Sauvignon das sub-regiões de Pinto Bandeira, Vale dos Vinhedos, Nova Pádua e Monte Belo do Sul, nas safras de 2005 e 2006. Foram determinadas as razões isotópicas 13C/12C do etanol e 18O/16O da água e do etanol, buscando possível diferenciação entre as variedades e safras de produção, e provável relação entre o local de origem e suas características geográficas (altitude e latitude) e climatológicas (temperatura, precipitação pluviométrica e umidade). Utilizou-se um espectrômetro de massas de razão isotópica (IRMS) acoplado a um analisador elementar, para análise de 13C/12C do etanol e 18O/16O da água e a um cromatógrafo gasoso, para análise de 18O/16O do etanol. Em relação aos valores de δ13C, observou-se que a diferenciação entre as sub-regiões amostrais são menos seletivas e não seguem mesma ordem estatística encontrada para as análises δ18O, porém a análise de δ13C do etanol pode servir para diferenciar sub-regiões que não são diferenciadas estatisticamente pelas análises de δ18O. O comportamento dos valores de δ18O da água e do etanol obedecem mesma ordem estatística de diferenciação. Independente da variedade de uva utilizada neste trabalho, foi possível diferenciar as sub-regiões através da análise isotópica de δ18O, nas duas safras de produção, com exceção do Vale dos Vinhedos e Monte Belo do Sul, safra 2005, que não apresentaram diferenças estatísticas. As latitudes das diferentes sub-regiões apresentaram diferença estatística e demonstraram influência principalmente nos valores de δ18O da água. As análises de δ18O da água e do etanol do vinho mostraram-se mais seletivas e eficientes na discriminação das sub-regiões de cultivo do que as análises de δ13C do etanol. Foi observada uma forte correlação entre os valores de δ18O da água e do etanol. A altitude e a latitude influenciam principalmente os valores de δ18O da água e do etanol. As influências climáticas são mais marcantes na distinção entre safras de produção do que sub-regiões de cultivo. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-14T18:11:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Laurien Adami.pdf: 946622 bytes, checksum: 1405d2dd9ccbcd048e59ac45e36fd0f7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-14T18:11:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Laurien Adami.pdf: 946622 bytes, checksum: 1405d2dd9ccbcd048e59ac45e36fd0f7 (MD5) / In this work, wines provided by micro-winemakings of the variety Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon of the sub-regions of Pinto Bandeira, Vale dos Vinhedos, Nova Pádua and Monte Belo do Sul in the 2005 and 2006 harvest have been studied. It has been established the isotopic ratios 13C/12C of the ethanol and 18O/16O of the water and ethanol, seeking for a possible differentiation among the varieties and production harvests, and a possible relation between the place of origin and its geographic features (altitude and latitude) and climatological conditions (temperature, precipitation and humidity). It has been used a isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) coupled to an elementar analyzer for the analysis of the 13C/12C of the ethanol and 18O/16O of the water and to a gas chromatograph for the analysis of 18O/16O of the ethanol. In relation to the values of δ13C, it is observed that the differentiation among the sampling sub-regions are less selective and do not follow the same statistical order found for the analysis of δ18O, however, the analysis of δ13C of the ethanol may be used to differentiate sub-regions that are not differentiated statistically by the analysis of δ18O. The value behaviors of δ18O of the water and the ethanol follow the same statistical order of differentiation. Regardless of the grape variety used in this work, it has been possible to differentiate the sub-regions through the isotopic analysis of the δ18O, in both production harvests, except for the Vale dos Vinhedos and Monte Belo do Sul, 2005 harvest, which did not present statistical differences. The latitudes of the different sub-regions presented statistical differences and demonstrated an influence mainly in the values of δ18O of the water. The analysis of δ18O of the water and the ethanol of the wine conveyed to be more selective and efficient in the discrimination of the cultivation sub-regions than the analysis of δ13C of the ethanol. It has been observed a strong correlation between the values of δ18O of the water and the ethanol. The altitude and latitude influence mainly the values of δ18O of the water and the ethanol. The climate influences are more noteworthy in distinguishing the production harvests than the cultivation sub-regions.