Neste trabalho consideramos extensões do Modelo Padrão contendo vértices quárticos anômalos parametrizados por operadores efetivos de dimensão oito. Estes alteram o comportamento das amplitudes do tipo VV VV , onde V pode ser o fóton, o bóson Z, o bóson W ou o Higgs. Para essa extensão ser consistente, ela tem que obedecer o teorema ótico. Entretanto, as amplitudes geradas por estes operadores efetivos tendem a aumentar conforme a energia do centro de massa aumenta. Estudaremos o comportamento dessas amplitudes e determinaremos se há violação de unitariedade. Para isso utilizamos também o formalismo da base de helicidade. / In this work we consider Standard Model extensions containing anomalous quartic vertex parametrized by effective dimension-eight operators. These modify the behaviour of the scat- tering amplitudes VV VV , where V can be photon, Z boson, W boson and Higgs. To this extension be consistent, it has to obey the optical theorem. However, the amplitudes generated by these effective operators tends to grow as the center of mass energy increase. We will study the behaviour of these amplitudes and we will determine if there is unitarity violation. For this it was also used the helicity base formalism.

Esta pesquisa trata das experiências anômalas relatadas ou observadas durante o período da infância e adolescência. Experiências anômalas são todas aquelas que fogem do consenso de normalidade, ou que não são explicadas pela psicologia tradicional e o mainstream científico. O texto apresenta as principais experiências anômalas infantis, com especial enfoque para as experiências de percepção extrassensorial (ESP). Três periódicos específicos da área foram selecionados e as publicações relacionadas ao tema são apresentadas e discutidas. Um teste experimental computadorizado foi desenvolvido especificamente para esta pesquisa com o objetivo de modernizar e replicar um experimento realizado em escolas holandesas na década de 1950. Com a aplicação do teste avaliou-se a ocorrência de percepção extrassensorial entre um grupo de professores e alunos das séries iniciais do ensino fundamental. O teste foi aplicado em uma escola particular da cidade de São Paulo. Os resultados gerais foram positivos, sem atingir, contudo, significância estatística. Avaliou-se também a correlação entre os resultados obtidos e algumas variáveis psicológicas. As variáveis escolhidas foram o vínculo afetivo estabelecido na relação professor/aluno e o efeito da expectativa. As correlações para ambas as variáveis foram positivas e estatisticamente significantes. Os resultados são discutidos e comparados àqueles encontrados na literatura específica / This research addresses the anomalous experiences reported or spontaneously observed in childhood and adolescence. An anomalous experience is every one that deviates from our sense of normality, or that cannot be explained by traditional psychology or the scientific mainstream. The main anomalous experiences in childhood are presented and discussed, with special attention dedicated to the experiences of the extra-sensory perception (ESP) type. Three journals of the field were chosen and carefully examed in search for articles addressing the subject. These articles are also presented and discussed. An experimental computerized test was specifically developed with the purpose of updating and replicating a study conducted in Dutch schools in the 1950s. The experiment evaluated the ocurrence of extra-sensory perception among teachers and pupils of first and second grade groups. The study was conducted at a private school in São Paulo. Overall results were positive, but not significant. The scores were correlated to two psychological variables: teacher/pupil bond and expectation. Both variables correlated positively and significantly with the scores. The results are discussed and compared to those available in the literature

Esta pesquisa compara pessoas que alegam experiências anômalas e que não as alegam quanto aos cinco grandes fatores da personalidade, indicadores de transtornos mentais e atribuições de causalidade. O recorte incide sobre experiências caracteristicamente contemporâneas, que mencionam objetos voadores não-identificados (óvnis) e eventos correlatos, como alegadas visões de alienígenas. As variáveis foram escolhidas para o estudo devido ao seu papel teórico na edificação das experiências e aos achados contraditórios da literatura a respeito. O tema foi escolhido por se tratar de uma das categorias menos investigadas de experiências anômalas, especialmente no Brasil, mas cuja elevada prevalência e conotações psicossociológicas são particularmente relevantes na contemporaneidade. As variáveis são investigadas pelo uso de instrumentos apropriados para o contexto brasileiro e por roteiros de entrevista semi-abertos que possibilitaram abordar as experiências e atribuições de causalidade. Concluo que as experiências não podem ser prontamente explicadas enquanto resultantes de tendências de personalidade como dificuldades emocionais no enfrentamento da realidade e busca por estimulação e fantasia, tampouco como consequentes a transtornos mentais formais. Contudo, outras características de personalidade e discutíveis indicadores pré-mórbidos sinalizam possibilidades para novos estudos. Finalmente, as atribuições causais revelam complexas relações entre variáveis psicossociais e biológicas sem as quais as experiências óvni e seus protagonistas não podem ser contextualizados e compreendidos / This research compares people who claim to have had anomalous experiences and those who do not, in what refers to the Big Five personality factors, indicators of mental disorder and causal attributions. The delimitation focuses on the typical contemporary experiences of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and related events such as alleged visions of aliens. The variables were chosen because of their theoretical role in building the experience and the contradictory findings about them found in literature. The theme was chosen because it is one of the less investigated anomalous experiences, especially in Brazil, but its high prevalence and psycho-sociological connotations are particularly relevant in contemporary context. The variables are investigated by using instruments appropriate for the Brazilian context and scripts for semi-open interviews that allow to explore the experiences and causal attributions. I conclude that the experiences can not be readily explained as resulting from personality traits as emotional difficulties facing reality and search for stimulation and fantasy, nor as resulting from formal mental disorders. However, other personality characteristics and possible premorbid indicators suggest possibilities for further research. Finally, causal attributions reveal complex relationships between biological and psychosocial variables without which the protagonists and their UFO experiences cannot be contextualized and understood

Métodos de suavização através de processos de difusão é frequentemente utilizado como etapa prévia em diferentes procedimentos em imagens. Apesar da difusão anômala ser um processo físico conhecido, ainda não é aplicada à suavização de imagens como a difusão clássica. Esta dissertação propõe e relata a implementação e avaliação de filtros de difusão anômala, tanto isotrópico quanto anisotrópico, como um método de melhoramento em imagens ponderadas em difusão (DWI) e imagens de tensor de difusão (DTI) dentro do imageamento por ressonãncia magnética (MRI). Aqui propõe-se generalizar a difusão anisotrópica e isotrópica com o conceito de difusão anômala em processamento de imagens. Como metodologia implementou-se computacionalmente as equações de difusão bidimensional e aplicou às imagens MRI para avaliar o seu potencial como filtro de melhoramento. Foram utilizadas imagens de ressonância magnética de aquisição DTI em voluntários saudáveis. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo foram a verificação que métodos baseados em difusão anômala melhoram a qualidade em processamento das imagens DTI e DWI quando observadas medidas de qualidade como a relação sinal ruído (SNR) e índice de similaridade estrutural (SSIM), e assim determinou-se parâmetros ótimos para as diferentes imagens e situações que foram avaliadas em função dos seus parâmetros de controle, em especial o parâmetro anômalo, chamado de q. Os resultados apresentados aqui permitem prever não apenas uma melhora na qualidade das imagens DTI e DWI resultantes do processamento proposto, como também possível redução de repetições na sequência de aquisição de MRI para um SNR predeterminado. / Smoothing methods through diffusion processes is often used as a preliminary step in different procedures in images. Although the anomalous diffusion is a known physical process, it is not applied to image smoothing as the classical diffusion. This paper proposes and describes implementation and evaluation of anomalous diffusion filters, both isotropic and anisotropic, as a method of improving on diffusion-weighted images (DWI) and diffusion tensor images (DTI) within the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Hereby is proposed to generalize the isotropic and anisotropic diffusion with the concept of anomalous diffusion in image processing. The methodology is implemented computationally as bidimensional diffusion equations and applied to MRI images to evaluate its potential as a filter for quality improvement. We used DTI and DWI imaging to acquire from healthy volunteers as image set. The results of this study verified that methods based on anomalous diffusion improved DWI and DTI image processing when observed quality measures such as signal to noise ratio (SNR) and structural similarity index (SSIM), and determined filter optimal parameters for different images and situations evaluated in terms of their control parameters, particularly the anomalous parameter, called q. The results presented here can predict not only an improvement in the quality of DWI and DTI images resulting from the proposed method, and additionally the possible reduction of repetitions following acquisition of MRI for a predetermined SNR.

Recent experiments suggest that the human genome (all of our DNA) is organised as a so-called fractal globule. The fractal globule is a knot--free dense polymer that easily folds and unfolds any genomic locus, for example a group of nearby genes. Proteins often need to locate specific target sites on the DNA, for instance to activate a gene. To understand how proteins move through the DNA polymer, we simulate diffusion of particles through a fractal globule. The fractal globule was generated on a cubic lattice as spheres connected by cylinders. With the structure in place, we simulate particle diffusion and measure how their mean squared displacement ($\langle R^2(t)\rangle$) grows as function of time $t$ for different particle radii. This quantity allows us to better understand how the three dimensional structure of DNA affects the protein's motion. From our simulations we found that $\langle R^2(t)/t\rangle$ is a decaying function when the particle is sufficiently large. This means that the particles diffuse slower than if they were free. Assuming that $\langle R^2(t) \rangle \propto t^\alpha$ for long times, we calculated the growth exponent $\alpha$ as a function of particle radius $r_p$. When $r_p$ is small compared to the average distance between two polymer segments $d$, we find that $\alpha \approx 1$. This means the polymer network does not affect the particle's motion. However, in the opposite limit $r_p\sim d$ we find that $\alpha<1$ which means that the polymer strongly slows down the particle's motion. This behaviour is indicative of sub-diffusive dynamics and has potentially far reaching consequences for target finding processes and biochemical reactions in the cell.

Today, there are only a limited number of surveys of the sky at 1 to 20 GHz. These frequencies lie below the all-sky surveys of WMAP and Planck, but are critical in constraining the spectral slope of Galactic synchrotron emission. Knowledge of the large-scale spectral morphology of Galactic synchrotron emission is critical in the understanding of the interstellar medium and the weak signal from the polarised cosmic microwave background. Recently, ground based observations from S-PASS, C-BASS and the QUIJOTE Multifrequency Instrument (MFI) have been populating these missing frequencies. This thesis presents the first QUIJOTE MFI maps of the Northern sky in total intensity at 11, 13, 17 and 19 GHz, and the first single-dish mapping observations of Lynds dark cloud, LDN1622 at 5 and 13.7GHz. The observations from both instruments are used to probe the nature of spinning dust emission on degree and arcminute scales within the Galaxy. A full data reduction and calibration pipeline for QUIJOTE MFI time-ordered-data is described. The absolute flux density scale uncertainty of the MFI data is between 2 and 3 per cent. The pipeline characterises key properties of the MFI, such as the RFI sources, beams, bandpasses, 1/f noise and more. A key part of the pipeline was the development of an MPI ready Destriping map-maker and a maximum-likelihood map-maker. The map-making code can be applied to a range of different single-dish instruments and is used to reduce both the QUIJOTE MFI wide-survey maps of the Northern sky, and the GBT arcminute resolution raster observations of LDN 1622. A detailed discussion is given on the simulations used to test the integrity of the map-making implementation. Parametric model fitting to the SEDs of four spinning dust emission regions is performed. The MFI wide-survey maps are used in conjunction with existing multifrequency 1degree survey data. The addition of MFI maps is used to confirm the previously tentative spinning dust emission source LDN 1582/84. The mean peak frequency of spinning dust emission over the four spinning dust sources is found to be ⟨νsp⟩ = 27.2 +/- 0.7 GHz, and the mean ratio of the peak spinning dust brightness over the dust optical depth is ⟨Asp/τ250⟩ = 1.24 +/- 0.18 × 104 Jy/τ250. Spectral index maps are derived from the MFI wide-survey data in combination with 408 MHz and WMAP 23 GHz data. These maps are used to further quantify the ubiquity of spinning dust emission throughout the Galaxy. The results show that the median flux density spectral index within the inner Galactic disk for |b| < 2° is 0.24 +/- 0.07. This implies that at 23 GHz, spinning dust emission contributes 25 +/- 5 per cent of the total integrated emission within the inner disk of the Galaxy.

This thesis is split in two different topics. Firstly, we study anomalous transport from kinetic models. Secondly, we consider the equations coming from weak wave turbulence theory and we study them via mean-field limits of finite stochastic particle systems. $\textbf{Anomalous transport from kinetic models.}$ The goal is to understand how fractional diffusion arises from kinetic equations. We explain how fractional diffusion corresponds to anomalous transport and its relation to the classical diffusion equation. In previous works it has been seen that particles systems undergoing free transport and scattering with the media can give rise to fractional phenomena in two cases: firstly, if in the dynamics of the particles there is a heavy-tail equilibrium distribution; and secondly, if the scattering rate is degenerate for small velocities. We use these known results in the literature to study the emergence of fractional phenomena for some particular kinetic equations. Firstly, we study BGK-type equations conserving not only mass (as in previous results), but also momentum and energy. In the hydrodynamic limit we obtain a fractional diffusion equation for the temperature and density making use of the Boussinesq relation and we also demonstrate that with the same rescaling fractional diffusion cannot be derived additionally for the momentum. But considering the case of conservation of mass and momentum only, we do obtain the incompressible Stokes equation with fractional diffusion in the hydrodynamic limit for heavy-tailed equilibria. Secondly, we will study diffusion phenomena arising from transport of energy in an anharmonic chain. More precisely, we will consider the so-called FPU-$\beta$ chain, which is a very simple model for a one-dimensional crystal in which atoms are coupled to their nearest neighbours by a harmonic potential, weakly perturbed by a nonlinear quartic potential. The starting point of our mathematical analysis is a kinetic equation; lattice vibrations, responsible for heat transport, are modelled by an interacting gas of phonons whose evolution is described by the Boltzmann Phonon Equation. Our main result is the derivation of an anomalous diffusion equation for the temperature. $\textbf{Weak wave turbulence theory and mean-field limits for stochastic particle systems.}$ The isotropic 4-wave kinetic equation is considered in its weak formulation using model homogeneous kernels. Existence and uniqueness of solutions is proven in a particular setting. We also consider finite stochastic particle systems undergoing instantaneous coagulation-fragmentation phenomena and give conditions in which this system approximates the solution of the equation (mean-field limit).

For the past 50 years, the magnetic storage industry has been the ultimate provider, covering the ever-expanding needs of digital mass storage. Up to now, scaling to smaller dimensions has been the core approach for achieving higher areal densities in conventional media. However, recent studies have shown that further miniaturisation is physically bound by superparamagnetic effects. Bit patterned media (BPM) is one of the most promising solutions for extending the areal densities beyond 1Tbit/in². The ability to magnetically characterise novel BPM is a key requirement for its future commercialisation. The work presented in this thesis describes the investigation of the Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect (MOKE) and the Anomalous Hall Effect (AHE) techniques, used in the characterisation of BPM samples. These samples were produced as part of this work using a customised subtractive fabrication process. Continuous thin magnetic films with Ptseed(10nm)/[Co(0.4nm)/Pt(1nm)]x15 composition and perpendicular anisotropy, were deposited using electron-beam (e-beam) evaporation, and subsequently patterned into magnetic nano-islands through means of e-beam lithography and Ar⁺ ion milling. In terms of the MOKE technique, a fully customised polar MOKE system has been developed and successfully used to observe the hysteretic behaviour of magnetic nano-island arrays with varying dimensions. An expected reduction in the MOKE signal due to pattering has been observed, as well as an additional signal reduction due to the scattering effect arising from the non-vertical sidewalls of the dome-shaped islands. In the case of islands with improved shape profile, the magnetic reversal of BPM arrays with islands sizes down to 35nm has been successfully detected, demonstrating a sensitivity of approximately 6x10⁻¹³emu for the MOKE system. In terms of the AHE technique, Au Hall crosses were deposited on top of the BPM arrays that had been previously characterised by MOKE, allowing the direct comparison and cross-verification of the results obtained by the two techniques. A revised Hall cross design, where the Hall crosses were generated by direct patterning of the Pt seed layer, has provided a significant improvement in AHE signal. This has allowed the detection of the magnetic reversal of individual sub-50nm magnetic islands, demonstrating a sensitivity of approximately 6.6x10⁻¹⁵emu for the AHE technique. The spatial sensitivity of these Hall cross structures has been experimentally determined, indicating a decrease in sensitivity with increasing distance from the cross centre and with decreasing island diameter. In conclusion, the sensitivity profile of Hall cross structures must be taken into account for the accurate interpretation of BPM characterisation results obtained by the AHE technique. Finally, some suggestions are outlined with regard to the future improvement of the developed characterisation techniques and the further continuation of the work presented in this thesis.

The purpose of this research is to investigate properties of diffusion processes in porous media. Porous media are modelled by random Sierpinski carpets, each carpet is constructed by mixing two different generators with the same linear size. Diffusion on porous media is studied by performing random walks on random Sierpinski carpets and is characterized by the random walk dimension $d_w$. In the first part of this work we study $d_w$ as a function of the ratio of constituents in a mixture. The simulation results show that the resulting $d_w$ can be the same as, higher or lower than $d_w$ of carpets made by a single constituent generator. In the second part, we discuss the influence of static external fields on the behavior of diffusion. The biased random walk is used to model these phenomena and we report on many simulations with different field strengths and field directions. The results show that one structural feature of Sierpinski carpets called traps can have a strong influence on the observed diffusion properties. In the third part, we investigate the effect of diffusion under the influence of external fields which change direction back and forth after a certain duration. The results show a strong dependence on the period of oscillation, the field strength and structural properties of the carpet.

The purpose of this research is to investigate properties of diffusion processes in porous media. Porous media are modelled by random Sierpinski carpets, each carpet is constructed by mixing two different generators with the same linear size. Diffusion on porous media is studied by performing random walks on random Sierpinski carpets and is characterized by the random walk dimension $d_w$. In the first part of this work we study $d_w$ as a function of the ratio of constituents in a mixture. The simulation results show that the resulting $d_w$ can be the same as, higher or lower than $d_w$ of carpets made by a single constituent generator. In the second part, we discuss the influence of static external fields on the behavior of diffusion. The biased random walk is used to model these phenomena and we report on many simulations with different field strengths and field directions. The results show that one structural feature of Sierpinski carpets called traps can have a strong influence on the observed diffusion properties. In the third part, we investigate the effect of diffusion under the influence of external fields which change direction back and forth after a certain duration. The results show a strong dependence on the period of oscillation, the field strength and structural properties of the carpet.