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Stars and particles
Tuesday 19 February 2013, at 20,30How do we observe elementary particles? And the universe? What is the link between particle research and astrophysics? And between the recent results produced by LHC, the CERN experiment that revealed the Higgs boson, and dark matter, that seems to be the main ingredient of galaxies? A journey from the infinitely small to the enormously big, in search of similarities and differences. At what point have we come so far and what are the possible scenarios for future research?
Our guides throughout this journey will be Riccardo Faccini, physicist of elementary particles and the astrophysicist, Paolo de Bernardis.
Paolo De Bernardis
Professor of Astrophysics in the Physics Department at the University "La Sapienza", he is dedicated to the study of microwaves, emitted in the early universe, and he has been the first to produce a clear image of this radiation thanks to BOOMERanG, an experiment on a stratospheric balloon. This experiment allowed to estimate the average density of the mass-energy in the Universe. In addition he has greatly contributed to the increased precision and sensitivity of measurement instruments. This field of research has recently reached its peak with the launch of the Planck satellite, with which it has been possible to probe in detail the various forms of mass-energy present in the universe (radiation, normal and dark matter, dark energy) and the most important stages of its evolution.Riccardo Faccini
Professor at the Department of Physics at the University of "Sapienza" and physicist of elementary particles. His career starts at CERN, searching for the Higgs boson, and continues at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, where he leads the first team to observe the different behavior between mater and anti-mater in the meson B decay. In the last years his research is focused at the development of detectors for applied physics, more precisely in the branch of medical physics. Among other things he is also the editor of the first physics podcast in italian: Fisicast.