Founded in 1955, the Frascati National Laboratories (LNF) are the oldest and largest laboratories of INFN, the Italian agency devoted to fundamental research in nuclear and subnuclear physics. The LNF cover an area of 140000 m2 and are located about 20 km from the centre of Rome. They can be easily reached by car, by plane (two international airports), by bus and by train.
Research activities in the LNF are pursued in all major INFN areas of interest:
Particle Physics, Astroparticle Physics, Nuclear Physics, Theoretical
Physics and Detector Physics.
Several groups are participating in experimental programs in collaboration
with US institutions.
In particular the following groups have expressed their interest in the
2011 edition of the Summer Exchange Program and they invite US students to join their research activities: ALICE, DAPHNE Phi Factory , NA62 and SuperB. Candidates
must be enrolled as students at a US University and must have begun, at the time of application, at least the third year of a US University curriculum in physics, engineering or computing science. They can join
a team at the LNF for 2 months between June 1st
and October 31st, 2011. For further details refer to the Summer Exchange Program homepage. Opportunities
include participation in physics analysis activities of running experiments
as well as involvement in detector developments.
The Frascati Laboratories will be closed from August 8th to August 21st included.
The
4 available positions at Frascati are the following:
1 position: ALICE Experiment LNF
Title: High Level Trigger Development
Tutor: Dr. Nicola Bianchi (nicola.bianchi@lnf.infn.it)
ALICE is an experiment at CERN which mainly studies the hot and dense matter created in heavy ion interaction at LHC. A huge number of particles are produced in each interaction. Therefore many hardware and software tools (triggers) have been developed to handle the amount of data. The Frascati group is responsible of the High Level Trigger of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter. The student will work within the group developing the needed software tools.
No preferred period. |
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1 position: DAPHNE Phi-Factory
Title:
Bunch-by-bunch betatron tune spread studies in DAFNE e+/e- collider
Tutor: Alessandro Drago (alessandro.drago@lnf.infn.it)
Dafne is a lepton circular accelerator with two main rings working at 510MeV located at Frascati in Italy. In each ring Dafne can store up to 120 electron or positron bunches colliding in one interaction point where detector characterizes the particle decays. The e+/e- bunches stored in the main rings circulate at light speed and, to avoid undesired oscillations in the betatron and synchrotron plans, are controlled by powerful real time digital feedback systems working bunch-by-bunch. The beam signals, converted in digital form, can be stored in a data base to study undesired betatron motion behaviors. The student shall develop MATLAB programs to acquire, store and analyze bunch-by-bunch data extracting the motion signals from the noise. The final goal is to characterize the betatron tune spread along the bunch train versus different beam and collision conditions.
Preferred period: 6 June to 5 August.
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1 position: NA62 Experiment
Title: NA62 detector development
Tutor: Dr. Mauro Raggi (mauro.raggi@lnf.infn.it)
The goal of the NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS is to collect on the order of 100 events of the extremely rare decay K+ --> pi+ nu anti-nu. Because of the clean theoretical prediction for the branching ratio for this decay, a precise measurement of its branching ratio may shed light on physics beyond the Standard Model. Such a measurement is extremely challenging, since the predicted branching ratio is 8 x 10^-11. Sensitive photon detectors are needed to reject abundant decays such as K+--> pi+ pi0. A series of twelve photon veto detectors, to be installed in the experiment at CERN, are currently being assembled in Frascati. The detectors are cylinders, two meters in diameter, with 160 lead-glass crystal photodetectors arranged about the inside wall. During the summer the first production of the VME 9U front-end electronic boards will be delivered in Frascati. The student will participate to the assembly of the detectors and in the construction of the test stand for the front-end electronic boards.
Preferred period: 1 June to 6 August. |
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1 position: SuperB Experiment
Title: Optimization and R&D for the SuperB Drift Chamber
Tutor: Dr. Giuseppe Finocchiaro (giuseppe.finocchiaro@lnf.infn.it)
The SuperB project for an asymmetric-energy e+e- B-factory with unprecedented luminosity of 10^36 cm^-2 sec^-1 has recently been approved and funded by the Italian Government. The LNF group is sharing with Canadian Institutions the responsibility of the SuperB Drift Chamber, a large volume gas tracking system providing measurements of charged particle momentum and ionization energy loss used for particle identification. An intense program is underway to optimize the detector performances under the challenging detector occupancy conditions due to the extremely high SuperB luminosity. We are also pursuing an ambitious R&D program to use the Cluster Counting technique to count and measure the arrival time of the single ionization acts along the track in the Drift Chamber. The student will participate in the data taking and analysis of a full-Length drift chamber prototypes which is being assembled at LNF in Spring 2011.
Preferred period: Jun 1st - Aug 6.
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To apply, please
fill the application
form available on the Summer Exchange Program homepage.
LOCAL
EXCHANGE PROGRAM CONTACTS:
Administration and Logistic:
Luisa Bontempi (Administration Office)
Patrizia Fioretti (Personnel Office)
Stefania Pelliccioni (Visitor's Office)
Scientific coordination:
Catalina Curceanu Petrascu (coordinator)
M. Cristina D'Amato (secretary)
Phone
+39-06-94032373
author: mcd
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