Fenomeni Radioattivi : Dai nuclei alle stelle = Radioactive phenomena : From nuclei to stars
The topics covered constitute an introduction to radioactive phenomena in the strict sense with excursions, having as a starting point and guiding thread the decay b, in the field of elementary particle physics, in particular neutrinos, and astrophysics. Some topics are traditional (alpha decay, beta gamma), others concern frontier physics (so that the reader is offered particular itineraries from established physics to evolving physics).
Cores to Clusters : Star Formation with Next Generation Telescopes
Toward the second half of this decade, several major telescope facilities operating in the infrared, sub-millimeter, and millimeter wave bands will become operational. These missions are expected to throw much light on our understanding of the star formation phenomenon, which is one of the primary science goals in these wave bands. This book contains the proceedings of the "Cores to Clusters" workshop held at Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto. The mission of the workshop was to discuss current and future issues in star formation physics in the light of these Next Generation Telescopes. This book is comprised of a mixture of articles that provide a comprehensive coverage of current topics including both low and high mass star formation. It serves as a practical compendium for graduate students and young researchers working in the field of star formation.
La musica del Big Bang : Come la radiazione cosmica di fondo ci ha svelato i segreti dell’Universo = The music of the Big Bang : How the cosmic background radiation revealed the secrets of the Universe to us
Cosmic microwave background radiation is the residue of the great heat following the Big Bang. A tenuous sign, over 13 billion years old, in which the answers to many of the questions about the nature of our Universe are hidden. Discovered by chance in 1964, in the last forty years this fossil trace of the origins of the Cosmos has been explored with every available means. Two Nobel Prizes in physics have already been awarded for research involving it, the last in 2006 for the results of the COBE satellite. Much of the information encoded in the cosmic background radiation was impressed by the superimposition of acoustic waves present in the early Universe: a "music" of the Big Bang, which cosmologists have tried for years to reconstruct, using techniques similar to those that allow to distinguish the sound of different musical instruments. Only recently have the first notes of this extraordinary cosmic symphony finally been revealed, but the investigation is not over yet. This book illustrates, with a language suitable even for non-specialists, the theories, observations and discoveries that have brought cosmology into a new era.


