Laser guide stars wavefront sensors for the EELT

The Adaptive Optics is the measurement and correction in real time of the wavefront aberration of the star light caused by the atmospheric turbulence, that limits the angular resolution of ground based telescopes and thus their capabilities to deep explore faint and crowded astronomical objects. The lack of natural stars enough bright to be used as reference sources for the Adaptive Optics, over a relevant fraction of the sky, led to the introduction of artificial reference stars. The so-called Laser Guide Stars are produced by exciting the Sodium atoms in a layer laying at 90km of altitude, by a powerful laser beam projected toward the sky. The possibility to turn on a reference star close to the scientific targets of interest has the drawback in an increased difficulty in the wavefront measuring, mainly due to the time instability of the Sodium layer density. These issues are increased with the telescope diameter. In view of the construction of the 42m diameter European Extremely Large Telescope a detailed investigation of the achievable performances of Adaptive Optics becomes mandatory to exploit its unique angular resolution . The goal of this Thesis was to present a complete description of a laboratory Prototype development simulating a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor using Laser Guide Stars as references, in the expected conditions for a 42m telescope. From the conceptual design, through the opto-mechanical design, to the Assembly, Integration and Test, all the phases of the Prototype construction are explained. The tests carried out shown the reliability of the images produced by the Prototype that agreed with the numerical simulations. For this reason some possible upgrades regarding the opto-mechanical design are presented, to extend the system functionalities and let the Prototype become a more complete test bench to simulate the performances and drive the future Adaptive Optics modules design.

Pulsating variable stars as tracers of galactic structure and interaction mechanisms

My PhD project has been focused on the study of the pulsating variable stars in two ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way, namely, Leo IV and Hercules; and in two fields of the Large Magellanic Cloud (namely, the Gaia South Ecliptic Pole calibration field, and the 30 Doradus region) that were repeatedly observed in the KS band by the VISTA Magellanic Cloud (VMC, PI M.R. Cioni) survey of the Magellanic System.

Chemical and kinematical properties of Blue Straggler stars in Galactic globular clusters

Blue straggler stars (BSSs) are brighter and bluer (hotter) than the main-sequence (MS) turnoff and they are known to be more massive than MS stars.Two main scenarios for their formation have been proposed:collision-induced stellar mergers (COL-BSSs),or mass-transfer in binary systems (MT-BSSs).Depleted surface abundances of C and O are expected for MT-BSSs,whereas no chemical anomalies are predicted for COL-BSSs.Both MT- and COL-BSSs should rotate fast, but braking mechanisms may intervene with efficiencies and time-scales not well known yet,thus preventing a clear prediction of the expected rotational velocities.Within this context,an extensive survey is ongoing by using the multi-object spectrograph FLAMES@VLT,with the aim to obtain abundance patterns and rotational velocities for representative samples of BSSs in several Galactic GCs.A sub-population of CO-depleted BSSs has been identified in 47 Tuc,with only one fast rotating star detected.For this PhD Thesis work I analyzed FLAMES spectra of more than 130 BSSs in four GCs:M4,NGC 6397,M30 and ω Centauri.This is the largest sample of BSSs spectroscopically investigated so far.Hints of CO depletion have been observed in only 4-5 cases (in M30 and ω Centauri),suggesting either that the majority of BSSs have a collisional origin,or that the CO-depletion is a transient phenomenon.Unfortunately,no conclusions in terms of formation mechanism could be drawn in a large number of cases,because of the effects of radiative levitation. Remarkably,however,this is the first time that evidence of radiative levitation is found in BSSs hotter than 8200 K.Finally, we also discovered the largest fractions of fast rotating BSSs ever observed in any GCs:40% in M4 and 30% in ω Centauri.While not solving the problem of BSS formation,these results provide invaluable information about the BSS physical properties,which is crucial to build realistic models of their evolution.

1st and 2nd Generation Ethanol from Biomass Crops

In chapter 1 and 2 calcium hydroxide as impregnation agent before steam explosion of sugarcane bagasse and switchgrass, respectively, was compared with auto-hydrolysis, assessing the effects on enzymatic hydrolysis and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) at high solid concentration of pretreated solid fraction. In addition, anaerobic digestion of pretreated liquid fraction was carried out, in order to appraise the effectiveness of calcium hydroxide before steam explosion in a more comprehensive way. In As water is an expensive input in both cultivation of biomass crops and subsequent pretreatment, Chapter 3 addressed the effects of variable soil moisture on biomass growth and composition of biomass sorghum. Moreover, the effect of water stress was related to the characteristics of stem juice for 1st generation ethanol and structural carbohydrates for 2nd generation ethanol. In the frame of chapter 1, calcium hydroxide was proven to be a suitable catalyst for sugarcane bagasse before steam explosion, in order to enhance fibre deconstruction. In chapter 2, effect of calcium hydroxide on switchgrass showed a great potential when ethanol was focused, whereas acid addition produced higher methane yield. Regarding chapter 3, during crop cycle the amount of cellulose, hemicellulose and AIL changed causing a decrease of 2G ethanol amount. Biomass physical and chemical properties involved a lower glucose yield and concentration at the end of enzymatic hydrolysis and, consequently, a lower 2G ethanol concentration at the end of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, proving that there is strong relationship between structure, chemical composition, and fermentable sugar yield. The significantly higher concentration of ethanol at the early crop stage could be an important incentive to consider biomass sorghum as second crop in the season, to be introduced into some agricultural systems, potentially benefiting farmers and, above all, avoiding the exacerbation of the debate about fuel vs food crops.

COSMIC-LAB: Unexpected Results from High-resolution Spectra of AGB Stars in Globular Clusters

We have used high-resolution spectra, acquired with UVES@ESO-VLT, to determine the chemical abundances of different samples of AGB and RGB stars in 4 Galactic globular clusters, namely 47Tuc, NGC3201, M22 and M62. For almost all the analyzed AGB stars we found a clear discrepancy between the iron abundance measured from neutral lines and that obtained from single ionized lines, while this discrepancy is not obtained for the RGB samples observed in the same clusters and analyzed with the same procedure. Such a behavior exactly corresponds to what expected in the case of Non-Local Thermodynamical Equilibrium (NLTE) in the star atmosphere. These results have a huge impact on the proper determination of GC chemistry. In fact, one of the most intriguing consequences is that, at odds with previous claims, no iron spread is found in NGC3201 and M22 if the iron abundance is obtained from ionized lines only.

Planck stars: theory and phenomenology

General Relativity (GR) is one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century along with quantum theory. Despite the elegance and the accordance with experimental tests, these two theories appear to be utterly incompatible at fundamental level. Black holes provide a perfect stage to point out these difficulties. Indeed, classical GR fails to describe Nature at small radii, because nothing prevents quantum mechanics from affecting the high curvature zone, and because classical GR becomes ill-defined at r = 0 anyway. Rovelli and Haggard have recently proposed a scenario where a negative quantum pressure at the Planck scales stops and reverts the gravitational collapse, leading to an effective “bounce” and explosion, thus resolving the central singularity. This scenario, called Black Hole Fireworks, has been proposed in a semiclassical framework. The purpose of this thesis is twofold: - Compute the bouncing time by means of a pure quantum computation based on Loop Quantum Gravity; - Extend the known theory to a more realistic scenario, in which the rotation is taken into account by means of the Newman-Janis Algorithm.

La popolazione di Blue Straggler Stars in due ammassi globulari della Grande Nube di Magellano

Le Blue Straggler Stars (BSS) sono la popolazione di oggetti esotici piu' comune e numerosa negli ammassi globulari. Nel diagramma colore-magnitudine le BSS definiscono una sequenza più brillante e blu del punto di turn-off della Sequenza Principale, simulando una popolazione più giovane delle stelle dell'ammasso.  Osservazioni hanno dimostrato che le BSS hanno una massa significativamente più grande (1.2-1.7 Msun) di quella delle stelle di un ammasso globulare. Per questa proprietà, la distribuzione radiale delle BSS e' un utile strumento per tracciare empiricamente lo stato di evoluzione dinamica degli ammassi stellari. Il lavoro di tesi si è concentrato sullo studio della popolazione di BSS di due ammassi globulari della Grande Nube di Magellano: NGC2257 e NGC1754. Applicando metodi di indagine già usati per sistemi stellari della Via Lattea, abbiamo derivato le eta' dinamiche di questi due sistemi e le abbiamo confrontate con stime teoriche.

Prevention, diagnosis, therapy and follow-up care of sepsis: 1st revision of S-2k guidelines of the German Sepsis Society (Deutsche Sepsis-Gesellschaft e.V. (DSG)) and the German Interdisciplinary Association of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Deutsche Interdisziplinäre Vereinigung für Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin (DIVI))

Practice guidelines are systematically developed statements and recommendations that assist the physicians and patients in making decisions about appropriate health care measures for specific clinical circumstances taking into account specific national health care structures. The 1(st) revision of the S-2k guideline of the German Sepsis Society in collaboration with 17 German medical scientific societies and one self-help group provides state-of-the-art information (results of controlled clinical trials and expert knowledge) on the effective and appropriate medical care (prevention, diagnosis, therapy and follow-up care) of critically ill patients with severe sepsis or septic shock. The guideline had been developed according to the "German Instrument for Methodological Guideline Appraisal" of the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF). In view of the inevitable advancements in scientific knowledge and technical expertise, revisions, updates and amendments must be periodically initiated. The guideline recommendations may not be applied under all circumstances. It rests with the clinician to decide whether a certain recommendation should be adopted or not, taking into consideration the unique set of clinical facts presented in connection with each individual patient as well as the available resources.