B028840 - PHYSICS APPLIED TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

Italian

The course will illustrate the physical techniques (in particular, those based on nuclear physics) useful to get crucial information for:
a) determining the various sources of fine particulate atmospheric pollution through the analysis of its elemental composition;
b) tackling issues of interest in the field of cultural heritage, such as the materials used in the past for the production of artworks, and the dating of archaeological finds or materials of historical interest.

There are no specific reference texts. The students will be provided with tutorial materials such as PowerPoint-like slide presentations and papers published on scientific magazines (both of general type and on specific applications)

The students will get a general knowledge of the available techniques for the two kinds of inter- or multi-disciplinary activities covered by the course, the expertise required to evaluate in which cases the contributions of such physical techniques is actually useful in problems of interest for environmental monitoring and cultural heritage, and which specific technique(s) must be chosen to be more effective in answering the questions posed by the colleagues of other disciplines (scientific or humanistic), together with whom these topics are tackled

Besides the obvious knowledge of what learnt from the teachings in the first two years of the triennial course (in particular, electro-magnetism and optics), a basic knowledge of the principles of nuclear physics - in particular, radioactivity - and its instruments (accelerators, detectors) will be assumed. The latter topics will be anyway recalled during this course, if needed.

Classroom taught lessons

If possible, demonstrations of the potential of the techniques described during the lessons will be organised, with visits to research laboratories

Oral examination, structured in two parts. First, a short “seminar” by the student, concerning one of the topics covered during the course, at the choice of the student. In the second part general questions will be asked on the techniques, applications and on the general concepts illustrated in the course. This modality enables to evaluate both the general preparation on the topics covered, and the acquired capability of a critical elaboration and in-depth analysis of the topics

General description of the Ion Beam Analysis and of the X Ray Fluorescence techniques to determine the elemental composition of a material. Their applications in the study of the composition of both air-dispersed particulate and of materials of interest in issues related to cultural heritage. Other compositional analysis techniques useful in the applications addressed by the course. Statistical analysis of atmospheric compositional data to extract the information on the pollution sources and their relative “weight”, in order to address proper mitigation strategies.
Radiographic and tomographic techniques in the field of cultural heritage.
Imaging through UV-vis-IR spectrographies and their applications in the study of paintings.
Cleaning artworks through laser ablation.
Principles of radiocarbon dating and techniques for measuring the concentration of this isotope.
Dating through thermoluminescence techniques.
Use of radiocarbon concentration measurements of the fine particulate in the atmosphere also to determine the elemental and organic fractions (EC and OC) of its carbon component.