Search

The Euclid space telescope will survey a large dataset of cosmic voids traced by dense samples of galaxies. In this work we estimate its expected performance when exploiting angular photometric void clustering, galaxy weak lensing and their cross-correlation. To this aim, we implement a Fisher matrix approach tailored for voids from the Euclid photometric dataset and present the first forecasts on cosmological parameters that include the void-lensing correlation. We examine two different probe settings, pessimistic and optimistic, both for void clustering and galaxy lensing. We carry out forecast analyses in four model cosmologies, accounting for a varying total neutrino mass, $M_\nu$, and a dynamical dark energy (DE) equation of state, $w(z)$, described by the CPL parametrisation. We find that void clustering constraints on $h$ and $\Omega_b$ are competitive with galaxy lensing alone, while errors on $n_s$ decrease thanks to the orthogonality of the two probes in the 2D-projected parameter space. We also note that, as a whole, the inclusion of the void-lensing cross-correlation signal improves parameter constraints by $10-15\%$, and enhances the joint void clustering and galaxy lensing Figure of Merit (FoM) by $10\%$ and $25\%$, in the pessimistic and optimistic scenarios, respectively. Finally, when further combining with the spectroscopic galaxy clustering, assumed as an independent probe, we find that, in the most competitive case, the FoM increases by a factor of 4 with respect to the combination of weak lensing and spectroscopic galaxy clustering taken as independent probes. The forecasts presented in this work show that photometric void-clustering and its cross-correlation with galaxy lensing deserve to be exploited in the data analysis of the Euclid galaxy survey and promise to improve its constraining power, especially on $h$, $\Omega_b$, the neutrino mass, and the DE evolution., Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures - published in A&A

Euclid Consortium: N. Hamaus et al., Euclid is poised to survey galaxies across a cosmological volume of unprecedented size, providing observations of more than a billion objects distributed over a third of the full sky. Approximately 20 million of these galaxies will have their spectroscopy available, allowing us to map the three-dimensional large-scale structure of the Universe in great detail. This paper investigates prospects for the detection of cosmic voids therein and the unique benefit they provide for cosmological studies. In particular, we study the imprints of dynamic (redshift-space) and geometric (Alcock–Paczynski) distortions of average void shapes and their constraining power on the growth of structure and cosmological distance ratios. To this end, we made use of the Flagship mock catalog, a state-of-the-art simulation of the data expected to be observed with Euclid. We arranged the data into four adjacent redshift bins, each of which contains about 11 000 voids and we estimated the stacked void-galaxy cross-correlation function in every bin. Fitting a linear-theory model to the data, we obtained constraints on f/b and DMH, where f is the linear growth rate of density fluctuations, b the galaxy bias, DM the comoving angular diameter distance, and H the Hubble rate. In addition, we marginalized over two nuisance parameters included in our model to account for unknown systematic effects in the analysis. With this approach, Euclid will be able to reach a relative precision of about 4% on measurements of f/b and 0.5% on DMH in each redshift bin. Better modeling or calibration of the nuisance parameters may further increase this precision to 1% and 0.4%, respectively. Our results show that the exploitation of cosmic voids in Euclid will provide competitive constraints on cosmology even as a stand-alone probe. For example, the equation-of-state parameter, w, for dark energy will be measured with a precision of about 10%, consistent with previous more approximate forecasts., NH, GP and JW are supported by the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS, which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC-2094 – 390783311. MA, MCC and SE are supported by the eBOSS ANR grant (under contract ANR-16-CE31-0021) of the French National Research Agency, the OCEVU LABEX (Grant No. ANR-11-LABX-0060) and the A*MIDEX project (Grant No. ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02) funded by the Investissements d’Avenir French government program, and by CNES, the French National Space Agency. AP is supported by NASA ROSES grant 12-EUCLID12-0004, and NASA grant 15-WFIRST15-0008 to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Science Investigation Team “Cosmology with the High Latitude Survey”. GL is supported by the ANR BIG4 project, grant ANR-16-CE23-0002 of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche. PN is funded by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). We acknowledge use of the Python libraries NumPy (Harris et al. 2020), SciPy (Virtanen et al. 2020), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007), Astropy (Astropy Collaboration 2013, 2018), emcee (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2019), GetDist (Lewis 2019), healpy (Górski et al. 2005; Zonca et al. 2019), and PyAbel (Hickstein et al. 2019). This work has made use of CosmoHub (Carretero et al. 2017; Tallada et al. 2020). CosmoHub has been developed by the Port d’Informació Científica (PIC), maintained through a collaboration of the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) and the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) and the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC & IEEC), and was partially funded by the “Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación” program of the Spanish government. The Euclid Consortium acknowledges the European Space Agency and a number of agencies and institutes that have supported the development of Euclid, in particular the Academy of Finland, the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, the Belgian Science Policy, the Canadian Euclid Consortium, the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, the Danish Space Research Institute, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Netherlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie, the Norwegian Space Agency, the Romanian Space Agency, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) at the Swiss Space Office (SSO), and the United Kingdom Space Agency.

We present a cosmological analysis of abundances and stacked weak-lensing profiles of galaxy clusters, exploiting the AMICO KiDS-DR3 catalogue. The sample consists of 3652 galaxy clusters with intrinsic richness $\lambda^*\geq20$, over an effective area of 377 deg$^2$, in the redshift range $z\in[0.1,\,0.6]$. We quantified the purity and completeness of the sample through simulations. The statistical analysis has been performed by simultaneously modelling the comoving number density of galaxy clusters and the scaling relation between the intrinsic richnesses and the cluster masses, assessed through a stacked weak-lensing profile modelling. The fluctuations of the matter background density, caused by super-survey modes, have been taken into account in the likelihood. Assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM model, we constrained $\Omega_{\rm m}$, $\sigma_8$, $S_8 \equiv \sigma_8(\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}$, and the parameters of the mass-richness scaling relation. We obtained $\Omega_{\rm m}=0.24^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$, $\sigma_8=0.86^{+0.07}_{-0.07}$, $S_8=0.78^{+0.04}_{-0.04}$. The constraint on $S_8$ is consistent within 1$\sigma$ with the results from WMAP and Planck. Furthermore, we got constraints on the cluster mass scaling relation in agreement with those obtained from a previous weak-lensing only analysis., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by A&A

Euclid Consortium: S. Contarini et al., The Euclid mission – with its spectroscopic galaxy survey covering a sky area over 15 000 deg2 in the redshift range 0.9, We acknowledge the grant ASI n.2018-23-HH.0. SC, FM and LM acknowledge the use of computational resources from the parallel computing cluster of the Open Physics Hub (https://site.unibo.it/openphysicshub/en) at the Physics and Astronomy Department in Bologna. GV is supported by Universitá degli Studi di Padova and in part by the project “Combining Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure data: an Integrated Approach for Addressing Fundamental Questions in Cosmology”, funded by the MIUR Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) Bando 2017 – grant 2017YJYZAH. AP is supported by NASA ROSES grant 12-EUCLID12-0004, and NASA grant 15-WFIRST15-0008 to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Science Investigation Team “Cosmology with the High Latitude Survey”. NH is supported by the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS, which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC-2094 – 390783311. MS acknowledges support by the P. E. Filén fellowship and a fellowship at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS). LM acknowledges support from PRIN MIUR 2017 WSCC32 “Zooming into dark matter and proto-galaxies with massive lensing clusters”. AR acknowledges funding from Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) through the ‘Dipartimenti di eccellenza’ project Science of the Universe. He is supported in part by the project “Combining Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure data: an Integrated Approach for Addressing Fundamental Questions in Cosmology”, funded by the MIUR Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) Bando 2017 – grant 2017YJYZAH We acknowledge use of the Python libraries NumPy (Harris et al. 2020), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007) and ChainConsumer (Hinton 2016). This work has made use of Cosmo-Hub (Carretero et al. 2017; Tallada et al. 2020). CosmoHub has been developed by the Port d’Informació Científica (PIC), maintained through a collaboration ofthe Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) and the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) and the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC & IEEC), and was partially funded by the “Plan Estatalde Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación” program of the Spanish government. The Euclid Consortium acknowledges the European Space Agency and a number of agencies and institutes that have supported the development of Euclid, in particular the Academy of Finland, the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, the Belgian Science Policy, the Canadian Euclid Consortium, the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, the Danish Space Research Institute, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the Netherlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie, the Norwegian Space Agency, the Romanian Space Agency, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) at the Swiss Space Office (SSO), and the United Kingdom Space Agency.

In photoemission, the Auger electron energy, combined with the respective photoelectron energy, provides the so-called Auger parameter α ′ which in the case of 3d transition metals, has been demonstrated to be influenced by the coordination state of the emitting atom. In the literature of electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis studies on titanosilicates, the Ti Auger parameter has typically not been reported. In this work, the X-ray photoelectron and the X-ray induced Auger electron spectra of a Ti silicalite (TS-1) and other crystalline mesoporous titanosilicates such as TiSBA-15 and TiMCM-41 have been measured. An α ′ value of 882.3 eV, ∼10 eV higher than in TiO 2 , has been found for part of the titanium in TS-1 and TiSBA-15 samples. Such a shift in the Auger parameter is attributed to tetrahedral coordination of Ti, substituting for Si atoms in the framework.

Synchrotron radiation X-ray photoemission spectroscopy has been used to study wear tracks produced during tribological tests on steel specimens. This was a successful feasibility test for the use of ultrabright synchrotron radiation in tribology. We found that the resulting high flux and small spot dimensions on a sample of 100×30 μm 2 , are ideal for testing disk samples having circular wear tracks with radius 1 cm and width 250 μm. A photon energy of 350 eV was used to analyse Zn 3d, P 2p, S 2p and C 1s peaks on samples produced in different conditions.

The article describes the ESCA microscopy beamline dedicated to high spatial resolution quantitative and qualitative analysis on surfaces and interfaces. The scanning microscope is constructed to work both in transmission and photoemission within the photon energy range from 200 to 1200 eV with a spatial resolution of ∼0.1 μm. A Fresnel zone plate demagnifies the photon beam to submicrometer dimensions with 109–1010 photons/s in the focus spot. A photodiode and a hemispherical electron energy analyzer are used as detectors for recording the transmitted x‐rays and emitted photoelectrons, respectively. The operation modes in photoemission give the opportunity to obtain conventional energy distribution curve spectra from a microspot or a two‐dimensional micrograph of the spatial distribution and local concentration of a selected element as the sample is mechanically scanned. For conductive specimen topography measurements of a selected surface area probed by SPEM are possible using a scanning tunnelling microscope. The first test images of a zone plate and an e‐beam written specimen with 1 μm2 Au squares on Si have shown a spatial resolution better than 0.2 μm.

Core-level photoemission peaks taken on several insulators with spatial resolution of 30-300 mu m rigidly shift in energy from place to place, most likely because of local charging effects. Such phenomena can affect the linewidth and the general lineshape of conventional, spatially integrated spectra even when a flood gun is used, which is one of the standard remedies against charging. This may require a critical revision of photoemission linewidths and lineshapes for many past experiments on insulators.

The analysis of interfaces between silicon carbide or carbon fibres and a glassy sol-gel derived SiO 2 matrix in ceramic matrix composites (CMC) is presented. The x-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) indicate a differential charging effect on all samples, potentially related to the adhesion strength at the interface. By Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) a silicon oxide layer is found on the surface of SiC fibres while no oxygen is detected on the C fibres. Effects of ageing in air or nitrogen at high temperature for 100 h were also studied. While no crystalline phases are present in the x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of sintered samples before ageing, different amounts of an SiO 2 (low cristobalite) phase appear on beating at 1200 o C in air or in N 2

The application of SAM and XPS to the study of powder mixtures composed of silicon carbide and processing additives is presented. The density of sintered SiC specimens has been shown to be related to the surface composition of the freeze-dried mixtures, measured after milling the water slurries and after heating for the removal of binding polymers (dewaxing). Effects of milling and dewaxing on the dispersion of sintering aids, on the formation of residual carbon layers and on the evolution of the surface oxide have been tested by XPS while the spatial distribution of surface carbon species has been tested by SAM. The procedure for the acquisition of Auger spectra and linescans on these powder samples is described. SAM analysis of dewaxed SiC greens, reveals the presence of graphitic carbon agglomerates with an average diameter of roughly 5 μm after 1 h of mixing in attrilion mill which decreases to less than 1 μm after 16 h. The study shows that processing parameters such as type and concentration of sintering aid, milling time and dewaxing procedure can be optimized using the information of surface spectroscopies, acquired after each step of processing, for the production of high density specimens.

Ceramic powder mixtures composed of silicon carbide and processing additives such as boron, carbon and binding agents were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The novelty of this work consists in the application of a surface analysis technique to the study of ceramic green bodies. The analysis of freeze-dried powders, obtained from aqueous suspensions of the mixtures, reveals a strong C1s lineshape dependence on the carbon dispersion and the milling procedure, which are important factors in the fabrication of high-density SiC components. In fact, the deconvolution of C1s bands allows a quantification of the spectral contribution of four carbon species assigned to C-Si, C-C, C-H and C-O species, so that a relative measure of the dispersion of carbon on the surface of the SiC particles is obtained. When carbon black or graphite are used as carbon additives it appears that carbon black is more dispersed than graphite at shorter milling times. For all samples studied, a good correlation is shown to exist between the intensity of the C-C carbon component in the C1s band and the density after sintering.

The alkali metal distribution in a variety of alkali doped ZnO catalysts has been studied and is shown to affect total methane conversion and C2 selectivity. When Na 2 CO 3 precursors are used, CO 3 2− groups decompose upon calcination and sodium penetrates into the ZnO matrix, even at high loading. In the case of lithium, layers of Li 2 CO 3 , proportional to the Li concentration, segregate on the ZnO and reduce the oxide active surface available for gas reaction. In the aim of determining the best preparation and reaction parameters a correlation between XPS evidences and catalytic data collected during the initial phase of reaction was attempted.

Publisher Summary The use of fossil fuels at a global level causes a CO2 yearly emission in the atmosphere of about 25 Gt. Fossil fuels provide for 85% of the world's energy needs, and no alternative energetic sources have the potential for a notable substitute in the foreseeable future. Among the different options under examination, the one considering capture and sequestration of CO2 originated by point sources, like power plants and refineries, is gaining increasing interest. Such an approach could allow for the pursuance of fossil fuel utilization without the feared drawback of dramatic climatic changes. Key issue in this approach is the identification of a new efficient and convenient technology for the capture of CO2. Technologies available today, based on liquid amine solutions and finalized to the enhanced oil recovery (EOR), are considered far too expensive for large scale applications, such as in power plants. Solid sorbents, as compared to the liquid counterparts, have the potential advantages of a more efficient absorption capacity (high surface compounds allow for a high capture density), a lower energetic need in the desorption step (amine-CO2 reaction compounds are surface distributed, with easy reach by fluids and heat), and a reduced environmental impact (no loss of amine to the atmosphere during the stripping step). The strategy for designing new sorbents consisted in screening different porous solids impregnated with diethanolamine (DEA), followed by screening the selected support impregnated with a variety of different types of amines.

The new thermal analysis of thermovoltaic detection (TVD) is described and its application to various substances is presented. Basically, the technique consists of recording the EMF curve generated by the thermally decomposing sample in contact with two dissimilar metal electrodes (usually Al-Pt). The general shape of the curve, in reference to the temperature axis, enables it to be used for the qualitative identification of the substance. The curves are reproducible to within about ± 3–4% of each other. TVD curves of CuSO 4 · 5 H 2 O, [Co(NH 3 ) 6 ]Cl 3 , various polymers, organic acids, coal, tobacco, water, and ethanol are presented.

The thermal dissociation reactions of selected amino acids were studied by thermovoltaic detection (TVD), TG and DSC. All of the TVD curves except L-arginine contained a broad EMF output peak in the 200–300°C temperature range. The leading edges of the peak maxima were reproducible to within ± 1–2% while the trailing edges were reproducible to ± 20% or so. The latter was related to the irreproducible nature of the electrode-decomposition products interface. The TVD curves were not unique in that they yielded thermal analysis curves that were not inherently different from other TA techniques.

The chemical changes induced by 4-keV Ar/sup +/bombardment of the transition-metal oxyanion compounds N/sub 2/WO/sub 4/ (N = Li, Na, Ag, NH/sub 4/), Na/sub x/MO/sub y/ (M = V, Cr, Nb, Mo, Ta), and the corresponding transition-metal oxides have been investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Both the atomic concentrations and the binding energy shifts in the altered layer show that a steady-state composition is attained at a total irradiation dose of approx.10/sup 17/ ions/cm/sup 2/. Bombardment of all of the oxyanions resulted in reduction of the transition-metal atoms to lower oxidation states; reduction to the metallic state is observed in all cases except VO/sub 3//sup -/ and CrO/sub 4//sup 2 -/. In contrast, bombardment of the metal oxides produced lower oxidation states of the metal in some, but not all, cases. The mechanism of ion-induced decomposition is discussed in terms of the thermal spike model and the behavior of specific compounds is shown to correlate with decomposition pressure at elevated temperatures.

X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) studies of hydrated, dehydrated and, reduced Cu NaY zeolites were carried out. With sufficient analyzer resolution, both the Cu 2 p 1 2 and 2 p 3 2 transitions were resolved into two components in hydrated CuNaY. The higher-binding-energy component and the shake-up satellites decreased in intensity with dehydration. By correlation with electron spin resonance (ESR) and X-ray diffraction results the higher-binding-energy component is assigned to octahedrally coordinated Cu2+ in the large α-cages of the zeolite and the lower-binding-energy component to tetrahedrally coordinated Cu2+ in the small β-cages of the zeolite. On hydrogen reduction of dehydrated CuNaY the XPS transitions shift by 1 eV to lower binding energies which correlated with an order of magnitude decrease in the Cu2+ ESR intensity. These shifted transitions are assigned to Cu+ or possibly to Cu0.

This report presents the project for the development of a combined facility consisting of a high spatial resolution soft x-ray scanning photoelectron microscope (SPEM) and a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) that is going to be built in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) station on one of the undulator beam lines at ELETTRA, Trieste. The photon microprobe for SPEM will be generated using a zone plate diffraction optic. A special design of a spherical grating monochromator will provide the source for illuminating the zone plate. The emitted photoelectrons will be detected and analysed using a high-energy resolution hemispherical analyser with a large acceptance angle. The performance of the SPEM is projected to be as follows: (1) a photon spot size on the sample of ∼50 × 50 nm2; (2) a tunable photon energy range of 200–800 eV, with an energy resolving power of 3000 at the carbon K-edge; (3) a photon flux in the spot that is > 109 photons s−1 (0.1% body wt.)−1. The projected performance of the STM instrument ensures a lateral resolution better than 2 A. The combination of SPEM and STM techniques will enable chemical and structural mapping within the same microscopic areas of the sample surface. Descriptions of the main beam line components together with some examples of possible applications of this unique tool are included in the paper.

International audience

Le premier livre de Elvis Malaj nous propose un paradoxe classique : celui d'un auteur italien que l'on perçoit, du fait de ses origines, comme un écrivain migrant. Au fil des 12 histoires qui composent son recueil, Malaj met en place ce paradoxe avec une subtilité remarquable. Grâce au dispositif ironique et à l’insertion de paragraphes en langue étrangère (qui ne compromettent pas la lisibilité du récit), l’écrivain né à Malësi et Madhe dévoile] l’inconsistance des stereotypes sur les nouveaux italiens, autant que les lieux communs diffusés parmi eux. Il libro d’esordio di Elvis Malaj ripropone il paradosso dell’italianità di chi, per essere nato altrove, rischia di essere letto esclusivamente secondo le categorie della cosiddetta letteratura migrante. Tale paradosso lo scrittore di origine albanese mette in scena con grande consapevolezza nelle dodici storie che compongono la raccolta di racconti Dal tuo terrazzo si vede casa mia. Grazie all’uso dell’ironia e all’abilità nel proporre inserti nella lingua d’origine senza compromettere la comprensibilità del narrato, lo scrittore nativo di Malësi e Madhe svela l’inconsistenza dei luoghi comuni su/ tra i nuovi italiani.

«Quella che di solito, sbagliando, chiamiamo “irrealtà televisiva” è invece realtà depotenziata. La realtà mostrata in tivù deve essere accettabile: dunque è bene tenerla sotto controllo, aggiustarla prima che la telecamera la riprenda». In Troppi paradisi Walter Siti prende una posizione decisa nella discussione sul rapporto tra televisione e realtà ed il suo libro, che ha per soggetto proprio questa divaricazione, si concentra in una letteratura che, a differenza del restringimento operato dalla televisione, può ancora, anacronisticamente, rappresentare emozioni e allargare il campo del desiderio. Con la rivoluzione digitale, che dalla televisione sposta l'attenzione sui nuovi apparecchi, il sistema epistemologico che lega i media e la realtà si fa ancora più complesso. Tale intricato meccanismo è illustrato da Tommaso Pincio nel suo romanzo Panorama, dove un social network trascina il protagonista in un continuo cortocircuito fatto di inafferrabili giochi di specchi che mirano a costruire un nuovo ordinamento, inconoscibile, della realtà, oramai impossibile da distinguere dalla finzione. Seguendo dunque un itinerario diacronico che dalla televisione giunge agli apparecchi contemporanei, sarà possibile mettere in luce come lo statuto della realtà sia sempre più messo alla prova nella sua essenza.

Il contributo intende esaminare un cambiamento svvenuto intorno al 1968 nella rivista a fumetti italiana Linus, inizialmente orientata verso la traduzione di fumetti americani e inglesi ma che, anche in seguito ai fatti del Maggio '68, ha iniziato a pubblicare in modo sempre più sistematico traduzioni di fumetti francesi, in particolare di satira politica.

«C'è stato un tempo […] in cui non ho fatto altro che viaggiare». Così Anna Maria Ortese apre la postfazione al volume che raccoglie articoli e racconti di viaggio La lente scura. La vita di Ortese appare infatti segnata da una inquietudine costante nel susseguirsi di trasferimenti, spesso motivati dalla ricerca di una maggiore serenità creativa che riuscisse ad oscurare le traversie economiche. Napoli, Milano, Roma, Rapallo le città in cui ha vissuto più a lungo e a più riprese, ma anche molte altre località di temporaneo rifugio, spinta sicuramente dalla necessità, ma anche da un innato nomadismo che la conduce da un treno all'altro e da una casa all'altra. In questo faticoso itinerario tra luoghi e dimore, il peregrinare di città in città e di quartiere in quartiere risponde ad un continuo turbamento generato dall'analisi acuta e dolorosa della società contemporanea. Ci sono però due luoghi in particolare che restano importanti per indagare proficuamente l'opera di Ortese e che rappresentano, in tal senso, due fulcri della sua scrittura: Napoli prima e Milano poi. Queste due città diventano i luoghi di una precisa polarizzazione tra un Sud sonnolento dai cui «mortali terrori e sogni» tentare di sottrarsi (rappresentato in L'infanta sepolta, Il porto di Toledo e ovviamente in Il mare non bagna Napoli) e un Nord operoso e puritano racchiuso entro le cerchie dei Navigli nei pressi del santuario di San Celso, «mia città settentrionale – scrive Ortese in Il cappello piumato – che consideravo ora la mia patria». Ma anche il mitico Nord perderà la sua lucentezza negli ultimi anni di vita di Ortese, la sua immagine idealizzata consumerà pian piano il suo vigore, e a restare saranno allora di nuovo le «estreme e più lucenti terre del Sud».

Nato come la rassegna letteraria di un territorio recuperato da alcuni decenni, questo intervento si è strutturato presto intorno a un sondaggio più mirato, che vuole fotografare la nascita di una “geografia inedita” attraverso il filtro delle opere letterarie che fra gli anni Venti e Trenta del Novecento hanno trattato la bonifica delle paludi Pontine e la fondazione di città come Sabaudia, Latina, Pomezia, Pontinia, Aprilia.

Il saggio ricostruisce il dibattito in lingua portoghese sugli studi postcoloniali, evidenziando in particolare la complessità del secolare "desiderio coloniale" del Portogallo che in questo ambito ha ricercato problematicamente una propria forma. L'allusione è a un paese colonizzatore problematico proprio per la debolezza e la subalternità con cui ha costruito la sua teoria di "imperi" (imperi del passato) e una ex colonia diventata dopo la emancipazione paradossalmente impero, il Brasile, che ha iscritto nella sua narrativa di nazione un tempo storico proiettivo (nazioni del futuro) segnato anche esso dall'elemento della eccezione. La complessa "teoria postcoloniale" messa a punto tra i due contesti, il luso-tropicalismo, elaborato nel secolo XX in Brasile, ma poi adottato in Portogallo a sostegno del carattere organico del colonialismo alla ontologia nazionale, costituisce un significativo terreno di indagine per una analisi contrappuntistica dei due ambiti.

Negli anni Trenta all'esaurimento dell'utopismo palingenetico, che aveva caratterizzato il primo tempo del futurismo, subentra un impegno sul presente, sulla sua concreta praticabilità. In quest'ambito rientra la fortissima attenzione dei futuristi verso le nuove forme di comunicazione, d'arte, di spettacolo e della loro sintonia con una sensibilità molteplice, ubiqua, simultanea. Di tale attenzione testimonianze esemplari sono il "Manifesto della radio" (1933), scritto da Marinetti e Masnata, e le "Liriche radiofoniche" di Fortunato Depero.

Introduzione, commento e testo dell'autobiografia di Carlo Denina.

Introduzione e commento al testo di un romanzo satirico-utopista di grande interesse storico e narrativo.