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Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is a material having an intrinsically high radiation hardness that can be deposited on flexible substrates like Polyimide. For these properties a-Si:H can be used for the production of flexible sensors. a-Si:H sensors can be successfully utilized in dosimetry, beam monitoring for particle physics (x-ray, electron, gamma-ray and proton detection) and radiotherapy, radiation flux measurement for space applications (study of solar energetic particles and stellar events) and neutron flux measurements. In this paper we have studied the dosimetric x-ray response of n-i-p diodes deposited on Polyimide. We measured the linearity of the photocurrent response to x-rays versus dose-rate from which we have extracted the dosimetric x-ray sensitivity at various bias voltages. In particular low bias voltage operation has been studied to assess the high energy efficiency of these kind of sensor. A measurement of stability of x-ray response versus time has been shown. The effect of detectors annealing has been studied. Operation under bending at various bending radii is also shown.

The HASPIDE (Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon PIxels DEtectors) project aims at the development of thin hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) detectors on flexible substrates (mostly Polyimide) for beam monitoring, neutron detection and space applications. Since a-Si:H is a material with superior radiation hardness, the benefit for the above-mentioned applications can be appreciated mostly in radiation harsh environments. Furthermore, the possibility to deposit this material on flexible substrates like Polyimide (PI), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) facilitates the usage of these detectors in medical dosimetry, beam flux and beam profile measurements. Particularly interesting is its use when positioned directly on the flange of the vacuum-to-air separation interface in a beam line, as well as other applications where a thin self-standing radiation flux detector is envisaged. In this paper, the HASPIDE project will be described and some preliminary results on PI and glass substrates will be reported.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) of the European Space Agency (ESA) will be the first low-frequency gravitational-wave observatory orbiting the Sun at 1 AU. The LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission, aiming at testing of the instruments to be located on board the LISA spacecraft (S/C), hosted, among the others, fluxgate magnetometers and a particle detector as parts of a diagnostics subsystem. These instruments allowed us for the estimate of the magnetic and Coulomb spurious forces acting on the test masses that constitute the mirrors of the interferometer. With these instruments we also had the possibility to study the galactic cosmic-ray short term-term variations as a function of the particle energy and the associated interplanetary disturbances. Platform magnetometers and particle detectors will be also placed on board each LISA S/C. This work reports about an empirical method that allowed us to disentangle the interplanetary and onboard-generated components of the magnetic field by using the LPF magnetometer measurements. Moreover, we estimate the number and fluence of solar energetic particle events expected to be observed with the ESA Next Generation Radiation Monitor during the mission lifetime. An additional cosmic-ray detector, similar to that designed for LPF, in combination with magnetometers, would permit to observe the evolution of recurrent and non-recurrent galactic cosmic-ray variations and associated increases of the interplanetary magnetic field at the transit of high-speed solar wind streams and interplanetary counterparts of coronal mass ejections. The diagnostics subsystem of LISA makes this mission also a natural multi-point observatory for space weather science investigations., Comment: Accepted for publication Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC)

Non-recurrent short term variations of the galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) flux above 70 MeV n$^{-1}$ were observed between 2016 February 18 and 2017 July 3 aboard the European Space Agency LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission orbiting around the Lagrange point L1 at 1.5$\times$10$^6$ km from Earth. The energy dependence of three Forbush decreases (FDs) is studied and reported here. A comparison of these observations with others carried out in space down to the energy of a few tens of MeV n$^{-1}$ shows that the same GCR flux parameterization applies to events of different intensity during the main phase. FD observations in L1 with LPF and geomagnetic storm occurrence is also presented. Finally, the characteristics of GCR flux non-recurrent variations (peaks and depressions) of duration $<$ 2 days and their association with interplanetary structures are investigated. It is found that, most likely, plasma compression regions between subsequent corotating high-speed streams cause peaks, while heliospheric current sheet crossing cause the majority of the depressions.

The pseudo-marginal (PM) approach is increasingly used for Bayesian inference in statistical models, where the likelihood is intractable but can be estimated unbiasedly. %Examples include random effect models, state-space models and data subsampling in big-data settings. Deligiannidis et al. (2016) show how the PM approach can be made much more efficient by correlating the underlying Monte Carlo (MC) random numbers used to form the estimate of the likelihood at the current and proposed values of the unknown parameters. Their approach greatly speeds up the standard PM algorithm, as it requires a much smaller number of samples or particles to form the optimal likelihood estimate. Our paper presents an alternative implementation of the correlated PM approach, called the block PM, which divides the underlying random numbers into blocks so that the likelihood estimates for the proposed and current values of the parameters only differ by the random numbers in one block. We show that this implementation of the correlated PM can be much more efficient for some specific problems than the implementation in Deligiannidis et al. (2016); for example when the likelihood is estimated by subsampling or the likelihood is a product of terms each of which is given by an integral which can be estimated unbiasedly by randomised quasi-Monte Carlo. Our article provides methodology and guidelines for efficiently implementing the block PM. A second advantage of the the block PM is that it provides a direct way to control the correlation between the logarithms of the estimates of the likelihood at the current and proposed values of the parameters than the implementation in Deligiannidis et al. (2016). We obtain methods and guidelines for selecting the optimal number of samples based on idealized but realistic assumptions., Comment: 41 pages, 6 tables , 4 figures

By using the York canonical basis of ADM tetrad gravity, in a formulation using radar 4-coordinates for the parametrization of the 3+1 splitting of the space-time, it is possible to write the 4-Riemann tensor of a globally hyperbolic, asymptotically Minkowskian space-time as a Hamiltonian tensor, whose components are 4-scalars with respect to the ordinary world 4-coordinates, plus terms vanishing due to Einstein's equations. Therefore "on-shell" we find the expression of the Hamiltonian 4-Riemann tensor. Moreover, the 3+1 splitting of the space-time used to define the phase space allows us to introduce a Hamiltonian set of null tetrads and to find the Hamiltonian expression of the 4-Ricci scalars of the Newman-Penrose formalism. This material will be used in the second paper to study the 4-Weyl tensor, the 4-Weyl scalars and the four Weyl eigenvalues and to clarify the notions of Dirac and Bergmann observables., Comment: 39 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0907.4087

We find the Hamiltonian expression in the York basis of canonical ADM tetrad gravity of the 4-Weyl tensor of the asymptotically Minkowskian space-time. Like for the 4-Riemann tensor we find a radar tensor (whose components are 4-scalars due to the use of radar 4-coordinates), which coincides with the 4-Weyl tensor on-shell on the solutions of Einstein's equations. Then, by using the Hamiltonian null tetrads, we find the Hamiltonian expression of the Weyl scalars of the Newman-Perose approach and of the four eigenvalues of the 4-Weyl tensor. After having introduced the Dirac observables of canonical gravity, whose determination requires the solution of the super-Hamiltonian and super-momentum constraints, we discuss the connection of the Dirac observables with the notion of 4-scalar Bergmann observables. Due to the use of radar 4-coordinates these two types of observables coincide in our formulation of canonical ADM tetrad gravity. However, contrary to Bergmann proposal, the Weyl eigenvalues are shown not to be Bergmann observables, so that their relevance is only in their use (first suggested by Bergmann and Komar) for giving a physical identification as point-events of the mathematical points of the space-time 4-manifold. Finally we give the expression of the Weyl scalars in the Hamiltonian Post-Minkowskian linearization of canonical ADM tetrad gravity in the family of (non-harmonic) 3-orthogonal Schwinger time gauges., Comment: 29 pages

The ferromagnetic q-state Potts model on a square lattice is analyzed, for q>4, through an elaborate version of the operatorial variational method. In the variational approach proposed in the paper, the duality relations are exactly satisfied, involving at a more fundamental level, a duality relationship between variational parameters. Besides some exact predictions, the approach is very effective in the numerical estimates over the whole range of temperature and can be systematically improved., Comment: 20 pages, 5 EPS figures