[en] The experimental problem of the calibration of magnetic field in large iron detectors located in underground areas is discussed. Emphasis is laid on techniques based on ballistic measurements as the ones employed by MINOS or OPERA. An experimental investigation of the precision achievable by these methods has been carried out using a full-scale prototype of the OPERA spectrometer built in Frascati in 2001. We demonstrate that a field calibration at the level of 3% can be reached and discuss in details the limiting systematics. Moreover, we provide analytical formulas to model the behaviour of the apparatus in the transient regime, keeping into account eddy current effects and the finite penetration velocity of the driving fields. These formulas ease substantially the design of the calibration apparatus. Finally, ballistic techniques are shown to match the requirements for field calibration at the next generation long-baseline neutrino experiments and are well-suited to operate in underground laboratories

[en] A total cross section measurement of pion minus photoproduction on deuteron in the first-resonance region, done at Frascati Laboratory by a 30 cm deuterium bubble chamber, is presented and data are reported. It is concluded that the discrepancies still existing among the bubble chamber gamma-n cross section have to be attributing essentially to the method used for extracting them and not to the rough experimental data

[en] The requirement of high rate capability for operation at LHC, led 20 years ago to the achievement of Resistive Plate Chambers operated in avalanche mode, thanks to the introduction of new gas mixtures and to the development of the Front-End electronics. The need for a further increase of the rate capability, in view of the upgrades of LHC, is imposing new detector geometries with thinner gas gaps and electrodes. Streamer operation of RPCs may still be suitable for low rate experiments, and therefore in this paper a comparison between two different detector geometries, the old standard and the newly proposed one, is performed in streamer mode.

[en] The present paper is meant as an update of the presentation given in a previous Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) workshop, aimed at finding an eco-friendly gas mixture for streamer operation of RPCs. Indeed the streamer working regime is still suitable for building large RPC systems dedicated to low rate applications, such as cosmic ray and neutrino physics. In addition to other studies about gas mixtures for streamer mode operation, in this paper the replacement of R134a with CF₄, a gas widely used in other gaseous detectors, has been investigated. The effect of the gas gap thickness on the discharge quenching has also been studied; this is an important check because thin gas gaps of 1 mm, one half of the typical used value, have been introduced for high rate applications. Finally preliminar results about the streamer formation timing are also reported.

[en] We report on the simulated performances of a non-homogeneous e.m. calorimeter based on a 5X₀ tracking section using CsI(Tl) fibres, followed by a 10X₀ Pb-SCIFI head-on back section. Our study shows that such a technique is quite promising for the high-efficiency detection of photons in the energy range of interest at a Φ-factory machine. (orig.)

[en] In order to perform an indoor survey of internal exposure to radon and its short life daughters using track etching passive detectors, it is necessary to analyze a large amount of information without spending a lot of time and manual work. For this purpose, the possibility of utilizing PEPR (Precision Encoding and Pattern Recognition) normally used in the digitization of low energy particle tracks recorded on Bubble Chamber film has been studied. A special subroutine has been set up for a PDP 11/45 Computer to guide PEPR in studying the tracks of α-particles in CR39. (author)

[en] This article reports on studies aimed to characterise the properties of plastic scintillating fibres to be used in head-on, 1:1 Pb-SCIFI calorimetric modules. The effect of glue on the attenuation of the light transported by cladding close to the photomultiplier tube is studied and found to effectively decrease the contribution of cladding light. Pb-SCIFI modules have been assembled and tested on a 20-80 MeV tagged photon beam. Good linearity and energy resolution better than 6%/√E[GeV] were achieved, therefore showing that this technique is suitable for experimentation at φ-factories. (orig.)

[en] Following a previous work, the comparison of the properties of multihadron systems, produced in high-energy pp reactions, with hadron jets produced in e⁺e^- annihilation, is further extended through the study of the inclusive distributions in the ''reduced'' variable psub(T)/< psub(T)>. A good agreement with e⁺e^- data is found. (author)

[en] I contribute just two points to the discussion of hadron colliders versus e⁺e^- colliders. Both will be based on experimental data observed at the ISR and extrapolated at extreme energies. The first is in the field of new, very heavy flavours; the second is on the multiparticle production. (orig./HSI)

[en] We present a study of the characteristics of a hybrid image intensifier tube based on a thinned backside Electron Bombarded CCD (EBCCD) with better performance in spatial resolution, single photoelectron detection and gain stability than the conventional intensified systems based on a Micro Channel Plate followed by a CCD. Single photon detection sensitivity has been studied and a procedure to correct the gain non-uniformity of the EBCCD has been developed. The EBCCD, operating at 14 kV, has an average gain of ∼3000 electrons/photoelectron and a noise of the order of 100 electron/pixel. These characteristics make the EBCCD a very attractive device for many applications in high-energy physics, astrophysics and biomedicine. A possible application in a neutrino oscillation experiment is presented