Università degli studi di Perugia
Ph. D. Alberto Oliva
e-mail: alberto.oliva@pg.infn.it
tel.: +39 075 5852757



Date of birh: November 16, 1979

Reserch field:
High energy astrophysics, astroparticle physics, dark matter, cosmological antimatter, cosmic rays, cosmic ions.

AMS-02 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer) is a high energy particle experiment in space. The project, now in the last phase of construction, is based on a central spectrometric core composed by 8 planes of silicon tracker embedded in a 0.8 T cryogenic magnet for the measure of the particle rigidity, two scintillator systems for the trigger (ACC and TOF) and a Ring Imaging CHerenkov counter (RICH) for the measure of the particle speed. The system is completed by a Trasition Radiation Detector (TRD) and a Electromagneti CALorimeter (ECAL) for an improved distinction between electron and anti-protons, an essential task for the dark matter search.
The capabilities of measuring charged cosmic rays with rigidities from 100 MV to few TV, the large acceptance of the istrument, and the long period of  measuration of three year, will give a unique possibility of searching primordial antimatter and dark matter (as annihilation structure).

Curriculum vitae:
Dr. Alberto Oliva was born in Pesaro in 1979 and graduated in Physics with sub-nuclear specialization at the University "Alma Mater Studiorum" of Bologna in July 2004 with full marks (110/110 cum laude) defending a thesis regarding the study of the performance of the AMS-02 Time-of-Flight system entitled "Recognition of cosmic rays with atomic number Z <20 with the plastic scintillator of the TOF system of AMS-02". In the same year he won PhD positions in Physics at both University of Bologna and Perugia and chose to continue his academic education at the University of Perugia in which he conducted its scientific research over the period 2004-2007 in the AMS local group. In this In this period he analyzed test beam data of high energy ions incident on AMS-02 Silicon Tracker elements. In the analysis results a complete discussion of the charge separation power and the spatial resolution for the AMS Silicon Tracker for ions with charges up to Z = 12 can be found. This study has further validated the use of the particle physics simulator code FLUKA for high energy nuclei interactions with Silicon Tracker materials, especially in the case of nucleus-nucleus inelastic collision. During the PhD period he won the "A. Avogadro " prize for the best astrophysics communication at the annual Italian Physical Society (SIF) congress in 2005. In December 2007 he defended the PhD dissertation "High Charge Measurements Cosmic Rays with the AMS-02 Silicon Tracker". The Ph.D. thesys work is mainly devoted to the estimation of the capabilities of distinguish different ions, and isotopes, with the AMS-02 apparatus. This measurement can be useful in the modelization of the galaxy properties and can give important information about the creation processes of the cosmic rays.

Subsequently in January 2008 he won a research fellow (“Assegno di ricerca”) for the study of the response of AMS-02 to cosmic rays ions, a position held till today. During the first part (February-June 2008) of post-doctoral research he has been actively involved in the acquisition of AMS-02 and its Tracker with cosmic muons at CERN during the detector pre-integration phase, he has contributed to the setup for the acquisition, to the shifts for the data taking and to their analysis.

The work of analysis in with is currently involved mainly concern: a) the on-line board data compression software testing; b) the study of the performance of the 192 Tracker ladders in terms of uniformity of gains, efficiency and spatial resolution; c) study of the performances of the Tracker elements on beam tests; d) development of the Tracker simulation, reconstruction and analysis software in the framework of the whole AMS experiment analysis and Monte Carlo code; e) collaboration with the AMS-01 data analysis group involved in the computation of the not yet published Boron/Carbon ratio as an expert in reconstruction and simulation of heavy charges.

Pubblications:
J. Alcaraz, ..., A. Oliva et al.,  The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Silicon Tracker: Performance results with Protons and Helium nuclei, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 593: 376-398, 2008  
A. Oliva, Cosmic-Ray Astrophysics with the AMS-02 Experiment, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 588: 255-258, 2008.
M. Aguilar, ..., A. Oliva et al., Cosmic-Ray Positron Fraction Measurement from 1 to 30 GeV with AMS-01, Phys.Lett.B646:145-154, 2007.
A. Oliva for the AMS-Tracker Collaboration, Performance of the AMS-02 silicon detector, Nuovo Cim. 29C:335-343, 2006.
L. Amati, …, A. Oliva et al., The TOF Counters of the AMS-02 Experiment: Space Qualification Tests and Beam Test Results, Nuclear Physics B 150, 276-280, 2006

Conferences/workshop partecipation:
2009, July, Lodz, Poland, 31th ICRC: accepted talk about AMS-02 Silicon Tracker integration
2008, October, Genova, Italy, XCIV SIF: comunication about integration and testing of the AMS-02 Silicon Tracker
2008, August, Stanford, California, SSI: parteciapation to the SLAC Summer Institute (presentation of a poster)
2008, July, Montreal, Canada, COSPAR08: presentation of a poster titled "The AMS-02 Tracker"
2007, June, Merida, Mexico, 30th ICRC: presentation of a poster titled "Cosmic Rays Astrophysics with AMS-02"
2007, June, Rome, Italy, RICAP07: talk about the CR Astrophysics with AMS-02
2006, November, Perugia, Italy: partecipation to the "VI Incontro Nazionale Gruppo Italiano Astrofisica Nucleare e Sperimentale"
2006, October, Torino, Italy, XCII SIF: presentation about the charge recostruction with the AMS Silicon Tracker
2005, September, Catania, Italy, XCI SIF: presentation about the AMS-02 Si Tracker performances for protons. The communication has been awarded with the "A. Avogadro" medal.
2004, October, Brescia, XC SIF: presentation about the AMS-02 TOF performances for incident ions