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This is a seven-year study (1/7/2011-31/12/2017) of radon monitoring at two sites of Campi Flegrei caldera (Neaples, Southern Italy) that in the last 70 years experienced repeated phases of volcanic unrest. The sites are equipped with devices for radon detection, based on the spectrometry analysis of the α-particles of radon daughters. A hybrid method, as combination of three known methods, is applied for the identification of residuals (anomalies) and trends of the time series of Radon. The results are compared with the following indicators of current caldera unrest: the tremor caused by the major fumarolic vent registered by a seismic station; the cumulative of background seismicity; the maximum vertical deformation acquired by GPS networks during the current phase of uplift; the temperature-pressure of the hydrothermal system estimated based on gas geo-indicators. The comparisons show strong correlation among independent signals and suggest that the extension of the area affected by current Campi Flegrei crisis is larger than the area of seismicity and of intense hydrothermal activity from which the radon stations are 1–4 km away. These results represent an absolute novelty in the study of a such calderic area and mark a significant step forward in the use and interpretation of the radon signal.

Muography is an imaging technique based on the measurement of absorption profiles for muons as they pass through rocks and earth. Muons are produced in the interactions of high-energy cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. The technique is conceptually similar to usual X-ray radiography, but with extended capabilities of investigating over much larger thicknesses of matter thanks to the penetrating power of high-energy muons. Over the centuries a complex system of cavities has been excavated in the yellow tuff of Mt. Echia, the site of the earliest settlement of the city of Naples in the 8th century BC. A new generation muon detector designed by us, was installed under a total rock overburden of about 40 metres. A 26 days pilot run provided about 14 millions of muon events. A comparison of the measured and expected muon fluxes improved the knowledge of the average rock density. The observation of known cavities proved the validity of the muographic technique. Hints on the existence of a so far unknown cavity was obtained. The success of the investigation reported here demonstrates the substantial progress of muography in underground imaging and is likely to open new avenues for its widespread utilisation.

Studying pulsars from ground-based telescopes needs data analysis to be performed according to specific requirements. Because of the periodic behavior of these objects such requirements are expressed in terms of timing. In fact, several factors must be taken into account to correctly extract the period (frequency) and then light curves of pulsars. Until now, analysis software packages have been mainly developed for satellite data and are not completely suitable for optical observations from the ground. A software package called GUIDA has been developed to analyze optical photometric data recorded by the SiFAP instrument, completely conceived and realized at the Physics Department of La Sapienza-Università di Roma. This software package is capable of analyzing data relative to ground observations, including timing corrections, and of deriving corrected pulsar light curves.

Muon radiography is a methodology which enables measuring the mass distribution within large objects. It exploits the abundant flux of cosmic muons and uses detectors with different technologies depending on the application. As the sensitive surface and geometric acceptance are two fundamental parameters for increasing the collection of muons, the optimization of the detectors is very significant. Here we show a potentially innovative detector of size and shape suitable to be inserted inside a borehole, that optimizes the sensitive area and maximizes the angular acceptance thanks to its cylindrical geometry obtained using plastic arc-shaped scintillators. Good spatial resolution is obtained with a reasonable number of channels. The dimensions of the detector make it ideal for use in 25 cm diameter wells. Detailed simulations based on Monte Carlo methods show great cavity detection capability. The detector has been tested in the laboratory, achieving overall excellent performance.

The prevention of radioactive pollution is a primary objective of environmental protection codes in the operation of solid waste landfill activities. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of radiological monitoring of the main constituents of urban landfill waste. The present contribution reports on an investigation plan carried out to evaluate the possible radiological contamination in the municipal landfill Lo Uttaro, district of Caserta (Italy). The investigation focused primarily on the perimeter area of the landfill in order to assess the possible impact on the surrounding population. The results of measurements of the equivalent dose rate along the perimeter of the landfill show average values lower than the population dose limit due to natural background radiation. Several samples of soil, groundwater and leachate representative of the subsoil of the study area were collected and the radionuclides were measured by gamma spectrometry. The results of these measurements show the absence of artificial radionuclides, except for small amounts of 137Cs due to nuclear disasters occurring in the last 50 years on Earth, and the mere presence of 40K and other natural radionuclides belonging to natural radioactive chains of 238U, 235U and 232Th.

Millisecond pulsars are neutron stars that attain their very fast rotation during a 10 8 –10 9 -yr-long phase of disk accretion of matter from a low-mass companion star 1 , 2 . They can be detected as accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars if towards the end of this phase their magnetic field is strong enough to channel the in-flowing matter towards their magnetic poles 3 . When mass transfer is reduced or ceases altogether, pulsed emission generated by magnetospheric particle acceleration and powered by the star rotation is observed, preferentially in the radio 4 and gamma-ray 5 bands. A few transitional millisecond pulsars that swing between an accretion-powered X-ray pulsar regime and a rotationally powered radio pulsar regime in response to variations of the mass in-flow rate have been recently identified 6 , 7 . Here, we report the detection of optical pulsations from a transitional millisecond pulsar. The pulsations were observed when the pulsar was surrounded by an accretion disk, and originated inside the magnetosphere or within a few hundreds of kilometres from it. Energy arguments rule out reprocessing of accretion-powered X-ray emission and argue against a process related to accretion onto the pulsar polar caps; synchrotron emission of electrons in a rotation-powered pulsar magnetosphere 8 seems more likely. Optical pulsations from a millisecond pulsar that had transitioned from a rotationally powered regime to an accretion disk state have been detected. The optical emission is likely to be due to electron synchrotron emission in a rotation-powered magnetosphere.

Renewable energy dependence on variable weather creates mismatches with energy demand. One possible solution is to produce and store green hydrogen by energy surpluses for later use. While surface storage options are limited, subsurface storage in salt caverns (200 m to 2 km deep) is more suitable due to their favorable properties. However, imaging these caverns is difficult because traditional geophysical methods often lack the resolution or depth penetration needed, making it challenging to study such formations effectively. Many of the limitations of conventional geophysical prospecting methods can be addressed by Muon Radiography (MR), an advanced technique that uses cosmic muons to detect underground density variations. Because muons penetrate deeply, their attenuation reveals information about the density and structure of the material, allowing for the identification of cavities with high spatial resolution over several hundred meters. This article presents a MR project aimed at imaging and characterizing underground salt caverns in southern Sicily. A muon detector was first installed at the surface to collect a calibration sample of free-sky muons, then moved to an underground gallery at m ASL to test the method near a known tunnel. The paper includes expected results from synthetic data and first data analysis from the calibration and underground samples.

RadioLab is an Italian project, addressed to school-age people, and designed for the dissemination of scientific culture on the theme of environmental radioactivity, with particular regards to the importance of knowledge of radon gas exposure. The project is a nationwide initiative promoted by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics- INFN. First tool used by the project, and of immediate impact to assess the public awareness on radon, is the administration of the survey “do you know the radon gas?”. In the survey, together with the knowledge of radon and of its sources, information on personal, cultural and territorial details regarding the interviewees are also taken. Reasonably, the survey invests not only young people, but also their relatives, school workers and, gradually, the public. The survey is administrated during exhibitions or outreach events devoted to schools, but also open to the public. The survey is in dual form: printed and online. The online mode clearly leads RadioLab project even outside the school environment. Based on the results of the survey, several statistical analyses have been performed and many conclusions are drawn about the knowledge of the population on the radon risk. The RadioLab benefit and the requirement to carry on the project goals, spreading awareness of environmental radioactivity from radon, emerge. The dataset involves all twenty Italian regions and consists of 28,612 entries covering the 5-year period 2018–2022.

Cosmic-ray muon radiography (muography), an imaging technique that can provide measurements of rock densities within the top few 100 m of a volcanic cone, has now achieved a spatial resolution of the order of 10 m in optimal detection conditions. Muography provides images of the top region of a volcano edifice with a resolution that is considerably better than that typically achieved with other conventional methods (i.e. gravimetric). We expect such precise measurements, to provide us with information on anomalies in the rock density distribution, which can be affected by dense lava conduits, low-density magma supply paths or the compression with the depth of the overlying soil. The MUon RAdiography of VESuvius (MURAVES) project is now in its final phase of construction and deployment. Up to four muon hodoscopes, each with a surface of roughly 1 m 2 , will be installed on the slope of Vesuvius and take data for at least 12 months. We will use the muographic profiles, combined with data from gravimetric and seismic measurement campaigns, to determine the stratigraphy of the lava plug at the bottom of the Vesuvius crater, in order to infer potential eruption pathways. While the MURAVES project unfolds, others are using emulsion detectors on Stromboli to study the lava conduits at the top of the volcano. These measurements are ongoing: they have completed two measurement campaigns and are now performing the first data analysis. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Cosmic-ray muography’.

A detailed analysis of a time-series of the Radon (222Rn) specific activity is carried out to identify anomalies that can be correlated with earthquakes occurrence in the monitored area. New hybrid methods are developed for this purpose and the advantages of each single component method are exploited. These methods are applied to two-years data series recorded continuously in the soils of a site within the seismo-volcanic area of Phlegrean Fields (Naples-Italy). Since the measurement system distinguishes and separately measures the 222Rn and 220Rn, an alternative estimation of the remote fraction of the gas and its anomalies has been also performed using the 220Rn trend. The results of different methods are compared to recognize and to highlight Radon anomalies. Clear relationships have been found between anomalies and earthquakes of local origin and selected according to a specific formula of the earthquake preparation zone. The effectiveness of the methods and the goodness of the results are established by the high values of the cross correlation factors between the anomalies and the occurrence of the earthquakes.