Raffaella SCHNEIDER

Last update: 8th February 2002



Born:     in Rome on 03/15/1971, Italian nationality,
Home address: via G.B. de Rossi 35, 00161 Rome, Italy.

Studies:
"Laurea'' (Master) in Physics, 13/07/1995, at the Physics Department of the University of Rome, "La Sapienza'' with final mark of 110/110 cum Laude.
High School Degree (Sciences) in July 1989 at Liceo Scientifico Statale "Plinio Seniore'' in Rome with final mark 60/60.
Since November 1995, PhD student at the Physics Department of the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''.

 

Phone: +39-06-49914397
Fax: +39-06-4454992

Academic Qualifications:

Admitted to the Phd research program (with scholarship), after winning the related national selection contest, of the Physics Department of the University of Rome, "La Sapienza'' (academic year 1995-1996).

Admitted to the Phd research program (with scholarship), after winning the related national selection contest, of the Physics Department of the University of Padua, "Galileo Galilei'' (academic year 1995-1996).

"Laurea'' (Master) Thesis: "Anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation: An Analytic Approach to the Problem of Large Scale Structure.

     The work of the Laurea Thesis was developed from February 1994 until June 1995 at the Theoretical Astrophysics Center (TAC) of Copenhagen under the supervision of Prof. A.G. Doroshkevich, as the result of a project promoted by Prof. F. Melchiorri, acting as the Italian supervisor. The referee was Prof. N. Vittorio of the University of Rome, "Tor Vergata''. During this period, I have investigated the temperature anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at small scales, describing them through an analytic approach which enabled to isolate and analyze the relevant physical processes contributing to their formation and suppression. As a result, it was possible to demonstrate that anisotropies on subminute angular scale accurately trace the dark matter distribution and that four beam-switching experiments at 1 arcminute could give an estimate of the mass of the dominant dark matter particles in the range mx < 1 keV. This dynamical range was proved to be the most relevant for the fundamental processes of structure formation and evolution and is consistent with the quantitative estimates arising from particle physics models for the long-lived majoron and right-handed neutrinos, (A.G. Doroshkevich & R.Schneider, 1996, ApJ, 469, 445).

Languages:
Italian mothertongue
Fluent knowledge of English
Sufficient knowledge of French

Professional Experience:

1994-1995 During the preparation of my Laurea Thesis, I have spent a long period of research abroad, from Jenuary 1994 until June 1995, at the Theoretical Astrophysics Center (TAC) of Copenhagen.
My research activities were partly funded by an E.U. Fellowship (Erasmus grant) and partly bu TAC. The Institute is part of the Niels Bohr Institute and for its peculiar international character gave me the extraordinary opportunity to experience contacts and to collaborate with experts coming from different countries of Europe as well as from the USA.
During my period of stay, the director of the Institute, Prof. I.D. Novikov, has awlays made me participating to the stimulating atmosphere of the Institute and I contributed to the exchange of information giving seminars to present the improvments of my research activities. I am therefore experienced to work in an international environment,to travel and to present the results of my research abroad
1996-1998 During the frist year as a PhD student, I attended courses in theoretical physics, astrophysics of compact bodies and statistical mechanics passing the final examinations. Since the second year of my PhD, I have started to investigate the gravitational wave backgrounds generated by cosmological populations of astrophysical sources. This project is being developed collaborating with Prof. V. Ferrari of the University of Rome, "La Sapienza'' and with Prof. S. Matarrese of the University of Padua, "Galileo Galilei''.

 

Relevant Scientific Techniques and Skills Acquired:

     The subject of my Laures Thesis and the research activities of my supervisor, Prof. A.G. Doroshkevich, have enabled me to become familiar with various aspects of modern cosmology and in particular with the investigation of the Microwave Background Radiation and the process of structure formation and evolution.
     The analytical character of the method developed to accomplish this investigation, has allowed me to acquire a good comprehension of the various physical processes involved in the complex period of the evolution of the Universe.
     My currect research activity is now developing between cosmology and gravitational waves. 
     The analysis of the gravitational wave backgrounds produced by astrophysical sources which have been forming since the onset of galaxy formation, requires an accurate description of the star formation history in the Universe. Thus, I became familiar with the ongoing research activity on semi-analytic and numerical models of galaxy formation and evolution as well as with the experimental efforts aimed at observing actively star forming galaxies at increasing cosmological look-back times. In particular, I have been interested in the interpretation of the available data at various redshifts and in the still open problems that concerns the recosntruction of a coherent cosmic star formation history.
     The study of the gravitational wave sources was a completely new field of work for me and in these last few years I have acquired an adequated knowledgeof the various aspects of this complex problem. In particular, I have been using known wave-forms in order to characterize the sources through their gravitational emission spectra and I have investigated the detectability of the resulting gravitational background signals by cross-correlating the outputs of interferometric and/or resonant antennas. Finally, in the necessary comparison between astrophysical and primordial backgrounds, I became familiar with the most popular early-Universe models which predict the generation of gravitational wave signals.
     From a numerical side, I am used to work with Mathematica and with Fortran programming language, implemented by various currently available routines.  

I am also familiar with Vax, Unix, Dos and Windows operative systems.  

 

Participation to Schools and Congresses:

September 1988 participation on the basis of a sholarship at the pre-university orientation school organised by the "Scuola Normale'' of Pisa, Cortona, Italy.
June 1993 participation to the workshop, "Present and Future of the Cosmic Microwave Background'', Santander, Spain, with a grant of the University of Rome.
May 1994 participation to the workshop, "The Early Universe'', Rome, Italy, funded by TAC, Copenhagen.
September 1994 participation to the 11th Potsdam Cosmology Workshop "Large Scale Structure in the Universe'', Potsdma, Germany, funded by TAC, Copenhagen.
May 1995 participation to the inaugural meetings at TAC, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Selected for a scholarship of the Italian Physical Society for the school "E. Fermi'', Varenna, Italy.
September 1995 participation to the congress "Mapping, Measuring and Modelling the Universe'', Valencia, Spain with a scholarship of the "Universidad Intarnacional Men{\'endez Pelayo''.
November 1995 participation to the IV National Meeting of the Italian Cosmological Society, Frascati, Italy, funded by the University of Rome, "Tor Vergata''.
Jenuary 1996 participation to the worhshop for the birthday of I.D. Novikov, TAC Copenhagen, funded by TAC.
May 1996 participation to the school on the Microwave Background Radiation organized by the Observatoire de Strasbourg, France, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''
March 1997 participation to the session devoted to gravitational waves of the Italian Annual Meetings on Theoretical Physics, Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''
September 1997 participation to the congress "The Young Universe'', Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''.
March 1998 participation to the session devoted to gravitational waves of the Italian Annual Meetings on Theoretical Physics, Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''.
September 1998 participation to the Annual Meeting of the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation, Monopoli di Bari, Italy, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''.
October 1998 participation to the Annual Meeting of the Italian Physical Society, Salerno, Italy, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''.
December 1998 participation to the 19th Texas Symposium of Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology, Paris, France, funded by the University of Rome, "La Sapienza''.

 

Seminars:

May 1995 TAC, Copenhagen, "Small scale CMB fluctuations as a probe of the mass of DM particles''.
September 1995 Valencia, Spain "CMB anistropies on subminute scales as a probe of the mass of DM particles''.
November 1995 Frascati, Italy "An analytic approach to small scale CMB anistropies''.
March 1998 Vietri sul Mare (Salerno), Italy "Stochastic backgrounds of gravitational waves from cosmological population of core-collapse supernovae''.
September 1998 Monopoli (Bari), Italy "Gravitational wave background from young, hot, rapidly rotating neutron stars''.
October 1998 Salerno, Italy "Stochastic backgrounds of gravitational waves from cosmological population of astrophysical sources''.
December 1998 Paris, France "Astrophysical Backgrounds of Gravitational Waves''.
Jenuary 1999 SISSA, Trieste, Italy "Astrophysical Sources of Gravitational Radiation''.
February 1999 Osservatorio Astronomico, Padova, Italy "Extragalactic astrophysical contributions to the gravitational wave background''.
May 1999 Osservatorio Astronomico, Arcetri, Firenze, Italy "Extragalactic compact binaries: confusion limited noise in LISA band''.

Publications