Editors Burra G. Sidharth Birla Science Centre Hyderabad India

ISSN 0930-8989 ISBN 978-3-319-00296-5 DOl 10.1007/978-3-319-00297-2

Marisa Michelini Lorenzo Santi DCFA - Section of Mathematics and

Physics University of Udine Udine Italy

ISSN 1867-4941 (electronic) ISBN 978-3-319·00297-2 (eBook)

Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013942324

© Springer Intemalional Publishing Switzerland 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation. broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval. electronic aduptation, computer software. or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation arc brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically ror the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereor is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher's location, in its current version, and permiSSion for use must always be obtained rrom Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through Rights Link at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations arc liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks. service marks. etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of.:l specific statement. that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore rree for general use. While the advice and informution in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the uuthors nor the editors nor th~ publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty. express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

Printed on acid· free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (w.ww.springer.eom)

Frontiers of Fundamental Physics and Physics Education Research

Book of selected papers presellted ill the Illternatiollal Symposium Frolltiers of FlIlldamellwl Physics-12th editioll, held at 21-23 November 2011 ill Udille, Italy

Editors of the Book

Surra G. Sidharth. fJjr/1I Sci~IIU C~nlu Dir~Cl/lr, flyd~rabad. II/diu Mnris::! Michelini. GIREP Pr~Jid~IIt, Ulli"~rsit)' (If U,/ill~. J/tI/y

Lorenzo Gi:mni Santi. U"iI'usi/), (If Udi,,~. IUlly

Editorial Board

Burra G. Sidharth, Th~or~licallll/d SIll/is/kill Physics Rf!SPOII,fibk Bir/a Scitll('~ Cf!/llu Dirtc/or. lIydutlbm/. flltii" Alessnndro Dc Angelis. AsrropliyskJ Rts/JCl/uilJlt, Univusit)' of Udint. Iwly

Frnnco fabbri, POlm/ariUllioll ill Ph)'sics Rtsp,msiblt, NtlfiUlwl Labs ill Fmsca/i, Roma. Ilnly Mnuro Francaviglia. Gravila/ioll, CaSillO/aNY. MaliltilUl/iC'(/1 Physics RtspOl/siblt. Ul/illusiI)' of Torillo. /wly Mnrisa Michelini, Physics £ducll/ioll Rf!starcll (md Tt(lchtr £dum/ilm ReSIJOl/sibft. VI/irusir)' of Udi"t. /wly

Giorgio Pastore, COllllJUw/iO/w/ Physics RtJIJOlIslblt, lirltnltllimw/ Ctlller /IfThtvr~/it'tl/ Physics, Tritslt, Ilniy Mnda Peressi, CCJlldtll1td Matler Physics Rtsf'OIlSible. bller/mliO/rai C~IIfU 0/ nltortlicall'hYJics. Trj~slt. lit/I)'

Giov;'lnni Paulcn~. l/ieh Ellen:y Physics Responsible. UnivtrsilY (1/ Udine, lterly Lorenzo Ginnni Santi, Physics Edrrcafiorr crnd Te(rcher l..allcmirlll R~SIJo/lsibft, Ul/iversilY vf U(lin~, fw/y

Editorial Secretariat

Sri Chandrn Pmsad Ramn ChallnpOIlli, R~setrrch UI/il ill Physics GIl/calion. Unil'trsil), (If U(lillt. /la/)' Stefano Vercellati. ReJeorch Unil ill Ph),sicJ GII'HI/ioll. Ullivenil)' of Udi"t. Iwly

~ EUROPEAN PHYSICAL soom

FFPI2 International Symposium on Frontiers of Fundamental Physics

Internatiollal Clmire for l1teoretical P/Tjlsics

21-23 November 2011 University of Udine, Italy

International Advisory Board

David DouS11lS OshcrofT, HOIl. Clrair. Slml/orrl Ulliw:rliry. USA

Burm G. Sidhnrth. DirtclOr. O.M. Bida Scicllc~ Ct!lltrc, b,dia

Fcmnndo Quevedo. Dircc({Jr, Inlcrnmio/w[ CClllrc for ThC()fCI;cal Physics. Iioly MUrl!!" Michelini, Vl/iI,us;,y of Udillc, fwl)' AlesSAndro Dc Angclis. Ullivusil), of Ud/lle. ilaly David Finkdslcin, GCOrgill Tech, USA

Wililer Greiner, Director, Fmflkjllrllnstirurc Advanced Studies, Gcnlloll), Ilelmul Kr6gcr. Universiry of Lam/. Ccmada Marc Lnchicz·Rcy. University of Ptrris, Frollet:

Pndma Kunt Shukla. RIt", Ulliw:rsital, Gennall)'

International Organizing Institutions

University of Udine, !tilly Department of Chemi~try Physics ond Environment (DCFA). InterdepnrtmentDI Center of Research In Education (CIRD). and Physics Education Resctlrch Unit-PERU with the coopefDtion or Faculty of Education (FASP), Faculty of Mathematical. Physictll and Natural Sciences (FAMA), Scuola Superiore of the University of Udine

International Centre for 1l1eoretic:ll Physics (ICTP) B.M. Birla Science Centre (BIRLASC) International Centre for Mechaniclll Sciences (CISM)

Collaborating Scientific Institutions

European Physietll Society (EPS) Lutin American Physics Education Network (LAPEN) Group International de Research in Physics Education (GIREP) European Science Education RCSCllrch Associillion (ESERA) International Commis~ion on PhYl>ics Education (JCPE) Muhimcdi:l in flhysics Te:lching lind uarning Group (MPTL) Multimedia Educlltional Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOn Nationnl Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) Italian Society of General Relatiyity lind Gravitational Phy~ics (SIGRAV) Italinn Phy~ical Society (SIP) M~iation for Phy~ics Teoching (A IF)

.Local Organizing Committee

Cristitlna CompOlgno. Rector of tile' Ullil'cnit)' tlf Ut/illt

Furio Honsell. Mayor of UdillC' COlflo Tasso, RCC/(Ir'.f DtfrJ:lIft' for /"d;(I, Utriv,..r.si,y (If Vdllle

Gilln Lue:! Foresli. OcUli, Faculty of &lucalirJllol Scicllces, Vnil'usil), of Uttille Frnnco POlrl"mcnlo, 0((111, Faculty of MmhcllUllical. Physical mId NClwrol ScirllcC's, UlliVeTlity of Uctille Lorenzo Fcdriui. DiucttJr (If DCFA. Vllil'usit)' vi UttillC'

Lorenzo Sllnti. Dirl'ctor 0/ CIRD. DeFA, Ulli\'crs;ty of U,I/lle

Morbll Mic~lin; OCFA. UlliI'eTsiry of UJillC' Mauro FrnnclIviglia. Prcsirirmt of 1/alia1l Sacirl)' 0/ Grlltm/ Rtlfl/il'il}' WId Crt/rita/;VlI SIGRAV

Alfredo Soldllli, !nun/lIIiO/wl C(Jl/rr of Mrt'/wII;clIi Scirllct:S, UrliM Giovanni P,lUleUOI, /NFN Gmllp &. DCFA. Ullil'tr.rir), of Uaille

Mnrinn Cohnl, OCFA. Ul/iverJ/I>' of Udiltt: Alberto Stdanel. DCFA. Vnil,t:r.fi/), IIf Udille

Stcfano Ve(Ccllati. DCFA. Ullil'UJi/y of Vditlt!

Sri Ramo Chllndrn Pr.1slId Challapalli. DCFII. Univusi/)' vf Udil/t:

Secretariat and Technical Support of the FFPI2 Symposium

Donatella Ceeeolin. C/RD Secrt!/ari(ll, V,/itle' UniverJity Sandrn Muuin. Mo.rtinn Scrignaro. DCFA, UI/iversil), of Udjll t!

Silvi3 Adduc". Elena Lo.rchet. Alessio. Lofaro. Pllblic Rt!lmitlll Damelio Dn Ri.t. Mario Gervasio. Filippo Pascolo. Alberto Sabatini. Mauro Sabbndini, Giorgio Salemi, Tt!Chllica/ SU()port

Europhysics Conference Abstrnci Booklet-Printed by Litho SInmpa. Udine.ltaly. November 201 I-ISBN 2·914771·61-4

Cmltents

Part I General Talks

Two-Dimensional Anharmonic Crystal Lattices: Solitons, Solectrons, and Electric Conduction .. . ......... . . . 3 Manuel G. Velarde, Werner Ebeling and Alexander P. Chetverikov

2 Generating the Mass of Particles from Extended Theories of Gravity . .. . . ... . .. . ... .. ......... . .. . .. . . 15 Salvatore CapozzieUo and Mariafelicia De Laurentis

3 Enrico Fermi and Ettore Majorana: So Strong, So Different . . . . 29 Francesco Guerra and Nadia Robotti

4 Physics Teachers' Education (PTE): Problems and Challenges. . . 41 Elena Sassi and Marisa Michelini

Part II Astronomy and Astrophysics

5 Simulation of High Energy Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . • . . . • . . . • . . . . 59 Houri Ziaeepour

6 Effects of Modified Dispersion Relations and Noncommutative Geometry on the Cosmological Constant Computation. . . . . . . . . 71 Remo Garattini

7 Testing the Nature of Astrophysical Black Hole Candidates . . . . . 81 Cosimo Bambi

ix

582 8. Pecori ct ill.

The results already obtained support the hypothesis that addressing the issue of OW from different perspectives may help to develop teaching materials on this topic able to convey the message that:

- The scientific controversy does not concern the existence or not of OW, but it concerns the predictions of the models in terms of consequences of the OW;

- The models of OW cannot show a power of prediction in classical terms (like in Classical Mechanics) because the phenomenon is intrinsically complex and multi-dimensional.

To introduce the epistemological dimension, in particular epistemology of complex­ity seems potentially able to provide students with cultural tools to rationally navigate in the jungle of ideological wars about environmental issues.

This is an important goal for Science Education in the challenge of finding an effective perspective, not only for teaChing Physics, but also for educating young people to Scientific Citizenship.

The future research development includes design of a teaching proposal for intro­ducing OW as a topic in physics teaching at higher secondary level, integrated in a wider teaching path about Thermodynamics, already produced and tried out by the Physics Education research group of the Bologna University [2, 7].

References

I. IPCC (2007) Climate change: Synthesis Report 2. Levrini 0, Fantini P. Gagliardi M. Tasquier G, Pccori B (2010) A Longitudinal approach to

appropriation of science ideas: A study of students' Irnjcctorics in thennodynamics. Proc. 9th ICLS conference, Chicago (IL)

3. Norgaard K M. (2009) Cognitive and behavioral challenges in responding to climate change. Background paper to the 2010 world development report. The world bank development eco­nomics

4. Pongiglionc F (2011) Clim.:llc change and individual decision making. FEEM Working Paper 5. Pulcini E (2009) L3 cura del mondo. Pauroe rcsponsabilita nell'cta globale, Bollati Boringhieri,

Torino 6. Rizzi R (201 I) Atmospheric Physics. Material from lectures, A.A, pp 20t0-201 I 7. Tasquicr G (2009) Un cspcrimento di termodinamica in una classe IV liceo scientifico: analisi

della fanibilila di un pcrcorso innovativo. Tcsi di laurc3 spcci3listica. Olivia Lcvrini. Relatore 8. Tasquier G. Nonni C (2011) Pcr una educazionc scicntifica che invcste sui futuro: i1 patrimonio

dell3 tradizione e la sfida del mondo contcmporanco. Univcrsita di Bologna, Giornata di studi del CIRE

9. TOlsquicr G, Pongiglionc F (2011) Problemi OlmbicntOlli e loro complcssita scientificOl e socialc: Una sfid3 per la rice rca in Didauic3 dclle Scicnzc. Ani XCVII Congrcsso Nazionale SlF, L:Aquila, 26-30 sCllombrc, 201 I

Chapter 63 Maglllletic lFneDidl ~s lP'se1lllidlovecior Entity in Physics lEidl1lllc~tIil{J)lIll

Carlo Cecchini, Maris", Michelini, Alessandra Mossent"" Lorenzo Santi, Alberto Stefane) "nd Stefano YerteJiali

Abstract The analysis of the nature of the magnetic field offers the ideal framework in which students could address the mutual integration between mathematics and physical aspects facing experimentally the analysis of the phenomenology. Took look how students face experimenL~ in which the phenomenology founds the theory and the mathematics offers its formalism as the best language to describe the explored phenomena, an activity concerning the pseudovectorial nature of the magnetic field was performed looking at the way in which the students' reasoning evolve.

63.1 IntroductioDII

As in several physics situations, the knowledge of the symmetries of the physical systems analyzes the situations in a more effective and simple way, but the individ­uation of the symmetries could not be done without passing through the knowledge of the laws of transformation of the single entities that take part in the systems [I, 3, 6, 8). For instance, symmetries arc related with laws of conservation through the use of the Neother's first theorem (7).

Unfortunately the role of symmetries in high school physics education is often underestimated. The ways in which entities are transformed by symmetry operations arc usually not explicitly adressed, the usual goals of the high school physics courses are only aimed to the definition of the structures of the entities, and this approach creates an intellectual gap between students' studies in high school and university courses (2).

C. Cecchini (~ Physics Department, University of Udine. Udinc, 1t31y

M. Michelini· A. Mosscnta . L. Santi· A. Stefanel . S. Verccllati Mathematics Department, University of Udinc, Udine, Italy

B. G. Sidharth cl a1. (cds.), Frontiers of Flltldamenral Physics and Physicj' Education 583 Researc", Springer Proceedings in Physics 145,001: 10.1007/978-3-319-00297-2_63, © Springer International Publishing Swil7..crland 2014

584 C. Cecchini CI ot t

The main example of this intellectual gap is related to the distinction of axial alld polar vectors. In high school this distinction is usually neglected and this learning knot lies submersed until students had to face it in the university courses.

This research is aimed to study how high school students' reasoning evolves in the construction of formal thinking when they face an explicit situation in which the pseudovectorial nature of the magnetic field is highlighted.

63.2 COlIlldexd amI Sample

Research work was done in the context of the Summer School of Modern Physics held in Udine during the summer of the 2011. The students participating to this school were the best 42 students coming from the last 2 years of the Italian high school (students are 17-18 years old; school. grades 12th-13th). The opening course of this intensive school was the course of electromagnetism. It was a 16 hours long course distributed on 3 days.

63.3 llimsdrnments and Methods

During this course of electromagnetism, students, divided in 7 groups of 6 compo­nents each one (4 groups of 12th grade students and 3 of 13th grade), follow an inquired based learning path that was constructed on the experimental exploration of the formal properties of the magnetic field with the aim to construct a formal representation of it. In particular the works on the exploration of the pseudovector­ial properties of magnetic field was proposed in this learning path as an interactive lecture demonstration using an inquired based lUtorial constructed with the Prevision­Experiment-Comparison (PEC) strategy [4, 5].

o

~ ~Mirror

Fig.63.J Situation proposed 10 the students in the first step

63 Magnetic Field as Pseudovcctor Entity in Physics Education 585

The situation proposed was the one represented in Fig. 63 .1. Taking into account the given circuit, students had to draw its mirrored image representing the needles of the compass, the needle of the reflected compass and analyze the picture (the compass is represented as the circle placed above the coils).

The second step was the realization of the experiment and the analysis of the original and the mirrored situations. Then, in the third part was asked to the students to rise up some considerations starting from the experimental observations.

63.4 ][)ata

Data were collected using personal inquired based worksheets. In the first phase,the provisional phase, 36 % of the students represent the mirrored image of the needle as simple reflection, 28 % represents the needle of the compass with opposite verse, 5 %

represent only the mirrored apparatus and 36 % did not replay to this task (Fig. 63.2). Atthe second phase, 19 % of the students highlighted that the verse of the mirrored

image of the needle is the same without justify it, while 14 % highlights that the verse is different justifying their answers saying that the verse is different due to the right hand rule (2 %), because the verse of rotation of the coils change (2 %), because there is a change in the direction of the magnetic field (Fig. 63.3).

In phase three, 64 % of the slUdent highlight that the magnetic field is not a vector reporting only the representative matrix wrote by the teacher on the blackboard 31 %, highlighting the rule in the recognition of the nature by the different rule ofrefiection 29 %, pseudo magnetic vector is like the angular momentum or quantities that arc defined through a vector product, 14 % because the scalar product is anti-commutative 5 %, or give other argumentation 4 %, 5 % did not motivate and the remaining 36 % did not reply (Fig. 63.4).

~D ~---------------------------------------

::1 f---J-3D ~I 2D

1D

reprecntsthe mrrcred

apo'raws\,/ ith s'mpJe refertl~

018

1>-----1

represents 'the representscn~1

mrrored the mrrcred aparatUS\'/lth

cppostte ref le:ton of B

apparathus

NR

Fig.63.2 Representation of the mirrored image of the needle done by the students

a TeT

l iV

nV

586

90

50 f------------------------------------------70 +---------------------------------1 50 +-------------1

+---=I;------~

Fig.63.3 Observation done by the students of the experimental results

S;I .- - - . _ . - - - - - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _._ _ _ • _ _ _

" ! _. - _._ .. . - .- --- -;~ i -

C. Cecchini ct al.

11 10.

5 N

oV

.. --- --l-_. __ _ f _

10 i-- .-=--""'--.......

no,:! !s o wl~~lhe I=~O«tCI ~_:ltl t'~ICI' !-::.t:.R :t',~mlt't':"': t:I't\.~C';t':for IlR j:!.tv:fovtac t mw. hu/" :JJ:t-tI~" \,,[C:OII':'l ft'.:! :' " lt1 re:::"n':t~.'f

fC'!:c:r.e::t'r ~,.'\l l" '1t"~J!t ;" r~i !~·!I'le·~l ft·~e:~'cr.:nce

tJpr.ti:: ..... :"lC'TII!Nt,\f'n :t .... "'u:t:1'CI1'Ir,SSer"!':es fV.C:t c·!lII! ..... ':'1 olhU'l7.' · ~1

~d '~"'n t",:rc..,,,:S fc'ce f'!':'Itlve:':ol e~tncr,:he

tlcc'.::t ~s.ltn!n:~ :~r::e-::me

Fig.63.4 Consideration done by the students on the nature of vector of the magnetic field

63.5 Data Analysis

Neglecting the students who did nOl replay and the ones that represented only the mirrored apparatus, students' spontaneous approaches to the analysis of the mirrored situation are almost distributed equally on two different way of analysis: the first one is the representation of the needle of the compass as a simple reHection of it and the other is the drawing of the compass needle staning from physical consideration of the mirrored apparatus. No significant differences were highlighted between the 13th and 12th grade students.

~ .

63 Magnetic Field as Pscudovector Entity in Physics Education 587

In phase two, the analysis of the experimental situation, could be noticed how decrease the number of students that thought that the compass needle (i.c. the mag­netic field) is reflected in the standard way, but not to a negligible percentage high­lighting two main approaches. The first approach followed, by that the students of 13th grade (that had already faced the magnetic field description during the previous school year), is to look at the experiment as a confirmation of their ideas and not as an investigation opened to new findings, do not allowing them to notice keys elements that are in opposite with their thesis. The second approach, followed mainly by the 12th grade students is more open to the acceptance of eventually discording resuits respect to their prevision and so they can noticed and highlighted these discrepancies.

After the discussion, in the third phase, no one of the students recognize the magnetic field as a 'standard' vector, but the motivations that they gave are distributed on a wide spectrum that is reponed in Fig. 63.4. Interesting to be noticed is that, even almost one third of the students justified this aspect reporting only the formal structure wrote on the blackboard by the teacher, the remaining part highlights experimental evidences to support this inference. In addition the data also highlight how mainly the 13th grade students propose comparisons and analogies with other quantities that they had already faced during their previous study <as for instance the angular momentum).

63.6 Concl\nsBOI:ns lI1l1l1i!l1lFllIllt1nn~Jr R~mll1Jrk§

This experimentation, done on the introduction to high school students of the nature of pseudovector of the magnetic field, highlight how through a simple experiment student could face this formal characteristic, recognize it and do comparison between this characteristic and analogous previous physic entity that they already know. In addition, looking data concerning question two, were highlighted how the standard way of teaching used in the high school represent an obstacle to the acceptation of this 'new' propeny by the student in they further studies.

Rer~r~nc~s

I. Foot R. Volkas RR (1995) Neutrino physics and the mirror world: how exact parity symmctry explains the solar neutrino deficit. the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. and the LSND experiment. Phys Rev D 52:6595-6606

2. Kolecki JC (2002) An introduction to tensors for students of physics and engincering. Technology report, NASA Glenn Research Center. Cleveland. Sept

3. Kozlov VV (1995) Symmetries. topology and resonances in Hamiltonian mech,mics. Springer. Gennany

4. Mnrtongclli R. Michelini M. Santi L. Steranel A (2000) Educational proposals using new tech~ nologies and tclcmatic net for physics. In: Physics tcacher education beyond

588 C. Cecchini et aJ.

5. Michelini M. Ragazzon R. Santi L. Slcfanel A (2004) Implementing a formative module on quantum physics for pre-service teacher training. In: Michelini M (cd) Quality development in the teacher education and training. Girep Book of Selected Papers, Udine. Forum, pp 429-435

6. Mohapatra RN. Scnjanovi'c G (1981) Neutrino masses and mixings in gauge models with spontaneous parity violation. Phys Rev D 23: 165

7. Noclhcr E (1918) Invariantc Varialionsprobleme. Nachr. D. Konig. Gcscllsch. D. Wiss. Zu GOllingen. M.th-phys KI.sse 1918:235-257

8. Redlich AN (1984) Parity violation and gauge non-invariance oflhc effective gauge field action in three dimensions. Phys Rev D 29:2366

; .

Chapter 64 A Model of Concept Le~mlinng finn PlIny§lic§

Wagner Clemens and Vaterlaus Andreas

Abstract Learning concepts in physics is difficult due to the often simultaneous presence of misconceptions. We have developed a dynamic model of concept learn­ing. which includes the dynamics of misconceptions. In its simplest form the model simulates the learning of the concept and the unlearning of the misconception with a two-dimensional difTerential equation system. The major conclusion from our model simulations is that while teaching a concept. misconceptions should be intensively addressed. Rapid decay of concept knowledge observed in experiments after con­cept teaching is explained in our model with the persistent presence of a high level of misconception.

64.1 Introduction

Recently. exploring the time dependence of learning physics concepts has gathered increased attention [1-3]. The data about concept learning shows convincingly that the acquisition of concepts is a dynamic process. As a consequence the interpreta­tion of quantities like the normalized gain. for example. requires great care since the results strongly depend on the time points when the data are recorded. Therefore a more thorough understanding of the dynamic process oflearning is required. Heckler et al. [2] investigated concept learning of an introductory physics course at the uni­versity level. Data were collected from more than 1.600 students. Every few days or every week 12 students (in the average) were asked to solve a set of multiple-choice questions concerning physics concepL~. Students were asked before. while and after the topic was taught. The proportion of correct answers was then plotted against time. It turned out that the most effective learning event was the homework activity since the homework due time showed the highest level of concept knowledge.

W. Clemens (181) . V. Andre.s Solid State Dynamics and Education. ETH Zurich. SchafmaHstr. 16. 8093 Zurich. Switzerland

B. O. Sidhanh et al. (eds.), Fromiers of Fllndamental Physics and Physics Edllcation Rescmril. Springer Proceedings in Physics 145. DOl: 10.1007/978-3-3 19-00297-2_64. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

589