17.07.2009 - The influence of the gravitational field on remarkable phenomena in condensed matter physics appears to be a new and stimulating research field, both from the experimental and theoretical points of view. In particular, the occurrence and the eventual response of a Bose-Einstein condensates to the presence of a gravitational field is worthwhile to be investigated, as it can give rise to interesting and observable effects. It is also quite relevant to understand the role of the presence of localized impurities, which are always present in any realistic system, in the quantum dynamical mechanism which...

17.07.2009 - The recent development in theories with more than three spatial dimensions has shifted from very small compact extra dimensions (Kaluza-Klein picture) towards a brane world picture, where the observable 3+1 dimensional world is located inside a domain wall - see the review paper by V. Rubakov, hep-ph/0104152. Among many points of attraction of this approach, we mention the possibility to lower considerably the Planck scale of quantum gravity effects, to find solutions of fermion mass hierarchy in the Standard Model and to predict new physical phenomena for the next generation of high-energy colliders...