Measuring Cosmology with Supernovae
Over the past decade, supernovae have emerged as some of the most powerful tools for measuring extragalactic distances. A well developed physical understanding of type II supernovae allow them to be used to measure distances independent of the extragalactic distance scale. Type Ia supernovae are empirical tools whose precision and intrinsic brightness make them sensitive probes of the cosmological expansion. Both types of supernovae are consistent with a Hubble Constant within ∼10% of H 0 = 70 km s−1 Mpc−1. Two teams have used type Ia supernovae to trace the expansion of the Universe to a look-back time more than 60% of the age of the Universe. These observations show an accelerating Universe which is currently best explained by a cosmological constant or other form of dark energy with an equation of state near w = p/ρ = −1. While there are many possible remaining systematic effects, none appears large enough to challenge these current results. Future experiments are planned to better character ize the equation of state of the dark energy leading to the observed acceleration by observing hundreds or even thousands of objects. These experiments will need to carefully control systematic errors to ensure future conclusions are not dominated by effects unrelated to cosmology.

title: A THEORETICAL COLOR-VELOCITY CORRELATION FOR SUPERNOVAE ASSOCIATED WITH GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
abstract: We carry out the first multi-dimensional radiative transfer calculations to simultaneously compute synthetic spectra and light curves for models of supernovae driven by fast bipolar outflows. These allow us to make self-consistent predictions for the orientation dependence of both color evolution and spectral features. We compare models with different degrees of asphericity and metallicity and find significant observable consequences of both. In aspherical models, we find spectral and light curve features that vary systematically with observer orientation. In particular, we find that the early-phase light curves are brighter and bluer when viewed close to the polar axis but that the peak flux is highest for equatorial (off-axis) inclinations. Spectral line features also depend systematically on observer orientation, including the velocity of the Si II 6355 A line. Consequently, our models predict a correlation between line velocity and color that could assist the identification of supernovae associated with off-axis jet-driven explosions. The amplitude and range of this correlation depends on the degree of asphericity, the metallicity, and the epoch of observation but we find that it is always present and acts in the same direction.

title: The Science Case for PILOT I: Summary and Overview
abstract: PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. Conditions at Dome C are known to be exceptional for astronomy. The seeing (above ∼30 m height), coherence time, and isoplanatic angle are all twice as good as at typical mid-latitude sites, while the water-vapour column, and the atmosphere and telescope thermal emission are all an order of magnitude better. These conditions enable a unique scientific capability for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents an overview of the optical and instrumentation suite for PILOT and its expected performance, a summary of the key science goals and observational approach for the facility, a discussion of the synergies between the science goals for PILOT and other telescopes, and a discussion of the future of Antarctic astronomy.

title: First Searches for Optical Counterparts to Gravitational-wave Candidate Events
abstract: During the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory and Virgo joint science runs in 2009-2010, gravitational wave (GW) data from three interferometer detectors were analyzed within minutes to select GW candidate events and infer their apparent sky positions. Target coordinates were transmitted to several telescopes for follow-up observations aimed at the detection of an associated optical transient. Images were obtained for eight such GW candidates. We present the methods used to analyze the image data as well as the transient search results. No optical transient was identified with a convincing association with any of these candidates, and none of the GW triggers showed strong evidence for being astrophysical in nature. We compare the sensitivities of these observations to several model light curves from possible sources of interest, and discuss prospects for future joint GW-optical observations of this type.

title: HATS-1b: The First Transiting Planet Discovered by the HATSouth Survey
abstract: We report the discovery of HATS-1b, a transiting extrasolar planet orbiting the moderately bright V = 12.05 G dwarf star GSC 6652-00186, and the first planet discovered by HATSouth, a global network of autonomous wide-field telescopes. HATS-1b has a period of P 3.4465 days, mass of Mp 1.86 M J, and radius of Rp 1.30 R J. The host star has a mass of 0.99 M ☉ and radius of 1.04 R ☉. The discovery light curve of HATS-1b has near-continuous coverage over several multi-day timespans, demonstrating the power of using a global network of telescopes to discover transiting planets.

title: The Mount Stromlo A bell Cluster Supernova Search
abstract: We have initiated a 3 year project to find supernovae in a well-defined sample of high-density southern Abell clusters with redshifts z ≤ 0.08. These observations will provide a volume-limited sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to more than a magnitude below their peak brightness and will enable us to (1) measure the luminosity function of SNe, (2) further explore the correlation of light-curve shape with the absolute luminosity of SNe Ia to better understand SNe Ia as distance indicators, (3) measure SN rates, (4) measure the bulk motion of the Local Group using SNe Ia, and (5) directly compare SN Ia distances with brightest cluster galaxy distances. We use the MACHO wide-field two-color imager on the 1.3 m telescope at Mount Stromlo to routinely monitor ~12 clusters per week. We describe our technique for target selection and scheduling search observations, and for finding and identifying SN candidates. We also describe the results from the first year of our program, including the detection of 19 SNe, several RR Lyrae variables, and hundreds of asteroids.

title: A long-term aging study of honeycomb drift tubes for the HERA-B Outer Tracker using a circulated and purified CF4 gas mixture
abstract: The Outer Tracker of HERA-B uses a gas mixture containing CF 4 to obtain high electron drift velocities. The high cost of this gas makes it necessary to circulate the gas mixture which must then be purified to avoid accumulation of air and pollutants. However, the usage of gas purifiers poses the danger of outgassing pollutants from the purifiers themselves into the gas stream. Purifiers could also be attacked chemically by the aggressive products from the cracking of CF 4 molecules in the plasma avalanches of the detector. This could potentially release further harmful pollutants into the gas stream. To test for such effects, a long-term irradiation study of about 3000 h was carried out with the honeycomb drift tubes that are used in the Outer Tracker. This provided a check of the long-term stability of the gas purifiers before putting them into operation for the full-size detector. We report on the experimental setup, procedures and the results obtained.

title: MICROSTRIP GAS CHAMBERS : RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, RADIATION DAMAGE AND LONG-TERM BEHAVIOR
abstract: In the past years the technology of Microstrip Gas Chambers (MSGC) has made considerable progress offering a variety of possible new applications in various fields of research. MSGC are used to detect neutrons, X-rays, synchrotron radiation and VUV light as well as the full range of ionizing particles in nuclear and high energy physics. A variety of systematic studies led to a considerable increase in understanding of the functional principle and limiting parameters of the MSGC technology and enabled improved performances. In view of the large (HERA-B) and very large (CMS) detector systems planning to use MSGC in intense hadronic particle fluxes, the question of radiation hardness and long-term stability is of special importance. The problem of micro discharges, induced by heavy ionizing particles and destroying the electrode structure, turned out to be a major limitation to the applicability of MSGC in hadronic beams and demanded for new and revised solutions. The present status and future perspectives of the various technologies are discussed.

title: Measurement of $C\!P$ asymmetries in the decays $B^0 \rightarrow K^{*0} \mu^+ \mu^-$ and $B^+ \rightarrow K^{+} \mu^+ \mu^-$
abstract: The direct $C\!P$ asymmetries of the decays $B^0 \rightarrow K^{*0} \mu^+ \mu^-$ and $B^+ \rightarrow K^{+} \mu^+ \mu^-$ are measured using $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0$\mbox{fb}^{-1}$ collected with the LHCb detector. The respective control modes $B^0 \rightarrow J/\psi K^{*0}$ and $B^+ \rightarrow J/\psi K^{+}$ are used to account for detection and production asymmetries. The measurements are made in several intervals of $\mu^+ \mu^-$ invariant mass squared, with the $\phi(1020)$ and charmonium resonance regions excluded. Under the hypothesis of zero $C\!P$ asymmetry in the control modes, the average values of the asymmetries are \begin{align} 
{\cal A}_{C\!P}(B^0 \rightarrow K^{*0} \mu^+ \mu^-) &= -0.035 \pm 0.024 \pm 0.003, \cr 
{\cal A}_{C\!P}(B^+ \rightarrow K^{+} \mu^+ \mu^-) &= \phantom{-}0.012 \pm 0.017 \pm 0.001, \end{align} where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are due to systematic effects. Both measurements are consistent with the Standard Model prediction of small $C\!P$ asymmetry in these decays.

title: First measurement of the CP-violating phase in $B_s^0 \to \phi \phi$ decays
abstract: A first flavour-tagged measurement of the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetry in $B_s^0 \to \phi\phi$ decays is presented. In this decay channel, the CP-violating weak phase arises due to CP violation in the interference between $B_s^0$-$\bar{B}_s^0$ mixing and the $b \to s \bar{s} s $ gluonic penguin decay amplitude. Using a sample of $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $1.0\; fb^{-1}$ and collected at a centre-of-mass energy of $7 \rm TeV$ with the LHCb detector, $880\ \B_s^0 \to \phi\phi$ signal decays are obtained. The CP-violating phase is measured to be in the interval [-2.46, -0.76] \rm rad$ at 68% confidence level. The p-value of the Standard Model prediction is 16%.

title: The LHCb upgrade detector
abstract: The LHCb experiment has been designed to perform precision measurements of CP asymmetries and to investigate potential effects of physics beyond the Standard Model. Results obtained from data collected in 2010 and 2011 show that the detector is robust and functioning well. While LHCb will be able to measure a host of interesting channels in heavy flavour decays in the coming years, a limit of about 1-2 fb−1 of data per year can only be overcome by upgrading the detector. With a detector read out at 40 MHz, a much more flexible software-based triggering strategy will allow a large increase not only in the data rate, as the detector will collect 5 fb−1 per year, but also in the ability to increase trigger efficiencies especially in decays to hadronic final states. In addition, it will be possible to modify trigger algorithms in order to explore different physics as LHC discoveries point to the most interesting channels. Here a short description of the physics motivations and proposed detector changes for exploring new phenomena in proton-proton collisions near 14 TeV centre-of-mass energy are presented.