Wavelets and WMAP non-Gaussianity
We study the statistical properties of the first-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data on different scales using the spherical Mexican hat wavelet transform. Consistent with the 2004 results of Vielva et al., we find a deviation from Gaussianity in the form of kurtosis of wavelet coefficients on 3-4 scales in the southern Galactic hemisphere. This paper extends the work of Vielva et al. as follows: We find that the non-Gaussian signal shows up more strongly in the form of a larger than expected number of cold pixels and also in the form of scale-scale correlations among wavelet coefficients. We establish the robustness of the non-Gaussian signal under more wide-ranging assumptions regarding the Galactic mask applied to the data and the noise statistics. This signal is unlikely to be due to the usual quadratic term parameterized by the nonlinearity parameter fNL. We use the skewness of the spherical Mexican hat wavelet coefficients to constrain fNL with the first-year WMAP data. Our results constrain fNL to be 50+/-80 at 68% confidence and less than 280 at 99% confidence.

title: Dark Energy Constraints from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
abstract: Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) in the galaxy power spectrum allow us to extract the scale of the comoving sound horizon at recombination, a cosmological standard ruler accurately determined by the cosmic microwave background anisotropy data. We examine various issues important in the use of BAOs to probe dark energy. We find that if we assume a flat universe and priors on ?m, ?mh2, and ?bh2 as expected from the Planck mission, the constraints on dark energy parameters (w0, w') scale much less steeply with survey area than (area)-1/2 for a given redshift range. The constraints on the dark energy density ?X(z), however, do scale roughly with (area)-1/2 due to the strong correlation between H(z) and ?m (which reduces the effect of priors on ?m). Dark energy constraints from BAOs are very sensitive to the assumed linear scale of matter clustering and the redshift accuracy of the survey. For a BAO survey with 0.5 ? z ? 2, ? (R) = 0.4 [corresponding to kmax (z = 0) = 0.086 h Mpc-1], and ?z/ (1 + z) = 0.001, we find = (0.115,0.183) and (0.069, 0.104) for survey areas of 1000 and 10,000 deg2, respectively. We find that it is critical to minimize the bias in the scale estimates in order to derive reliable dark energy constraints. For a 1000 (10,000) deg2 BAO survey, a 1 ? bias in ln H (z) leads to a 2 ? (3 ?) bias in w'. The bias in w' due to the same scale bias from ln DA (z) is slightly smaller and opposite in sign. The results from this paper will be useful in assessing different proposed BAO surveys and guiding the design of optimal dark energy detection strategies.

title: A robust distance measurement and dark energy constraints from the spherically averaged correlation function of Sloan Digital Sky Survey luminous red Galaxies
abstract: We measure the effective distance to z = 0.26, DV (0.26), and mh 2 from the overall shape of the spherically-averaged two-point correlati on function of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) volume-limited luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample, without assuming a dark energy model or a flat Universe. We giv e the mean and covariance matrix of DV (0.26), mh 2 , bh 2 , and ns. We show that these provide an efficient and accurate summary of the volume-limited LRG data. With flat priors on bh 2 and ns (7σWMAP7), we find mh 2 = 0.131 ± 0.020, and rs/DV (0.26) = 0.1466 +0.0068 0.0073 (the ratio of the sound horizon at the drag epoch to the effective distance to z = 0.26). We find that measurements of mh 2 or m are biased low if flux-limited (instead of volume-limited) L RG sample is used. By scaling the spherically-averaged correlation fun ction, we find the Hubble parameter H(0.26) = 79 +12 13 km s 1 Mpc 1 and the angular diameter distance DA(0.26) = 848 +86 88 Mpc. Combining our results with the cosmic microwave background and supernova data, we obtain k = 0.0059 +0.0092 0.0093 andw = 1.023 +0.054 0.053 (assuming a constant dark energy equation of state). We use LasDamas SDSS mock catalogs to compute the covariance matrix of the correlation function, and investigate the use of lognormal catal ogs as an alternative. We find that the input correlation function can be accurately recovered from lognormal catalogs, although they give larger errors on all scales (especially on small sc ales) compared to the mock catalogs derived from cosmological N-body simulations.

title: Dark Energy Search with Supernovae
abstract: To determine the nature of dark energy from observational data, it is important that we use model-independent and optimal methods. We should probe dark energy using its density (allowed to be a free function of cosmic time) instead of its equation of state. We should minimize gravitational lensing effect on supernovae by flux-averaging. We need to include complementary data (for example, from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large scale structure (LSS)) in a consistent manner to help break the degeneracy between the dark energy density and the matter density fraction. We should push for ambitious future supernova surveys that can observe a large number of supernovae at the highest possible redshifts. I discuss these and other issues that will be important in our quest to unravel the mystery of the nature of dark energy. Current supernova, CMB, and LSS data already rule out dark energy models with dark energy densities that vary greatly with time; with the cosmological constant model providing an excellent fit to the data. A precise measurement of dark energy density as a free function of cosmic time will have a fundamental impact on particle physics and cosmology.

title: Caustics, critical curves and cross-sections for gravitational lensing by disc galaxies
abstract: We study strong gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies, modeling them as infinitely thin uniform disks embedded in singular isothermal spheres. We derive general properties of the critical curves and caustics analytically. The multiple-image cross section is a sensitive function of the inclination angle of the disk relative to the observer. We compute the inclination averaged cross section for several sets of lensing parameters. For realistic disk mass and size parameters, we find that the cross section for multiple imaging is increased by only a modest factor and no dramatic increase in the optical depth for strong lensing of QSOs would be expected. However, the cross section for high magnifications is significantly increased due to the inclusion of a disk, especially for nearly edge-on configurations; due to the strong observational selection effects favoring high magnifications, there might be significant consequences for lensing statistics.

title: Constraints on generalized extended inflationary models.
abstract: We study the physical constraints on generalized extended inflationary theories, in which the Brans-Dicke field {Phi} couples to the inflaton sector in the form of two arbitrary power-law functions of {Phi}. We find that the most stringent constraints arise from the need to suppress large bubbles and from considerations of the density perturbations generated during extended inflation. We find that there are sizable portions of the parameter spaces in which all the constraints are satisfied.

title: First Measurement of phi_3 with a Model-independent Dalitz Plot Analysis of B->DK, D->KsPiPi Decay
abstract: We present the first measurement of the angle phi(3) of the unitarity triangle using a model-independent Dalitz plot analysis of B-+/- -> DK +/-, D -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) ecays. The method uses, as input, measurements of the strong phase of the D -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) amplitude from the CLEO Collaboration. The result is based on the full data set of 772 x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs collected by the Belle experiment at the Gamma(4S) resonance. We obtain phi(3) = (77.3(-14.9)(+15.1) +/- 4.1 +/- 4.3)degrees and the suppressed amplitude ratio r(B) = 0.145 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.010 +/- 0.011. Here the first error is statistical, the second is the experimental systematic uncertainty, and the third is the error due to the precision of the strong-phase parameters obtained by CLEO.

title: Search for Invisible Decays of eta and eta-prime in the Processes J/psi ---> phi eta and phi eta-prime
abstract: Using a data sample of 58x10{sup 6} J/{psi} decays collected with the Beijing Spectrometer II detector at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider, searches for invisible decays of {eta} and {eta}{sup '} in J/{psi} to {phi}{eta} and {phi}{eta}{sup '} are performed. The {phi} signals, which are reconstructed in K{sup +}K{sup -} final states, are used to tag the {eta} and {eta}{sup '} decays. No signals are found for the invisible decays of either {eta} or {eta}{sup '}, and upper limits at the 90% confidence level are determined to be 1.65x10{sup -3} for the ratio (B({eta}{yields}invisible)/B({eta}{yields}{gamma}{gamma})) and 6.69x10{sup -2} for (B({eta}{sup '}{yields}invisible)/B({eta}{sup '}{yields}{gamma}{gamma})). These are the first searches for {eta} and {eta}{sup '} decays into invisible final states.

title: Search for the Lepton Flavor Violation Process J/ψ→eμ at BESIII
abstract: We search for the lepton-flavor-violating decay of the J/psi into an electron and a muon using (225.3 +/- 2.8) x 10(6) J/psi events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII. Four candidate events are found in the signal region, consistent with background expectations. An upper limit on the branching fraction of B(J/psi -> e mu) <1.6 x 10(-7) (90% C.L.) is obtained.

title: First moments of nucleon generalized parton distributions
abstract: We extrapolate the first moments of the generalized parton distributions using heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The calculation is based on the one loop level with the finite range regularization. The description of the lattice data is satisfactory, and the extrapolated moments at physical pion mass are consistent with the results obtained with dimensional regularization, although the extrapolation in the momentum transfer to t = 0 does show sensitivity to form factor effects, which lie outside the realm of chiral perturbation theory. We discuss the significance of the results in the light of modern experiments as well as QCD inspired models.

title: Search for doubly charmed baryons and study of charmed strange baryons at Belle
abstract: We report results of a study of doubly charmed baryons and charmed strange baryons. The analysis is performed using a 980 fb(-1) data sample collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider. We search for doubly charmed baryons Xi(+(+))(cc) with the Lambda(+)(c) K- pi(+)(pi(+) ) and. Xi(0)(c) pi(+)(pi(+)) final states. No significant signal is observed. We also search for two excited charmed strange baryons, Xi(c)(3055)(+) and Xi(c)(3123)(+) with the Sigma(++)(c)(2455)K- and Sigma(++)(c)(2520)K- final states. The Xi(c)(3055)(+) signal is observed with a significance of 6.6 standard deviations including systematic uncertainty, while no signature of the Xi(c)(3123)(+) is seen. We also study properties of the Xi(c)(2645)(+) and measure a width of 2.6 +/- 0.2(stat) +/- 0.4(syst) MeV/c(2), which is the first significant determination.