Single shot longitudinal bunch profile measurements at flash using electro-optics detection techniques
At the superconducting LINAC of FLASH, we have installed an electro-optic experiment for single shot, nondestructive measurements of the longitudinal distribution charge of individual electron bunches. The profile of the electron bunch field is electro-optically encoded onto a stretched Ti:Sa laser pulse. In the decoding step, the profile is retrieved either from a spectral measurement of the encoded pulse or from a cross-correlation of the encoded pulse with a 30 fs FWHM laser pulse, obtained from the same laser pulse. At FLASH, sub-100 fs electron bunches has been measured during FEL operation with an rms value of 60 fs (144 FWHM). The electro-optic measurements have been validated with transverse deflecting structure measurements.

title: Anisotropic low energy electron collision cross sections for methane derived from transport coefficients
abstract: Based on a comprehensive set of transport parameters of electrons in methane derived from single electron spectra in the range of field 0.01-15 Td the authors determined a set of elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections up to 3 eV. The necessity to include anisotropic elastic scattering in a Boltzmann analysis of methane is demonstrated. In addition the drift velocity in a mixture of methane with helium was used to enhance the reliability of the derived cross sections. The low energy part of the cross sections for elastic scattering is subject to a MERT analysis and is compared with total cross section data from single scattering experiments.

title: Luminosity determination at HERA-B
abstract: A detailed description of an original method used to measure the luminosity accumulated by the HERA-B experiment for a data sample taken during the 2002–2003 HERA running period is reported. We show that, with this method, a total luminosity measurement can be achieved with a typical precision, including overall systematic uncertainties, at a level of 5% or better. We also report evidence for the detection of δ -rays generated in the target and comment on the possible use of such delta rays to measure luminosity.

title: HATSouth: A Global Network of Fully Automated Identical Wide-Field Telescopes*
abstract: HATSouth is the world's first network of automated and homogeneous telescopes that is capable of year-round 24 hr monitoring of positions over an entire hemisphere of the sky. The primary scientific goal of the network is to discover and characterize a large number of transiting extrasolar planets, reaching out to long periods and down to small planetary radii. HATSouth achieves this by monitoring extended areas on the sky, deriving high precision light curves for a large number of stars, searching for the signature of planetary transits, and confirming planetary candidates with larger telescopes. HATSouth employs six telescope units spread over three prime locations with large longitude separation in the southern hemisphere (Las Campanas Observatory, Chile; HESS site, Namibia; Siding Spring Observatory, Australia). Each of the HATSouth units holds four 0.18 m diameter f/2.8 focal ratio telescope tubes on a common mount producing an 8.2° × 8.2° field of view on the sky, imaged using four 4 K × 4 K CCD cameras and Sloan r filters, to give a pixel scale of 3.7'' pixel-1. The HATSouth network is capable of continuously monitoring 128 square arc degrees at celestial positions moderately close to the anti-solar direction. We present the technical details of the network, summarize operations, and present detailed weather statistics for the three sites. Robust operations have meant that on average each of the six HATSouth units has conducted observations on ~500 nights over a 2 years time period, yielding a total of more than 1 million science frames at a 4 minute integration time and observing ~10.65 hr day-1 on average. We describe the scheme of our data transfer and reduction from raw pixel images to trend-filtered light curves and transiting planet candidates. Photometric precision reaches ~6 mmag at 4 minute cadence for the brightest non-saturated stars at r ≈ 10.5. We present detailed transit recovery simulations to determine the expected yield of transiting planets from HATSouth. We highlight the advantages of networked operations, namely, a threefold increase in the expected number of detected planets, as compared to all telescopes operating from the same site.

title: BUNCH COMPRESSION MONITOR
abstract: The longitudinal charge distribution in the electron bunches has a strong impact on the lasing process in a Free-Electron Laser based on the principle of Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission of radiation. For the ultraviolet and soft X ray FEL FLASH at DESY, structures in the range of ten to hundred micrometers play a crucial role. The investigation of the longitudinal charge distribution in the electron bunches on a bunch-by-bunch basis is an important issue for optimizing the bunch compression and improving the performance of the machine. This paper introduces a new tool for longitudinal diagnostics based on THz spectroscopy of coherent radiation. A novel spectrometer has been designed which permits to analyze the radiation of single electron bunches in a broad spectral range and with high resolution. Preliminary measurements with this spectrometer are presented. A strong variation of the CTR intensity in the 40 μm regime is observed when the off-crest phase in the accelerating cavities preceding the first magnetic bunch compressor is changed in small steps. This variation in the CTR intensity is found to be correlated with a similar variation in the pulse energy of the FEL light. Hence the THz spectrometer appears to be a very sensitive device for controlling the parameters of the bunch compression scheme.

title: Ultrabroadband terahertz source and beamline based on coherent transition radiation
abstract: Coherent transition radiation (CTR) in the THz regime is an important diagnostic tool for analyzing the temporal structure of the ultrashort electron bunches needed in ultraviolet and x-ray free-electron lasers. It is also a powerful source of such radiation, covering an exceptionally broad frequency range from about 200 GHz to 100 THz. At the soft x-ray free-electron laser FLASH we have installed a beam transport channel for transition radiation (TR) with the intention to guide a large fraction of the radiation to a laboratory outside the accelerator tunnel. The radiation is produced on a screen inside the ultrahigh vacuum beam pipe of the linac, coupled out through a diamond window and transported to the laboratory through an evacuated tube equipped with five focusing and four plane mirrors. The design of the beamline has been based on a thorough analysis of the generation of TR on metallic screens of limited size. The optical propagation of the radiation has been computed taking into account the effects of near-field (Fresnel) diffraction. The theoretical description of the TR source is presented in the first part of the paper, while the design principles and the technical layout of the beamline are described in the second part. First experimental results demonstrate that the CTR beamline covers the specified frequency range and preserves the narrow time structure of CTR pulses emitted by short electron bunches.

title: The trigger system of the NOMAD experiment
abstract: The NOMAD trigger system is described in the present paper. It is made up of a large area plastic scintillator veto system, two trigger scintillator planes inside a 0.4 T magnetic field and their associated trigger electronics. Special features of the system consist of the use of proximity mesh photomultipliers which allow the trigger scintillators to operate in the magnetic field, and the use of custom-built VME modules which perform the trigger logic decisions, the signal synchronisation and gate generation, event counting and livetime calculations. This paper also includes a description of each of the NOMAD triggers, with their calculated and measured rates, efficiencies and livetimes.

title: Spectral diversity of Type Ia supernovae
abstract: We use published spectroscopic and photometric data for eight Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to construct a dispersion spectrum for this class of object, showing their diversity over the wavelength range 3700-7100A. We find that the B and V bands are the spectral regions with the least dispersion, while the U band below 4100A is more diverse. Some spectral features such as the Si line at 6150A are also highly diverse. We then construct two objective measures of `peculiarity' by (i) using the deviation of individual objects from the average SN Ia spectrum compared to the typical dispersion and (ii) applying principal component analysis. We demonstrate these methods on several SNe Ia that have previously been classified as peculiar.

title: Cosmological Implications of the Very High Redshift GRB 050904
abstract: We report near-simultaneous multicolor (RIYJHK) observations made with the MAGNUM 2 m telescope of the gamma-ray burst GRB 050904 detected by the Swift satellite. The spectral energy distribution shows a very large break between the I and J bands. Using intergalactic transmissions measured from high-redshift quasars, we show that the observations place a 95% confidence lower limit of z = 6.18 on the object, consistent with a later measured spectroscopic redshift of 6.29 obtained by Kawai et al. with the Subaru telescope. We show that the break strength in the R and I bands is consistent with that measured in the quasars. Finally, we consider the implications for the star formation history at high redshift.

title: Test of lepton universality using $B^{+}\rightarrow K^{+}\ell^{+}\ell^{-}$ decays
abstract: A measurement of the ratio of the branching fractions of the $B^{+}\rightarrow K^{+}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ and $B^{+}\rightarrow K^{+}e^{+}e^{-}$ decays is presented using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$, recorded with the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 $\mathrm{\,Te\kern -0.1em V}$. The value of the ratio of branching fractions for the dilepton invariant mass squared range $1<q^{2}<6\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V^2\!/}c^4$ is measured to be $0.745^{+0.090}_{-0.074}\mathrm{\,(stat)}\,\pm0.036\mathrm{\,(syst)}$. This value is the most precise measurement of the ratio of branching fractions to date and is compatible with the SM prediction within $2.6$ standard deviations.

title: A NEARLY POLAR ORBIT FOR THE EXTRASOLAR HOT JUPITER WASP-79b
abstract: We report the measurement of a spin-orbit misalignment for WASP-79b, a recently discovered, bloated hot Jupiter from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey. Data were obtained using the CYCLOPS2 optical-fiber bundle and its simultaneous calibration system feeding the UCLES spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We have used the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect to determine the sky-projected spin-orbit angle to be . This result indicates a significant misalignment between the spin axis of the host star and the orbital plane of the planet?the planet being in a nearly polar orbit. WASP-79 is consistent with other stars that have T eff > 6250?K and host hot Jupiters in spin-orbit misalignment.