The SuperCDMS proposal for dark matter detection
Presently the CDMS-II collaboration's Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) search at the Soudan Underground Laboratory sets the most stringent exclusion limits of any WIMP cold dark matter direct-detection experiment. To extend our reach further, to WIMP-nucleon cross-sections in the range 10 - 46 - 10 - 44 cm 2 , we propose SuperCDMS, which would take advantage of a very deep site. One promising site is the recently approved SNOLab facility in Canada. In this paper we will present our overall program and focus on phase A of SuperCDMS.

title: Limit on the flux of cosmic-ray magnetic monopoles from operation of an eight-loop superconducting detector.
abstract: An eight-loop superconducting magnetic monopole detector has been in continuous operation for 547 days, starting 4 March 1987. Its sensing area is 1.1 m{sup 2} for double-coincident events. The data, which contain no candidate events, set an upper limit of 7.2{times}10{sup {minus}13} cm{sup  s{sup {minus}1} sr{sup {minus}1} (90% confidence level) on the flux of monopoles of any mass and at any velocity passing through the Earth's surface.

title: Search for inelastic dark matter with the CDMS II experiment
abstract: Results are presented from a reanalysis of the entire five-tower data set acquired with the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment at the Soudan Underground Laboratory, with an exposure of 969 kg-days. The analysis window was extended to a recoil energy of 150 keV, and an improved surface-event background-rejection cut was defined to increase the sensitivity of the experiment to the inelastic dark matter (iDM) model. Three dark matter candidates were found between 25 keV and 150 keV. The probability to observe three or more background events in this energy range is 11%. Because of the occurrence of these events, the constraints on the iDM parameter space are slightly less stringent than those from our previous analysis, which used an energy window of 10-100 keV.

title: Report on Stanford Superconductive Monopole Detectors
abstract: Since January, 1983 we have been operating a three loop superconducting detector with a signal to noise ratio of 100 for the direct detection of Dirac magnetic  Its sensing area averaged over solid angle is nearly 500 cm2 for double coincidence events. To date, the data contain no candidate events and set an upper flux limit of 2 × 10−11 cm−2 s−1 sr−1 at 90% C.L., 70 times lower than that suggested by the single candidate event2 seen on the prototype single loop detector. If supermassive magnetic monopoles exist they are rare and the need for cost-efficient larger area superconductive detectors is evident if we are to push forward a definitive search in the cosmic rays. Superconducting loop detectors can be constructed with 1 to 10 m2 planar areas coupled to a single SQUID while achieving a signal to noise ratio of 10 for the detection of a Dirac magnetic charge. A 100 m2 sensing area array of such detectors, which would reach the Parker flux bound in one year of operation, can be built at a cost comparable to that of typical high energy experiments. It remains quite possible that a monopole particle flux significantly higher than the Parker bound exists within our galaxy. In this paper the most recent results from low noise operation of the three loop detector are presented. Also discussed are our plans to build a larger fixed loop detector with a sensing area of 1.5 m2. It is designed as a prototype for a future yet larger 100 m2 array.

title: Low-threshold analysis of CDMS shallow-site data
abstract: Data taken during the final shallow-site run of the first tower of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) detectors have been reanalyzed with improved sensitivity to small energy depositions. Four {approx}224 g germanium and two {approx}105 g silicon detectors were operated at the Stanford Underground Facility (SUF) between December 2001 and June 2002, yielding 118 live days of raw exposure. Three of the germanium and both silicon detectors were analyzed with a new low-threshold technique, making it possible to lower the germanium and silicon analysis thresholds down to the actual trigger thresholds of {approx}1 and  Limits on the spin-independent cross section for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) to elastically scatter from nuclei based on these data exclude interesting parameter space for WIMPs with masses below 9 GeV/c{sup 2}. Under standard halo assumptions, these data partially exclude parameter space favored by interpretations of the DAMA/LIBRA and CoGeNT experiments data as WIMP signals, and exclude new parameter space for WIMP masses between 3 and 4 GeV/c{sup 2}.

title: Combined limits on WIMPs from the CDMS and EDELWEISS experiments
abstract: The CDMS and EDELWEISS collaborations have combined the results of their direct searches for dark matter using cryogenic germanium detectors. The total data set represents 614  kg·days equivalent exposure. A straightforward method of combination was chosen for its simplicity before data were exchanged between experiments. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on spin-independent weakly interacting, massive particle (WIMP)-nucleon cross section. For a WIMP mass of 90  GeV/c^2, where this analysis is most sensitive, a cross section of 3.3×10^(-44)  cm^2 is excluded at 90% C.L. At higher WIMP masses, the combination improves the individual limits, by a factor 1.6 above 700  GeV/c^2. Alternative methods of combining the data provide stronger constraints for some ranges of WIMP masses and weaker constraints for others.

title: X-ray selected galaxy clusters in the Pan-STARRS Medium Deep Survey
abstract: We present the results of a pilot study for the extended Massive Cluster Survey (eMACS), a comprehensive search for distant, X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at z > 0.5. Our pilot study applies the eMACS concept to the 71 deg2 area extended by the 10 fields of the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) Medium Deep Survey (MDS). Candidate clusters are identified by visual inspection of PS1 images in the g, r, i and z bands in a 5 × 5 arcmin2 region around X-ray sources detected in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS). To test and optimize the eMACS X-ray selection criteria, our pilot study uses the largest possible RASS data base, i.e. all RASS sources listed in the Bright and Faint Source Catalogues (BSC and FSC) that fall within the MDS footprint. We apply no additional constraints regarding X-ray flux, spectral hardness ratio or photon statistics and lower the redshift threshold to z > 0.3 to extend the probed luminosity range to poorer systems. Scrutiny of PS1/MDS images for 41 BSC and 200 FSC sources combined with dedicated spectroscopic follow-up observations results in a sample of 11 clusters with estimated or spectroscopic redshifts of z > 0.3. In order to assess and quantify the degree of point source contamination of the observed RASS fluxes, we examine archival Chandra data obtained in targeted and serendipitous observations of six of the 11 clusters found. As expected, the diffuse emission from all six systems is contaminated by point sources to some degree, and for half of them active galactic nucleus emission dominates. X-ray follow-up observations will thus be crucial in order to establish robust cluster luminosities for eMACS clusters. Although the small number of distant X-ray luminous clusters in the MDS does not allow us to make firm predictions for the over 20 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky covered by eMACS, the identification of two extremely promising eMACS cluster candidates at z ≳ 0.6 (both yet to be observed with Chandra) in such a small solid angle is encouraging. Representing a tremendous gain over the presently known two dozen such systems from X-ray, optical and Sunyaev–Zel’dovich cluster surveys combined, the sample of over 100 extremely massive clusters at z > 0.5 expected from eMACS would be invaluable for the identification of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe, as well as for in-depth and statistical studies of the physical properties of the most massive galaxy clusters out to z ∼ 1.

title: On the analytic structure of scalar glueball operators at the Born level
abstract: We study the analytic structure of the two-point function of the operator F 2 which is expected to describe a scalar glueball. The calculation of the involved integrals is complicated by nonanalytic structures in the integrands, which we take into account properly by identifying cuts generated by angular integrals and deforming the contours for the radial integration accordingly. The obtained locations of the branch points agree with Cutkosky’s cut rules. As input we use different nonperturbative Landau gauge gluon propagators with different analytic properties as obtained from lattice and functional calculations. All of them violate positivity and describe thus gluons absent from the asymptotic physical space. The resulting spectral densities for the glueball candidate show a cut but no poles for lightlike momenta, which can be attributed to the employed Born approximation.

title: Measuring the neutron's mean square charge radius using neutron interferometry
abstract: The neutron is electrically neutral, but its substructure consists of charged quarks so it may have an internal charge distribution. In fact it is known to have a negative mean square charge radius (MSCR), the second moment of the radial charge density. In other words the neutron has a positive core and negative skin. In the first Born approximation the neutron MSCR can be simply related to the neutron–electron scattering length b ne . In the past this important quantity has been extracted from the energy dependence of the total transmission cross-section of neutrons on high-Z targets, a very difficult and complicated process. A few years ago S.A. Werner proposed a novel approach to measuring b ne from the neutron's dynamical phase shift in a perfect crystal close to the Bragg condition. We are conducting an experiment based on this method at the NIST neutron interferometer which may lead to a five-fold improvement in precision of b ne and hence the neutron MSCR.

title: Infrared singularities in Landau gauge Yang-Mills theory
abstract: We present a more detailed picture of the infrared regime of Landau-gauge Yang-Mills theory. This is done within a novel framework that allows one to take into account the influence of finite scales within an infrared power counting analysis. We find that there are two qualitatively different infrared fixed points of the full system of Dyson-Schwinger equations. The first extends the known scaling solution, where the ghost dynamics is dominant and gluon propagation is strongly suppressed. It features in addition to the strong divergences of gluonic vertex functions in the previously considered uniform scaling limit, when all external momenta tend to zero, also weaker kinematic divergences, when only some of the external momenta vanish. The second solution represents the recently proposed decoupling scenario where the gluons become massive and the ghosts remain bare. In this case we find that none of the vertex functions is enhanced, so that the infrared dynamics is entirely suppressed. Our analysis also provides a strict argument why the Landau-gauge gluon dressing function cannot be infrared divergent.

title: Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae from Near the Time of Explosion
abstract: We present a set of 11 Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) light curves with dense, premaximum sampling. These supernovae (SNe), in galaxies behind the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), were discovered by the SuperMACHO survey. The SNe span a redshift range of z = 0.11-0.35. Our light curves contain some of the earliest premaximum observations of SNe Ia to date. We also give a functional model that describes the SN Ia light-curve shape (in our VR band). Our function uses the "expanding fireball" model of Goldhaber et al. to describe the rising light curve immediately after explosion but constrains it to smoothly join the remainder of the light curve. We fit this model to a composite observed VR-band light curve of three SNe between redshifts of 0.135 and 0.165. These SNe have not been K-corrected or adjusted to account for reddening. In this redshift range, the observed VR band most closely matches the rest-frame V band. Using the best fit to our functional description of the light curve, we find the time between explosion and observed VR-band maximum to be 17.6 ± 1.3(stat) ± 0.07(sys) rest-frame days for a SN Ia with a VR-band Δm-10 of 0.52 mag. For the redshifts sampled, the observed VR-band time of maximum brightness should be the same as the rest-frame V-band maximum to within 1.1 rest-frame days.