Challenges to the DGP model from horizon-scale growth and geometry
We conduct a Markov Chain Monte Carlo study of the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) selfaccelerating braneworld scenario given the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy, supernovae and Hubble constant data by implementing an effective dark energy prescription for modified gravity into a standard Einstein-Boltzmann code. We find no way to alleviate the tension between distance measures and horizon scale growth in this model. Growth alterations due to perturbations propagating into the bulk appear as excess CMB anisotropy at the lowest multipoles. In a flat

title: Cosmological information in weak lensing peaks
abstract: Recent studies have shown that the number counts of convergence peaks N(kappa) in weak lensing (WL) maps, expected from large forthcoming surveys, can be a useful probe of cosmology. We follow up on this finding, and use a suite of WL convergence maps, obtained from ray-tracing N-body simulations, to study (i) the physical origin of WL peaks with different heights, and (ii) whether the peaks contain information beyond the convergence power spectrum P_ell. In agreement with earlier work, we find that high peaks (with amplitudes >~ 3.5 sigma, where sigma is the r.m.s. of the convergence kappa) are typically dominated by a single massive halo. In contrast, medium-height peaks (~0.5-1.5 sigma) cannot be attributed to a single collapsed dark matter halo, and are instead created by the projection of multiple (typically, 4-8) halos along the line of sight, and by random galaxy shape noise. Nevertheless, these peaks dominate the sensitivity to the cosmological parameters w, sigma_8, and Omega_m. We find that the peak height distribution and its dependence on cosmology differ significantly from predictions in a Gaussian random field. We directly compute the marginalized errors on w, sigma_8, and Omega_m from the N(kappa) + P_ell combination, including redshift tomography with source galaxies at z_s=1 and z_s=2. We find that the N(kappa) + P_ell combination has approximately twice the cosmological sensitivity compared to P_ell alone. These results demonstrate that N(kappa) contains non-Gaussian information complementary to the power spectrum.

title: Probing cosmology with weak lensing Minkowski functionals
abstract: In this paper, we show that Minkowski Functionals (MFs) of weak gravitational lensing (WL) convergence maps contain significant non-Gaussian, cosmology-dependent information. To do this, we use a large suite of cosmological ray-tracing N-body simulations to create mock WL convergence maps, and study the cosmological information content of MFs derived from these maps. Our suite consists of 80 independent 512^3 N-body runs, covering seven different cosmologies, varying three cosmological parameters Omega_m, w, and sigma_8 one at a time, around a fiducial LambdaCDM model. In each cosmology, we use ray-tracing to create a thousand pseudo-independent 12 deg^2 convergence maps, and use these in a Monte Carlo procedure to estimate the joint confidence contours on the above three parameters. We include redshift tomography at three different source redshifts z_s=1, 1.5, 2, explore five different smoothing scales theta_G=1, 2, 3, 5, 10 arcmin, and explicitly compare and combine the MFs with the WL power spectrum. We find that the MFs capture a substantial amount of information from non-Gaussian features of convergence maps, i.e. beyond the power spectrum. The MFs are particularly well suited to break degeneracies and to constrain the dark energy equation of state parameter w (by a factor of ~ three better than from the power spectrum alone). The non-Gaussian information derives partly from the one-point function of the convergence (through V_0, the "area" MF), and partly through non-linear spatial information (through combining different smoothing scales for V_0, and through V_1 and V_2, the boundary length and genus MFs, respectively). In contrast to the power spectrum, the best constraints from the MFs are obtained only when multiple smoothing scales are combined.

title: Constraining the evolution of dark energy with a combination of galaxy cluster observables
abstract: We show that the abundance and redshift distribution (dN/dz) of galaxy clusters in future high-yield cluster surveys, combined with the spatial power spectrum [P{sub c}(k)] of the same clusters, can place significant constraints on the evolution of the dark energy equation of state, w=w(a). We evaluate the expected errors on w{sub a}=-dw/da and other cosmological parameters using a Fisher matrix approach, and simultaneously including cluster structure evolution parameters in our analysis. We study three different types of forthcoming surveys that will identify clusters based on their x-ray emission (such as DUO, the Dark Universe Observatory), their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) decrement (such as SPT, the South Pole Telescope), or their weak-lensing shear (such as LSST, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope). We find that combining the cluster abundance and power spectrum significantly enhances constraints from either method alone. We show that the weak-lensing survey can deliver a constraint as tight as {delta}w{sub a}{approx}0.1 on the evolution of the dark energy equation of state, and that the x-ray and SZ surveys each yield {delta}w{sub a}{approx}0.4 separately, or {delta}w{sub a}{approx}0.2 when these two surveys are combined. For the x-ray and SZ surveys, constraints on dark energy parameters are improved by a factor of 2 bymore » combining the cluster data with cosmic microwave background anisotropy measurements by Planck, but degrade by a factor of 2 if the survey is required to solve simultaneously for cosmological and cluster structure evolution parameters. The constraint on w{sub a} from the weak-lensing survey is improved by {approx}25% with the addition of Planck data.« less

title: Distance Priors from Planck and Dark Energy Constraints from Current Data
abstract: We derive distance priors from Planck first data release, and examine their impact on dark energy constraints from current observational data. We give the mean values and covariance matrix of {R, l_a, \Omega_b h^2, n_s}, which give an efficient summary of Planck data. The CMB shift parameters are R=\sqrt{\Omega_m H_0^2}\,r(z_*), and l_a=\pi r(z_*)/r_s(z_*), where z_* is the redshift at the last scattering surface, and r(z_*) and r_s(z_*) denote our comoving distance to z_* and sound horizon at z_* respectively. 
We find that Planck distance priors are significantly tighter than those from WMAP9. However, adding Planck distance priors does not lead to significantly improved dark energy constraints using current data, compared to adding WMAP9 distance priors. This is because Planck data appear to favor a higher matter density and lower Hubble constant, in tension with most of the other current cosmological data sets. Adding Planck distance priors to current data leads to a marginal inconsistency with a cosmological constant in a flat universe.

title: Probing cosmic acceleration by using the SNLS3 SNIa dataset
abstract: We probe the cosmic acceleration by using the recently released SNLS3 sample of 472 type Ia supernovae. Combining this type Ia supernovae dataset with the cosmic microwave background anisotropy data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7-yr observations, the baryon acoustic oscillation results from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 7, and the Hubble constant measurement from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope, we measure the dark energy equation of state w and the deceleration parameter q as functions of redshift by using the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrization. Our result is consistent with a cosmological constant at 1σ confidence level, without evidence for the recent slowing down of the cosmic acceleration. Furthermore, we consider three binned parametrizations (w is piecewise constant in redshift z) based on different binning methods. The similar results are obtained, i.e., the ΛCDM model is still nicely compatible with current observations.

title: Search for strong gravity signatures in same-sign dimuon final states using the ATLAS detector at the LHC
abstract: A search for microscopic black holes has been performed in a same-sign dimuon final state using 1.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The data are found to be consistent with the expectation from the Standard Model and the results are used to derive exclusion contours in the context of a low scale gravity model.

title: Combination of CDF and D0 measurements of the W boson helicity in top quark decays
abstract: We report the combination of recent measurements of the helicity of the W boson from top quark decay by the CDF and D0 collaborations, based on data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 2.7-5.4 fb(-1) of p (p) over bar collisions collected during Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Combining measurements that simultaneously determine the fractions of W bosons with longitudinal (f(0)) and right-handed (f(+)) helicities, we find f(0) = 0.722 +/- 0.081[+/- 0.062(stat) +/- 0.052(syst)] and f(+) = -0.033 +/- 0.046[+/- 0.034(stat) +/- 0.031(syst)]. Combining measurements where one of the helicity fractions is fixed to the value expected in the standard model, we find f(0) = 0.682 +/- 0.057[+/- 0.035(stat) +/- 0.046(syst)] for fixed f(+) and f(+) = -0.015 +/- 0.035[+/- 0.018(stat) +/- 0.030(syst)] for fixed f(0). The results are consistent with standard model expectations.

title: Combined search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair using the full CDF data set.
abstract: We combine the results of searches for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson based on the full CDF Run II data set obtained from sqrt[s]=1.96  TeV pp collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45  fb(-1). The searches are conducted for Higgs bosons that are produced in association with a W or Z boson, have masses in the range 90-150  GeV/c(2), and decay into bb pairs. An excess of data is present that is inconsistent with the background prediction at the level of 2.5 standard deviations (the most significant local excess is 2.7 standard deviations).