Search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons at LEP
A Higgs particle produced in association with a Z boson and decaying into two photons is searched for in the data collected by the L3 experiment at LEP. All possible decay modes of the Z boson are investigated. No signal is observed in 447.5 pb^-1 of data recorded at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. Limits on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson decay into two photons as a function of the Higgs mass are derived. A lower limit on the mass of a fermiophobic Higgs boson is set at 105.4 GeV at 95% confidence level.

title: In-beam tests of the AMS RICH prototype with 20 a GeV/c secondary ions
abstract: A prototype of the AMS Cherenkov imager (RICH) has been tested by means of a low intensity 20 GeV/c per nucleon ion beam coming from the fragmentation of a primary beam of Pb ions. Data have been collected for charges I < Z < ∼45 in various beam conditions and using different radiators. The charge Z and velocity /i resolution have been of the prototype investigated.

title: Flavour independent search for neutral Higgs bosons at LEP
abstract: A flavour independent search for the CP-even and CP-odd neutral Higgs bosons h and A is performed in 624 pb −1 of data collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV . Higgs boson production through the e + e − →Zh and the e + e − →hA processes is considered and decays of the Higgs bosons into hadrons are studied. No significant signal is observed and 95% confidence level limits on the hZZ and hAZ couplings are derived as a function of the Higgs boson masses. Assuming the Standard Model cross section for the Higgs-strahlung process and a 100% branching fraction into hadrons, a 95% confidence level lower limit on the mass of the Higgs boson is set at 110.3 GeV.

title: Prototype study of the Cherenkov imager of the AMS experiment
abstract: The AMS experiment includes a Cherenkov imager for mass and charge identification of charged cosmic rays. A second generation prototype has been constructed and its performances evaluated both with cosmic ray particles and with beam ions. In-beam tests have been performed using secondary nuclei from the fragmentation of 20GeV=c per nucleon Pb ions and 158GeV=c per nucleon In from the CERN SPS in 2002 and 2003. Partial results are reported. The performances of the prototype for the velocity and the charge measurements have been studied over the range of ion charge Zt30. A sample of candidate silica aerogel radiators for the flight model of the detector has been tested. The measured velocity resolution of the detector was found to scale with Z 1 as expected, with a value sðbÞ=b 0:7–110 3 for singly charged particles and an asymptotic limit in Z of 0.4–0:6 10 . The measured charge resolution obtained for the n 1⁄4 1:05 aerogel radiator material selected for the flight model of the detector is sðZÞ 1⁄4 0:18 (statistical) 0.015 (systematic), ensuring a good charge separation up to the iron element, for the prototype in the reported experimental conditions. r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.  07.87.+v; 07.77.Ka; 29.40.Ka

title: Local multiplicity fluctuations in hadronic Z decay
abstract: Local multiplicity fluctuations in hadronic Z decays are studied using the L3 detector at LEP. Bunching parameters are used for the first time in addition to the normalised factorial moment method. The bunching parameters directly demonstrate that the fluctuations in rapidity are multifractal. Monte Carlo models show overall agreement with the data, reproducing the trend, although not always the magnitude, of the factorial moments and bunching parameters.

title: Search for excited fermions
abstract: Recent results on searches for excited fermions at the LEP, HERA and Tevatron colliders are reported. These results improve the limits on the masses and couplings of excited fermions.  12.60.Rc Composite models – 12.60.Cn Extensions of electroweak gauge sector – 13.66.Hk Production of non-standard model particles in e–e+ interactions – 13.60.Hb Total and inclusive cross sections (including deep-inelastic processes) – 13.85.Rm Limits on production of particles

title: Clustering of photometric luminous red galaxies – II. Cosmological implications from the baryon acoustic scale
abstract: A new determination of the sound horizon scale is presented. It makes use of 1:5 10 6 luminous red galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data, with photometric redshifts. The sample is selected at redshifts that go from 0.4 to 0.6. We nd evidence of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) signal at the 2:3 level, at the highest redshift to date, 0:50 < z < 0:60. We obtain a value of BAO(z = 0:55) = (3:90 0:38) for the angular BAO scale, including systematic errors. This is the rst direct measurement of the angular BAO signal. We show its complementarity with the radial determination and how the degeneracy in the determination of cosmological parameters is broken when both measurements (angular and radial) are combined. The measurement is in good agreement with the expectations from the WMAP7 best-t cosmology. Combining with previous measurements of the acoustic scale, we obtain a value of w0 = 1:03 0:16 for the equation of state parameter of the dark energy, or M = 0:26 0:04 for the matter density, when the other parameters are xed. Both values include systematic errors. We have also tested the sensitivity of current BAO measurements to a time varying dark energy equation of state, nding wa = 0:06 0:22, including systematics and with the other parametrs xed.

title: Application of GPUs for the Calculation of Two Point Correlation Functions in Cosmology
abstract: In this work, we have explored the advantages and drawbacks of using GPUs instead of CPUs in the calculation of a standard 2-point correlation function algorithm, which is useful for the analysis of Large Scale Structure of galaxies. Taking into account the huge volume of data foreseen in upcoming surveys, our main goal has been to accelerate significantly the analysis codes. We find that GPUs offer a 100-fold increase in speed with respect to a single CPU without a significant deviation in the results. For comparison's sake, an MPI version was developed as well. Some issues, like code implementation, which arise from using this option are discussed.

title: Clustering of photometric luminous red galaxies – I. Growth of structure and baryon acoustic feature
abstract: The possibility of measuring redshift-space distortions (RSDs) using photometric data has been recently highlighted. This effect complements and significantly alters the detectability of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in photometric surveys. In this paper we present measurements of the angular correlation function of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the photometric catalogue of the final data release [data release 7 (DR7)] of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II (SDSS-II). The sample compromises ∼1.5 × 106 LRGs distributed in 0.45 < z < 0.65, with a characteristic photometric error of ∼0.05. Our measured correlation centred at z= 0.55 is in very good agreement with predictions from standard Λcold dark matter (ΛCDM) in a broad range of angular scales, 05 < θ < 6°. We find that the growth of structure can indeed be robustly measured, with errors matching expectations. The velocity growth rate is recovered as fσ8= 0.53 ± 0.42 when no prior is imposed on the growth factor and the background geometry follows a ΛCDM model with 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP7)+SNIa priors. This is compatible with the corresponding General Relativity (GR) prediction fσ8= 0.45 for our fiducial cosmology. If we adopt a parametrization such that f=Ωγm(z), with γ≈ 0.55 in GR, and combine our fσ8 measurement with the corresponding ones from spectroscopic LRGs at lower redshifts, we obtain γ= 0.54 ± 0.17. In addition we find evidence for the presence of the baryon acoustic feature matching the amplitude, location and shape of ΛCDM predictions. The photometric BAO feature is detected with 98 per cent confidence level at z= 0.55.

title: First cosmological constraints on dark energy from the radial baryon acoustic scale.
abstract: We present cosmological constraints arising from the first measurement of the radial (line-of-sight) baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) scale in the large scale structure traced by the galaxy distribution. Here we use these radial BAO measurements at z = 0.24 and z = 0.43 to derive new constraints on dark energy and its equation of state for a flat universe, without any other assumptions on the cosmological model: w = -1.14 + or - 0.39 (assumed constant), Omega(m) = 0.24(-0.05);(+0.06). If we drop the assumption of flatness and include previous cosmic microwave background and supernova data, we find w = -0.974 + or - 0.058, Omega(m) = 0.271 + or - 0.015, and Omega(k) = -0.002 + or - 0.006, in good agreement with a flat cold dark matter cosmology with a cosmological constant. To our knowledge, these are the most stringent constraints on these parameters to date under our stated assumptions.