Accurate Group-Delay Measurement for Radial-Velocity Instruments Using the Dispersed Fixed-Delay Interferometer Method
The dispersed fixed-delay Intereferometer (DFDI) method is attractive for its low cost, compact size, and multiobject capability in precision radial-velocity (RV) measurements. The phase shift of fringes of stellar absorption lines is measured and then converted to an RV shift via an important parameter, phase-to-velocity scale (PV scale), determined by the group delay (GD) of a fixed-delay interferometer. Two methods of GD measurement using a DFDI Doppler instrument are presented in this article: (1) GD measurement using white-light combs generated by the fixed-delay interferometer and (2) GD calibration using an RV reference star. These two methods provide adequate precision of GD measurement and calibration, given the current RV precision achieved by a DFDI Doppler instrument. They can potentially be used to measure GD of an fixed-delay interferometer for submeter-precision Doppler measurement with a DFDI instrument. Advantages and limitations of each method are discussed in detail. The two methods can serve as standard procedures of PV-scale calibration for DFDI instruments and cross-checks for each other.

title: APPLICATION OF THE GIGE VISION DIGITAL CAMERA FOR BEAM DIAGNOSTICS IN HLS
abstract: Ethernet vision standard) is a new interface standard for the latest vision of cameras with higher performance compared to analogue vision standard and other digital vision standard. In recent years, the market of industrial vision components is evolving towards GigE Vision. The cameras comply with GigE Vision are capable of providing low distortion for image transmission over long distance with high image rate. This paper will present applications of GigE Vision digital camera for the measurement of beam profile and emittance at the storage ring of HLS (Hefei Light Source).

title: The eighth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: first data from SDSS-III
abstract: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in 2008 August, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Lyα forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg2 in the southern Galactic cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameter pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high-metallicity stars.

title: MARVELS-1: A FACE-ON DOUBLE-LINED BINARY STAR MASQUERADING AS A RESONANT PLANETARY SYSTEM AND CONSIDERATION OF RARE FALSE POSITIVES IN RADIAL VELOCITY PLANET SEARCHES
abstract: We have analyzed new and previously published radial velocity (RV) observations of MARVELS-1, known to have an ostensibly substellar companion in a ~6 day orbit. We find significant (~100 m s–1) residuals to the best-fit model for the companion, and these residuals are naively consistent with an interior giant planet with a P = 1.965 days in a nearly perfect 3:1 period commensurability (|Pb /Pc – 3| < 10–4). We have performed several tests for the reality of such a companion, including a dynamical analysis, a search for photometric variability, and a hunt for contaminating stellar spectra. We find many reasons to be critical of a planetary interpretation, including the fact that most of the three-body dynamical solutions are unstable. We find no evidence for transits, and no evidence of stellar photometric variability. We have discovered two apparent companions to MARVELS-1 with adaptive optics imaging at Keck; both are M dwarfs, one is likely bound, and the other is likely a foreground object. We explore false-alarm scenarios inspired by various curiosities in the data. Ultimately, a line profile and bisector analysis lead us to conclude that the ~100 m s–1 residuals are an artifact of spectral contamination from a stellar companion contributing ~15%-30% of the optical light in the system. We conclude that origin of this contamination is the previously detected RV companion to MARVELS-1, which is not, as previously reported, a brown dwarf, but in fact a G dwarf in a face-on orbit.

title: A Third Planet Orbiting HIP 14810
abstract: We present new precision radial velocities and a three-planet Keplerian orbit fit for the V = 8.5, G5 V star HIP 14810. We began observing this star at Keck Observatory as part of the N2K Planet Search Project. Wright et al. (2007) announced the inner two planets to this system, and subsequent observations have revealed the outer planet planet and the proper orbital solution for the middle planet. The planets have minimum masses of 3.9, 1.3, and 0.6 M_Jup and orbital periods of 6.67, 147.7, and 952 d, respectively. We have numerically integrated the family of orbital solutions consistent with the data and find that they are stable for at least 10^6 yr. Our photometric search shows that the inner planet does not transit.

title: Accurate Group Delay Measurement for Radial Velocity Instruments Using the Dispersed Fixed Delay Interferometer Method. II. Application of Heterodyne Combs Using an External Interferometer Filter
abstract: A fixed delay interferometer is the key component in a DFDI (dispersed fixed delay interferometer) instrument for an exoplanet search using the radial velocity (RV) technique. Although the group delay (GD) of the interferometer can be measured with white light combs (WLCs), the measurement precision is limited by the comb visibility, and the wavelength coverage is constrained by the comb sampling. For instance, this method can calibrate only half of the SDSS-III MARVELS spectra and reach a precision of 2.2 m s-1. This article introduces an innovative method using a sine source for precision delay calibration over very broad wavelengths. The sine source is made of a monolithic Michelson interferometer fed with white light. The interferometer modulated white light (in a sinusoidal form) is fed into a DFDI instrument for calibration. Due to an optimal GD of the sine source, Fourier components from the DFDI interferometer, the sine source, and their frequency beating can be clearly separated and effectively extracted with a chirped Fourier transform to allow precision measurements of the interferometer GD over the entire range of operation wavelengths. The measurements of the MARVELS interferometer with a sine source show that this new calibration method has improved the wavelength coverage by a factor of 2 and the precision by a factor of 3. The RV measurement error induced by GD measurement uncertainties is controlled to be less than 1 m s-1, which has met the requirements for MARVELS moderate-to-high Doppler precision (~5-30 m s-1) for exoplanet search around V ~ 8-12 solar-type stars. Heterodyne combs using an external interferometer source can be applied in other areas of optics measurement and calibration.

title: Q value of the superallowed decay of Mg22 and the calibration of the Na21(p,γ) experiment
abstract: The masses of the radioactive nuclei {sup 22}Mg and {sup 22}Na have been measured with the Canadian Penning trap on-line mass spectrometer to a precision of 3x10{sup -8} and 1x10{sup -8}, respectively. A Q{sub EC} value of 4124.39(73) keV for the superallowed {beta} decay of {sup 22}Mg is obtained from the difference of these two masses. With this precise Q value, the Ft value for this decay is determined with improved precision and is found to be consistent with the existing precision data set of superallowed Fermi emitters. This provides an important test of the isospin symmetry-breaking corrections. If the mass of {sup 22}Mg determined here is used in the calibration of a recent {sup 21}Na(p,{gamma}){sup 22}Mg measurement, part of the discrepancy observed in that measurement is removed.

title: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CHANDRA CARINA COMPLEX PROJECT
abstract: The Great Nebula in Carina provides an exceptional view into the violent massive star formation and feedback that typifies giant H II regions and starburst galaxies. We have mapped the Carina star-forming complex in X-rays, using archival Chandra data and a mosaic of 20 new 60 ks pointings using the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, as a testbed for understanding recent and ongoing star formation and to probe Carina's regions of bright diffuse X-ray emission. This study has yielded a catalog of properties of > 14,000 X-ray point sources;> 9800 of them have multiwavelength counterparts. Using Chandra's unsurpassed X-ray spatial resolution, we have separated these point sources from the extensive, spatially-complex diffuse emission that pervades the region; X-ray properties of this diffuse emission suggest that it traces feedback from Carina's massive stars. In this introductory paper, we motivate the survey design, describe the Chandra observations, and present some simple results, providing a foundation for the 15 papers that follow in this special issue and that present detailed catalogs, methods, and science results.

title: Absolute luminosity measurements with the LHCb detector at the LHC
abstract: Absolute luminosity measurements are of general interest for colliding-beam experiments at storage rings. These measurements are necessary to determine the absolute cross-sections of reaction processes and are valuable to quantify the performance of the accelerator. LHCb has applied two methods to determine the absolute scale of its luminosity measurements for proton-proton collisions at the LHC with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. In addition to the classic "van der Meer scan" method a novel technique has been developed which makes use of direct imaging of the individual beams using beam-gas and beam-beam interactions. This beam imaging method is made possible by the high resolution of the LHCb vertex detector and the close proximity of the detector to the beams, and allows beam parameters such as positions, angles and widths to be determined. The results of the two methods have comparable precision and are in good agreement. Combining the two methods, an overal precision of 3.5% in the absolute luminosity determination is reached. The techniques used to transport the absolute luminosity calibration to the full data-taking period are presented.

title: Investigating the Nuclear Obscuration in Two Types of Seyfert 2 Galaxies
abstract: We build a large sample of Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s) with both optical spectropolarimetric and X-ray data available, in which 29 of the Sy2s have a detection of polarized broad emission lines (PBLs) and 25 do not. We find that for luminous Sy2s with L-[O III] > 10(41) ergs s(-1), sources with PBLs have smaller X-ray absorption column densities in comparison to those without PBLs (at a 92.3% confidence level): most of the Sy2s with N-H < 10(23.8) cm(-2) show PBLs (86%; 12 out of 14), while the fraction is much smaller for sources with heavier obscuration (54%; 15 out of 28). The confidence level of the difference in absorption bounces up to 99.1% when using the thickness ("T'') ratio (F2-10 keV/F-[O III]) as an indicator. We rule out observation or selection bias as the origin for the difference. Our results, for the first time with high statistical confidence, show that, in additional to the activity of the nuclei, the nuclear obscuration also plays an important role in the visibility of PBLs in Sy2s. These results can be interpreted in the framework of the unified model. We can reach these results in the unified model if (1) the absorption column density is higher at large inclinations and (2) the scattering region is obscured at large inclinations.

title: Relativistic klystrons
abstract: Experimental work is underway to investigate the feasibility of using relativistic klystrons as a power source for future high-gradient accelerators. The aim is to develop a high-power (500-MW) short-wavelength (2.6-cm) relativistic klystron with beam kinetic energy greater than 1 MeV. Two different relativistic klystron configurations have been built and tested: a high-gain multicavity klystron at 11.4 GHz and a low-gain two-cavity subharmonic buncher driven at 5.7 GHz. In both configurations power is extracted at 11.4 GHz. In order to understand the basic physics issues involved in extracting RF from a high power beam, both a single resonant cavity and a multicell traveling-wave structure were used for energy extraction. A previously reported problem of high-power RF pulse shortening was overcome, and peak RF power levels of 170 MW have been achieved with the RF pulse of the same duration as the beam current pulse.<<ETX>>