Constraining the evolution of dark energy with a combination of galaxy cluster observables
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: 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: Chern Simons Theory and the volume of 3-manifolds
abstract: We give some applications of the Chern Simons gauge theory to the study of the set ${\rm vol}(N,G)$ of volumes of all representations $\rho\co\pi_1N\to G$, where $N$ is a closed oriented three-manifold and $G$ is either ${\rm Iso}_e\t{\rm SL_2(\R)}$, the isometry group of the Seifert geometry, or ${\rm Iso}_+{\Hi}^3$, the orientation preserving isometry group of the hyperbolic 3-space. We focus on three natural questions: 
(1) How to find non-zero values in ${\rm vol}(N, G)$? or weakly how to find non-zero elements in ${\rm vol}(\t N, G)$ for some finite cover $\t N$ of $N$? 
(2) Do these volumes satisfy the covering property in the sense of Thurston? 
(3) What kind of topological information is enclosed in the elements of ${\rm vol}(N, G)$? 
We determine ${\rm vol}(N, G)$ when $N$ supports the Seifert geometry, and we find some non-zero values in ${\rm vol}(N,G)$ for certain 3-manifolds with non-trivial geometric decomposition for either $G={\rm Iso}_+{\Hi}^3$ or ${\rm Iso}_e\t{\rm SL_2(\R)}$. Moreover we will show that unlike the Gromov simplicial volume, these non-zero elements carry the gluing information between the geometric pieces of $N$. 
For a large class 3-manifolds $N$, including all rational homology 3-spheres, we prove that $N$ has a positive Gromov simplicial volume iff it admits a finite covering $\t N$ with ${\rm vol}(\t N,{\rm Iso}_+{\Hi}^3)\ne \{0\}$. On the other hand, among such class, there are some $N$ with positive simplicial volume but ${\rm vol}(N,{\rm Iso}_+{\Hi}^3)=\{0\}$, yielding a negative answer to question (2) for hyperbolic volume.

title: A PROTOTYPE TRACK-FINDING PROCESSOR FOR THE LEVEL-1 TRIGGER OF THE CMS ENDCAP MUON SYSTEM
abstract: We report on the development and performance of a novel track-finding processor for the Level-1 trigger of the CMS endcap muon system. The processor links track segments identified in the cathode-strip chambers of the endcap muon system into complete three-dimensional tracks. It then measures the momentum of the best track candidates from the sagitta measured between three muon chambers in the endcap fringe field. The processor is pipelined at 40 MHz, and has an overall latency of 400 ns. The logic for the prototype is implemented in high-density FPGAs and SRAM memory. It receives approximately 3 gigabytes of data every second from a custom backplane operating at 280 MHz. Test results of the prototype are consistent with expectation.

title: Holographic dark energy models: a comparison from the latest observational data
abstract: The holographic principle of quantum gravity theory has been applied to the dark energy (DE) problem, and so far three holographic DE models have been proposed: the original holographic dark energy (HDE) model, the agegraphic dark energy (ADE) model, and the holographic Ricci dark energy (RDE) model. In this work, we perform the best-fit analysis on these three models, by using the latest observational data including the Union+CFA3 sample of 397 Type Ia supernovae (SNIa), the shift parameter of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) given by the five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP5) observations, and the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurement from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The analysis shows that for HDE, chi(2)(min) = 465.912; for RDE, chi(2)(min) = 483.130; for ADE, chi(2)(min) = 481.694. Among these models, HDE model can give the smallest. chi(2)(min). Besides, we also use the Bayesian evidence (BE) as a model selection criterion to make a comparison. It is found that for HDE, ADE, and RDE, Delta ln BE = -0.86, -5.17, and -8.14, respectively. So, it seems that the HDE model is more favored by the observational data.

title: Revisit of cosmic age problem
abstract: We investigate the cosmic age problem associated with 9 extremely old globular clusters in M31 galaxy and 1 very old high-z quasar automatic plate-measuring machine 08279 + 5255 at z = 3.91. These 9 globular clusters have not been used to study the cosmic age problem in the previous literature. By evaluating the age of the Universe in the Lambda cold dark matter model with the observational constraints from the Type Ia supernovae, the baryon acoustic oscillations, the cosmic microwave background, and the independent H(0) measurements, we find that the existence of 5 globular clusters and 1 high-z quasar are in tension (over 2 sigma confidence level) with the current cosmological observations. So if the age estimates of these objects are correct, the cosmic age puzzle still remains in the standard cosmology. Moreover, we extend our investigations to the cases of the interacting dark energy models. It is found that although the introduction of the interaction between dark sectors can give a larger cosmic age, the interacting dark energy models still have difficulty to pass the cosmic age test.

title: Combination of CDF and D0 limits on a gauge mediated SUSY model using diphoton and missing transverse energy channel
abstract: We combine the results of the CDF and D0 searches for chargino and neutralino production in Gauge-Mediated SUSY using the two-photon and missing E{sub T} channel. The data are p{bar p} collisions produced at the Tevatron with {radical}s = 1.96 TeV, with 202 pb{sup -1} collected at CDF and 263 pb{sup -1} collected at D0. The combined limit excludes a chargino mass less than 209 GeV/c{sup 2}. This result significantly extends the individual experimental limits.