THE SPECTROSCOPIC DIVERSITY OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE
We present 2603 spectra of 462 nearby Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), including 2065 previously unpublished spectra, obtained during 1993-2008 through the Center for Astrophysics Supernova Program. There are on average eight spectra for each of the 313 SNe Ia with at least two spectra. Most of the spectra were obtained with the FAST spectrograph at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory 1.5 m telescope and reduced in a consistent manner, making this data set well suited for studies of SN Ia spectroscopic diversity. Using additional data from the literature, we study the spectroscopic and photometric properties of SNe Ia as a function of spectroscopic class using the classification schemes of Branch et al. and Wang et al. The width-luminosity relation appears to be steeper for SNe Ia with broader lines, although the result is not statistically significant with the present sample. Based on the evolution of the characteristic Si II {lambda}6355 line, we propose improved methods for measuring velocity gradients, revealing a larger range than previously suspected, from {approx}0 to {approx}400 km s{sup -1} day{sup -1} considering the instantaneous velocity decline rate at maximum light. We find a weaker and less significant correlation between Si II velocity and intrinsic Bmore » - V color at maximum light than reported by Foley et al., owing to a more comprehensive treatment of uncertainties and host galaxy dust. We study the extent of nuclear burning and the presence of unburnt carbon in the outermost layers of the ejecta and report new detections of C II {lambda}6580 in 23 early-time SN Ia spectra. The frequency of C II detections is not higher in SNe Ia with bluer colors or narrower light curves, in conflict with the recent results of Thomas et al. Based on nebular spectra of 27 SNe Ia, we find no relation between the FWHM of the iron emission feature at {approx}4700 A and {Delta}m{sub 15}(B) after removing the two low-luminosity SN 1986G and SN 1991bg, suggesting that the peak luminosity is not strongly dependent on the kinetic energy of the explosion for most SNe Ia. Finally, we confirm the correlation of velocity shifts in some nebular lines with the intrinsic B - V color of SNe Ia at maximum light, although several outliers suggest a possible non-monotonic behavior for the largest blueshifts.« less

title: The Mount Stromlo A bell Cluster Supernova Search
abstract: We have initiated a 3 year project to find supernovae in a well-defined sample of high-density southern Abell clusters with redshifts z ≤ 0.08. These observations will provide a volume-limited sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to more than a magnitude below their peak brightness and will enable us to (1) measure the luminosity function of SNe, (2) further explore the correlation of light-curve shape with the absolute luminosity of SNe Ia to better understand SNe Ia as distance indicators, (3) measure SN rates, (4) measure the bulk motion of the Local Group using SNe Ia, and (5) directly compare SN Ia distances with brightest cluster galaxy distances. We use the MACHO wide-field two-color imager on the 1.3 m telescope at Mount Stromlo to routinely monitor ~12 clusters per week. We describe our technique for target selection and scheduling search observations, and for finding and identifying SN candidates. We also describe the results from the first year of our program, including the detection of 19 SNe, several RR Lyrae variables, and hundreds of asteroids.

title: The Science Case for PILOT I: Summary and Overview
abstract: PILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. Conditions at Dome C are known to be exceptional for astronomy. The seeing (above ∼30 m height), coherence time, and isoplanatic angle are all twice as good as at typical mid-latitude sites, while the water-vapour column, and the atmosphere and telescope thermal emission are all an order of magnitude better. These conditions enable a unique scientific capability for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents an overview of the optical and instrumentation suite for PILOT and its expected performance, a summary of the key science goals and observational approach for the facility, a discussion of the synergies between the science goals for PILOT and other telescopes, and a discussion of the future of Antarctic astronomy.

title: HATS-1b: The First Transiting Planet Discovered by the HATSouth Survey
abstract: We report the discovery of HATS-1b, a transiting extrasolar planet orbiting the moderately bright V = 12.05 G dwarf star GSC 6652-00186, and the first planet discovered by HATSouth, a global network of autonomous wide-field telescopes. HATS-1b has a period of P 3.4465 days, mass of Mp 1.86 M J, and radius of Rp 1.30 R J. The host star has a mass of 0.99 M ☉ and radius of 1.04 R ☉. The discovery light curve of HATS-1b has near-continuous coverage over several multi-day timespans, demonstrating the power of using a global network of telescopes to discover transiting planets.

title: First Searches for Optical Counterparts to Gravitational-wave Candidate Events
abstract: During the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory and Virgo joint science runs in 2009-2010, gravitational wave (GW) data from three interferometer detectors were analyzed within minutes to select GW candidate events and infer their apparent sky positions. Target coordinates were transmitted to several telescopes for follow-up observations aimed at the detection of an associated optical transient. Images were obtained for eight such GW candidates. We present the methods used to analyze the image data as well as the transient search results. No optical transient was identified with a convincing association with any of these candidates, and none of the GW triggers showed strong evidence for being astrophysical in nature. We compare the sensitivities of these observations to several model light curves from possible sources of interest, and discuss prospects for future joint GW-optical observations of this type.

title: A THEORETICAL COLOR-VELOCITY CORRELATION FOR SUPERNOVAE ASSOCIATED WITH GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
abstract: We carry out the first multi-dimensional radiative transfer calculations to simultaneously compute synthetic spectra and light curves for models of supernovae driven by fast bipolar outflows. These allow us to make self-consistent predictions for the orientation dependence of both color evolution and spectral features. We compare models with different degrees of asphericity and metallicity and find significant observable consequences of both. In aspherical models, we find spectral and light curve features that vary systematically with observer orientation. In particular, we find that the early-phase light curves are brighter and bluer when viewed close to the polar axis but that the peak flux is highest for equatorial (off-axis) inclinations. Spectral line features also depend systematically on observer orientation, including the velocity of the Si II 6355 A line. Consequently, our models predict a correlation between line velocity and color that could assist the identification of supernovae associated with off-axis jet-driven explosions. The amplitude and range of this correlation depends on the degree of asphericity, the metallicity, and the epoch of observation but we find that it is always present and acts in the same direction.

title: Measurement of B meson production cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractThe production cross-sections of B mesons are measured in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, using data collected with the LHCb detector corresponding to a integrated luminosity of 0.36 fb−1. The B+, B0 and $ B_s^0 $ mesons are reconstructed in the exclusive decays B+ → J/ψK+, B0 → J/ψK*0 and $ B_s^0\to {J \left/ {{\psi \phi }} \right.} $, with J/ψ → μ+μ−, K*0 → K+π− and ϕ → K+K−. The differential cross-sections are measured as functions of B meson transverse momentum pT and rapidity y, in the range 0 < pT< 40 GeV/c and 2.0 < y < 4.5. The integrated cross-sections in the same pT and y ranges, including charge-conjugate states, are measured to be
$ \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {\sigma \left( {pp\to {B^{+}}+X} \right)=38.9\pm 0.3\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)\pm 2.5\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)\pm 1.3\left( {\mathrm{norm}.} \right)\upmu \mathrm{b},} \hfill \\ {\sigma \left( {pp\to {B^0}+X} \right)=38.1\pm 0.6\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)\pm 3.7\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)\pm 4.7\left( {\mathrm{norm}.} \right)\upmu \mathrm{b},} \hfill \\ {\sigma \left( {pp\to B_s^0+X} \right)=10.5\pm 0.2\left( {\mathrm{stat}.} \right)\pm 0.8\left( {\mathrm{syst}.} \right)\pm 1.0\left( {\mathrm{norm}.} \right)\upmu \mathrm{b},} \hfill \\ \end{array} $where the third uncertainty arises from the pre-existing branching fraction measurements.

title: Experimental determination of ionization cluster size distributions in counting gases
abstract: The distribution of the number of electrons contained in the ionization clusters formed along the track of minimum ionizing particles has been determined experimentally. Results are presented for argon, helium, methane, ethane, propane, isobutane and carbon dioxide, i.e., for gases which are commonly used as counting gases in drift chambers. The probabilities w(n) for the formation of a cluster containing n electrons were found to be monotonically decreasing for increasing n. Typical values for w(1) are 0.66 (Ar), 0.77 (He), and 0.79 (CH4). The results are compared with model predictions.

title: Precision luminosity measurements at LHCb
abstract: Measuring cross-sections at the LHC requires the luminosity to be determined accurately at each centre-of-mass energy root s. In this paper results are reported from the luminosity calibrations carried out at the LHC interaction point 8 with the LHCb detector for root s = 2.76, 7 and 8TeV (proton-proton collisions) and for root s(NN) = 5TeV (proton-lead collisions). Both the "van der Meer scan" and "beam-gas imaging" luminosity calibration methods were employed. It is observed that the beam density profile cannot always be described by a function that is factorizable in the two transverse coordinates. The introduction of a two-dimensional description of the beams improves significantly the consistency of the results. For proton-proton interactions at root s = 8TeV a relative precision of the luminosity calibration of 1.47% is obtained using van der Meer scans and 1.43% using beam-gas imaging, resulting in a combined precision of 1.12%. Applying the calibration to the full data set determines the luminosity with a precision of 1.16%. This represents the most precise luminosity measurement achieved so far at a bunched-beam hadron collider.

title: TADPOLE for longitudinal electron-bunch diagnostics based on electro-optic upconversion
abstract: Electron-bunch diagnostics are desired to utilize unambiguous, non-destructive, single-shot techniques. Various methods fulfill the latter two demands, but feature significant ambiguities and constraints in the reconstruction of time-domain electron-bunch profiles, e.g. uncertainties arising from the phase retrieval of coherent radiation using the Kramers–Kronig relation. We present a novel method of measuring the spectral phase. The measurement is based on upconversion in an electro-optic crystal, where the THz-field spectrum of fs-electron bunches is shifted to the near-infrared. This technique allows the single-shot detection of its longitudinal form factor in both, amplitude and phase. The spectral phase and amplitude information is measured and thus the temporal profile reconstructed using temporal analysis by dispersing a pair of light E-fields, also known as TADPOLE. This is a combination of frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) and spectral interferometry, enabling the temporal measurement of low-power laser pulses. In this procedure, a narrow-bandwidth laser pulse detecting the longitudinal variations in the transverse electric field of an electron bunch via frequency mixing is interfered with a broadband and FROG-characterized reference pulse. The longitudinal beam profile may therefore be unambiguously inferred from the generated interferogram and the detected spectral-phase-information of the reference pulse.

title: CARIOCA-A Fast Binary Front-End Implemented in 0 . 25 P m CMOS using a Novel Current-Mode Technique for the LHCb Muon Detector
abstract: The CARIOCA front-end is an amplifier discriminator chip, using 0.25Pm CMOS technology, developed with a very fast and low noise preamplifier. This prototype was designed to have input impedance below 10:. Measurements showed a peaking time of 14ns and noise of 450e at zero input capacitance, with a noise slope of 37.4 e/pF. The sensitivity of 8mV/fC remains almost unchanged up to a detector capacitance of 120pF.