VERITAS Observations of a Very High Energy Gamma-ray Flare from the Blazar 3C 66A
The intermediate-frequency peaked BL Lacertae (IBL) object 3C 66A is detected during 2007-2008 in VHE (very high energy; E > 100 GeV) γ rays with the VERITAS stereoscopic array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. An excess of 1791 events is detected, corresponding to a significance of 21.2 standard deviations (σ), in these observations (32.8 hr live time). The observed integral flux above 200 GeV is 6% of the Crab Nebula's flux and shows evidence for variability on the timescale of days. The measured energy spectrum is characterized by a soft power law with photon index Γ = 4.1 ± 0.4stat ± 0.6sys. The radio galaxy 3C 66B is excluded as a possible source of the VHE emission.

title: Observation of Extended VHE Emission from the Supernova Remnant IC 443 with VERITAS
abstract: We present evidence that the very-high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission coincident with the supernova remnant IC 443 is extended. IC 443 contains one of the best-studied sites of supernova remnant/molecular cloud interaction and the pulsar wind nebula CXOU J061705.3+222127, both of which are important targets for VHE observations. VERITAS observed IC 443 for 37.9 hours during 2007 and detected emission above 300 GeV with an excess of 247 events, resulting in a significance of 8.3 standard deviations (sigma) before trials and 7.5 sigma after trials in a point-source search. The emission is centered at 06 16 51 +22 30 11 (J2000) +- 0.03_stat +- 0.08_sys degrees, with an intrinsic extension of 0.16 +- 0.03_stat +- 0.04_sys degrees. The VHE spectrum is well fit by a power law (dN/dE = N_0 * (E/TeV)^-Gamma) with a photon index of 2.99 +- 0.38_stat +- 0.3_sys and an integral flux above 300 GeV of (4.63 +- 0.90_stat +- 0.93_sys) * 10^-12 cm^-2 s^-1. These results are discussed in the context of existing models for gamma-ray production in IC 443.

title: VERITAS Discovery of >200 GeV Gamma-Ray Emission from the Intermediate-Frequency-Peaked BL Lacertae Object W Comae
abstract: We report the detection of very high-energy -ray emission from the intermediate-frequencypeaked BLLacertae object WComae (z = 0.102) by VERITAS, an array of four imaging atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes. The source was observed between January and April 2008. A strong outburst of -ray emission was measured in the middle of March, lasting for only four days. The energy spectrum measured during the two highest flare nights is fit by a power-law and is found to be very steep, with a differential photon spectral index of = 3 .81±0.35stat±0.34syst. The integral photon flux above 200GeV during those two nights corresponds to roughly 9% of the flux from the Crab Nebula. Quasi-simultaneous Swift observations at X-ray energies were triggered by the VERITAS observations. The spectral energy distribution of the flare data can be described by synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) or external-Compton (EC) leptonic jet models, with the latter offering a more natural set of parameters to fit the data.

title: Discovery of Variability in the Very High Energy γ-Ray Emission of 1ES 1218+304 with VERITAS
abstract: We present results from an intensive VERITAS monitoring campaign of the high-frequency peaked BL Lac object 1ES 1218+304 in 2008/2009. Although 1ES 1218+304 was detected previously by MAGIC and VERITAS at a persistent level of ~6% of the Crab Nebula flux, the new VERITAS data reveal a prominent flare reaching ~20% of the Crab. While very high energy (VHE) flares are quite common in many nearby blazars, the case of 1ES 1218+304 (redshift z = 0.182) is particularly interesting since it belongs to a group of blazars that exhibit unusually hard VHE spectra considering their redshifts. When correcting the measured spectra for absorption by the extragalactic background light, 1ES 1218+304 and a number of other blazars are found to have differential photon indices Γ≤ 1.5. The difficulty in modeling these hard spectral energy distributions in blazar jets has led to a range of theoretical γ-ray emission scenarios, one of which is strongly constrained by these new VERITAS observations. We consider the implications of the observed light curve of 1ES 1218+304, which shows day scale flux variations, for shock acceleration scenarios in relativistic jets, and in particular for the viability of kiloparsec-scale jet emission scenarios.

title: Branching fractions in $B \to \phi$ h and search for direct CP violation in $B^\pm \to \phi K^\pm$

title: Veritas: Status summary 2009
abstract: VERITAS is a ground-based gamma-ray observatory that uses the imaging atmospheric Cherenkov technique and operates in the very-high energy (VHE) region of the gamma-ray spectrum from 100 GeV to 50 TeV. The observatory consists of an array of four 12 m-diameter imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located in southern Arizona, USA. The four-telescope array has been fully operational since September 2007, and over the last two years, VERITAS has been operating with high reliability and sensitivity. It is currently one of the most sensitive VHE observatories. This paper summarizes the status of VERITAS as of October 2009, and describes the detection of several new VHE gamma-ray sources.

title: Energy resolution of the barrel of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter
abstract: The energy resolution of the barrel part of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter has been studied using electrons of 20 to 250 GeV in a test beam. The incident electron's energy was reconstructed by summing the energy measured in arrays of 3x3 or 5x5 channels. There was no significant amount of correlated noise observed within these arrays. For electrons incident at the centre of the studied 3x3 arrays of crystals, the mean stochastic term was measured to be 2.8% and the mean constant term to be 0.3%. The amount of the incident electron's energy which is contained within the array depends on its position of incidence. The variation of the containment with position is corrected for using the distribution of the measured energy within the array. For uniform illumination of a crystal with 120 GeV electrons a resolution of 0.5% was achieved. The energy resolution meets the design goal for the detector.

title: Search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO's third science run
abstract: We report on a search for gravitational-wave bursts in data from the three LIGO interferometric detectors during their third science run. The search targets sub-second bursts in the frequency range 100–1100 Hz for which no waveform model is assumed and has a sensitivity in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude of hrss ~ 10−20 Hz−1/2. No gravitational-wave signals were detected in the eight days of analysed data.

title: All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
abstract: We report on an all-sky search with the LIGO detectors for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency range 50–1000 Hz and with the frequency’s time derivative in the range −1×10^(−8)  Hz s^(−1) to zero. Data from the fourth LIGO science run (S4) have been used in this search. Three different semicoherent methods of transforming and summing strain power from short Fourier transforms (SFTs) of the calibrated data have been used. The first, known as StackSlide, averages normalized power from each SFT. A “weighted Hough” scheme is also developed and used, which also allows for a multi-interferometer search. The third method, known as PowerFlux, is a variant of the StackSlide method in which the power is weighted before summing. In both the weighted Hough and PowerFlux methods, the weights are chosen according to the noise and detector antenna-pattern to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. The respective advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed. Observing no evidence of periodic gravitational radiation, we report upper limits; we interpret these as limits on this radiation from isolated rotating neutron stars. The best population-based upper limit with 95% confidence on the gravitational-wave strain amplitude, found for simulated sources distributed isotropically across the sky and with isotropically distributed spin axes, is 4.28×10^(−24) (near 140 Hz). Strict upper limits are also obtained for small patches on the sky for best-case and worst-case inclinations of the spin axes.

title: Implications For The Origin Of GRB 051103 From LIGO Observations
abstract: We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6 Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at a distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed γ-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30°, we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with >99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81, then our findings support the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it one of the most distant extragalactic magnetars observed to date.

title: Group-like objects in Poisson geometry and algebra
abstract: A group, defined as set with associative multiplication and inverse, is a natural structure describing the symmetry of a space. The concept of group generalizes to group objects internal to other categories than sets. But there are yet more general objects that can still be thought of as groups in many ways, such as quantum groups. We explain some of the generalizations of groups which arise in Poisson geometry and quantization: the germ of a topological group, Poisson Lie groups, rigid monoidal structures on symplectic realizations, groupoids, 2-groups, stacky Lie groups, and hopfish algebras.