Tracing the sound horizon scale with photometric redshift surveys
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 411:1 (2011) 277-288
Abstract:
We propose a new method for the extraction cosmological parameters using the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale as a standard ruler in deep galaxy surveys with photometric determination of redshifts. The method consists in a simple empirical parametric fit to the angular two-point correlation function ω(θ). It is parametrized as a power law to describe the continuum and as a Gaussian to describe the BAO bump. The location of the Gaussian is used as the basis for the measurement of the sound horizon scale. This method, although simple, actually provides a robust estimation, since the inclusion of the power law and the use of the Gaussian remove the shifts which affect the local maximum. We discuss the effects of projection bias, non-linearities, redshift space distortions and photo-z precision and apply our method to a mock catalogue of the Dark Energy Survey, built upon a large N-body simulation provided by the MICE collaboration. We discuss the main systematic errors associated with our method and show that they are dominated by the photo-z uncertainty.Search for Randall-Sundrum gravitons in the diphoton channel at CDF
Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 83:1 (2011)
Abstract:
We report on a search for new particles in the diphoton channel using a data sample of pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron, with an integrated luminosity of 5.4fb⊃-1. The diphoton invariant mass spectrum of the data agrees well with the standard model expectation. We set upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio for the Randall-Sundrum graviton, as a function of diphoton mass. We subsequently derive lower limits on the graviton mass of 459GeV/c2 and 963GeV/c2, at the 95% confidence level, for coupling parameters (k/M̄Pl) of 0.01 and 0.1, respectively. © 2011 American Physical Society.First measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV
Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics 695:5 (2011) 424-443
Abstract:
The first measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at center-of-mass energy s=7 TeV has been performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.1±0.3 pb-1 recorded by the CMS detector. This result utilizes the final state with two isolated, highly energetic charged leptons, large missing transverse energy, and two or more jets. Backgrounds from Drell-Yan and non-W/Z boson production are estimated from data. Eleven events are observed in the data with 2.1±1.0 events expected from background. The measured cross section is 194±72(stat.)±24(syst.)±21(lumi.) pb, consistent with next-to-leading order predictions. © 2010 CERN.Search for stopped gluinos in pp collisions at √s=7TeV
Physical Review Letters 106:1 (2011)