Abstract: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) surveyed 14,555 deg(2), and delivered over a trillion pixels of imaging data. We present a study of galaxy clustering using 900,000 luminous galaxies with photometric redshifts, spanning between z = 0.45 and z = 0.65, constructed from the SDSS using methods described in Ross et al. This data set spans 11,000 deg(2) and probes a volume of 3 h(-3) Gpc(3), making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We describe in detail the construction of the survey window function and various systematics affecting our measurement. With such a large volume, high-precision cosmological constraints can be obtained given careful control and understanding of the observational systematics. We present a novel treatment of the observational systematics and its applications to the clustering signals from the data set. In this paper, we measure the angular clustering using an optimal quadratic estimator at four redshift slices with an accuracy of similar to 15%, with a bin size of delta(l) = 10 on scales of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs; at l similar to 40-400). We also apply corrections to the power spectra due to systematics and derive cosmological constraints using the full shape of the power spectra. For a flat Lambda CDM model, when combined with cosmic microwave background Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 7 (WMAP7) and H-0 constraints from using 600 Cepheids observed by Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3; HST), we find Omega(Lambda) = 0.73 +/- 0.019 and H-0 to be 70.5 +/- 1.6 s(-1) Mpc(-1) km. For an open Lambda CDM model, when combined with WMAP7 + HST, we find Omega(K) = 0.0035 +/- 0.0054, improved over WMAP7+HST alone by 40%. For a wCDM model, when combined with WMAP7+HST+ SN, we find w = -1.071 +/- 0.078, and H-0 to be 71.3 +/- 1.7 s(-1) Mpc(-1) km, which is competitive with the latest large-scale structure constraints from large spectroscopic surveys such as the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7) and WiggleZ. We also find that systematic-corrected power spectra give consistent constraints on cosmological models when compared with pre-systematic correction power spectra in the angular scales of interest. The SDSS-III Data Release 8 (SDSS-III DR8) Angular Clustering Data allow a wide range of investigations into the cosmological model, cosmic expansion (via BAO), Gaussianity of initial conditions, and neutrino masses. Here, we refer to our companion papers for further investigations using the clustering data. Our calculation of the survey selection function, systematics maps, and likelihood function for the COSMOMC package will be released at http://portal.nersc.gov/project/boss/galaxy/photoz/.

Abstract: Cosmic rays have been studied, since they were discovered one century ago, with a very broad spectrum of detectors and techniques. However, never the properties of the extended air showers (EAS) induced by high energy primary cosmic rays had been analysed at the Earth surface with a high granularity detector and a time resolution at the 0.1 ns scale. The commissioning of the timing RPC (Resistive Plate Chambers) time of flight wall of the HADES spectrometer with cosmic rays, at the GSI (Darmstadt, Germany), opened up that opportunity. During the last months of 2009, more than 500 millions of cosmic ray events were recorded by a stack of two RPC modules, of about 1.25 m(2) each, able to measure swarms of up to similar to 100 particles with a time resolution better than 100 ps. In this document it is demonstrated how such a relative small two-plane, high-granularity timing RPC setup may provide significant information about the properties of the shower and hence about the primary cosmic ray properties.

Abstract: NEXT-DEMO is a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 detector, an electroluminescent time projection chamber that will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 using 100-150 kg of enriched xenon gas. NEXT-DEMO was built to prove the expected performance of NEXT-100, namely, energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at 2.5MeV and event topological reconstruction. In this paper we describe the prototype and its initial results. A resolution of 1.75% FWHM at 511 keV (which extrapolates to 0.8% FWHM at 2.5 MeV) was obtained at 10 bar pressure using a gamma-ray calibration source. Also, a basic study of the event topology along the longitudinal coordinate is presented, proving that it is possible to identify the distinct dE/dx of electron tracks in high-pressure xenon using an electroluminescence TPC.