Search

We propose a Vector-like quark (VLQ) model constrained by the requirement of perturbative unitarity. In this scenario, the neutral and charged couplings of the new heavy VLQs to SM quarks and bosons are strictly related. We derive the corresponding sum rules and display the definite structure of the couplings. We analyse, qualitatively, the phenomenological consequences of this model in terms of expected width, production mechanism and decay channels. We show that the upcoming LHC run 3 could have sensitivity to such particles but the search strategy should be adapted to cover wide resonances decaying mainly in the charged channel T(B) -> Wq., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures

We summarize a series of numerical experiments of collisional dynamics in dense stellar systems such as globular clusters (GCs) and in weakly collisional plasmas using a novel simulation technique, the so-called Multi-particle collision (MPC) method, alternative to Fokker-Planck and Monte Carlo approaches. MPC is related to particle-mesh approaches for the computation of self consistent long-range fields, ensuring that simulation time scales with $N\log N$ in the number of particles, as opposed to $N^2$ for direct $N$-body. The collisional relaxation effects are modelled by computing particle interactions based on a collision operator approach that ensures rigorous conservation of energy and momenta and depends only on particles velocities and cell-based integrated quantities., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the 362 IAU symposium "Predictive Power of Computational Astrophysics as a Discovery Tool". Chamonix, France 8-12 Nov. 2021

The present paper deals with the surface heat flux estimation with thermocouples (TC) and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) embedded in the plasma facing components (PFC) of the WEST tokamak. A 2D heat transfer model combined with the conjugate gradient method (CGM) and the adjoint state is used to estimate the plasma heat flux deposited on the PFC. The plasma heat flux is characterized by the time evolution of its amplitude and spatial shape on the target (heat flux decay length $\lambda^t_q$, power spreading in the private flux region $S^t$ and the strike point location $x_0$). As a first step, five ohmic pulses have been investigated with different magnetic configuration and divertor X-point height varying from 44 to 68 mm from the surface. Despite an outboard shift, the relative displacements of the outer strike point as well as the heat flux decay length derived from the TC/FBG systems are consistent with the magnetic equilibrium reconstruction., Comment: Fusion Engineering and Design, Elsevier, 2019

We describe the design and performance of the near-infrared (1.51--1.70 micron), fiber-fed, multi-object (300 fibers), high resolution (R = lambda/delta lambda ~ 22,500) spectrograph built for the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). APOGEE is a survey of ~ 10^5 red giant stars that systematically sampled all Milky Way populations (bulge, disk, and halo) to study the Galaxy's chemical and kinematical history. It was part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) from 2011 -- 2014 using the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico. The APOGEE-2 survey is now using the spectrograph as part of SDSS-IV, as well as a second spectrograph, a close copy of the first, operating at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Although several fiber-fed, multi-object, high resolution spectrographs have been built for visual wavelength spectroscopy, the APOGEE spectrograph is one of the first such instruments built for observations in the near-infrared. The instrument's successful development was enabled by several key innovations, including a "gang connector" to allow simultaneous connections of 300 fibers; hermetically sealed feedthroughs to allow fibers to pass through the cryostat wall continuously; the first cryogenically deployed mosaic volume phase holographic grating; and a large refractive camera that includes mono-crystalline silicon and fused silica elements with diameters as large as ~ 400 mm. This paper contains a comprehensive description of all aspects of the instrument including the fiber system, optics and opto-mechanics, detector arrays, mechanics and cryogenics, instrument control, calibration system, optical performance and stability, lessons learned, and design changes for the second instrument., Comment: 81 pages, 67 figures, PASP, accepted

We report discovery of 41 new high-z quasars and luminous galaxies, which were spectroscopically identified at 5.7 < z < 6.9. This is the fourth in a series of papers from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project, based on the deep multi-band imaging data collected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. We selected the photometric candidates by a Bayesian probabilistic algorithm, and then carried out follow-up spectroscopy with the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the Subaru Telescope. Combined with the sample presented in the previous papers, we have now spectroscopically identified 137 extremely-red HSC sources over about 650 deg2, which include 64 high-z quasars, 24 high-z luminous galaxies, 6 [O III] emitters at z ~ 0.8, and 43 Galactic cool dwarfs (low-mass stars and brown dwarfs). The new quasars span the luminosity range from M1450 ~ -26 to -22 mag, and continue to populate a few magnitude lower luminosities than have been probed by previous wide-field surveys. In a companion paper, we derive the quasar luminosity function at z ~ 6 over an unprecedentedly wide range of M1450 ~ -28 to -21 mag, exploiting the SHELLQs and other survey outcomes., Comment: ApJS in press. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1704.05854

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg$^2$ in five broad bands ($grizy$), with a $5\,\sigma$ point-source depth of $r \approx 26$. The Deep layer covers a total of 26~deg$^2$ in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg$^2$). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. Corrected for a typo in the coordinates of HSC-Wide spring equatorial field in Table 5

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) of the Subaru Measurement of Images and Redshifts (SuMIRe) project for Subaru telescope consists in four identical spectrographs fed by 600 fibers each. Each spectrograph is composed by an optical entrance unit that creates a collimated beam and distributes the light to three channels, two visibles and one near infrared. This paper presents the on-going effort for the tests & integration process for the first spectrograph channel: we have developed a detailed Assembly Integration and Test (AIT) plan, as well as the methods, detailed processes and I&T tools. We describe the tools we designed to assemble the parts and to test the performance of the spectrograph. We also report on the thermal acceptance tests we performed on the first visible camera unit. We also report on and discuss the technical difficulties that did appear during this integration phase. Finally, we detail the important logistic process that is require to transport the components from other country to Marseille.

Aims. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) offers a unique possibility of not only detecting Colour Induced Displacement (CID) double stars but also confirming these detections. Methods. Successive cuts are applied to the SDSS DR12 database in order to reduce the size of the sample to be considered. The resulting dataset is then screened with a criterion based on the distance and orientation of the photocentres in different photometric bands. Results. About 3 200 distinct objects are classified as CID double stars, 40 of which are confirmed with at least a second detection. A consistency check further validates these detections., Comment: Accepted in A&A, 6 pages, 9 figures

We describe the design, manufacture, and performance of bare-fiber integral field units (IFUs) for the SDSS-IV survey MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) on the the Sloan 2.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO). MaNGA is a luminosity-selected integral-field spectroscopic survey of 10,000 local galaxies covering 360-1030 nm at R ~ 2200. The IFUs have hexagonal dense packing of fibers with packing regularity of 3 um (RMS), and throughput of 96+/-0.5% from 350 nm to 1 um in the lab. Their sizes range from 19 to 127 fibers (3-7 hexagonal layers) using Polymicro FBP 120:132:150 um core:clad:buffer fibers to reach a fill fraction of 56%. High throughput (and low focal-ratio degradation) is achieved by maintaining the fiber cladding and buffer intact, ensuring excellent surface polish, and applying a multi-layer AR coating of the input and output surfaces. In operations on-sky, the IFUs show only an additional 2.3% FRD-related variability in throughput despite repeated mechanical stressing during plate plugging (however other losses are present). The IFUs achieve on-sky throughput 5% above the single-fiber feeds used in SDSS-III/BOSS, attributable to equivalent performance compared to single fibers and additional gains from the AR coating. The manufacturing process is geared toward mass-production of high-multiplex systems. The low-stress process involves a precision ferrule with hexagonal inner shape designed to lead inserted fibers to settle in a dense hexagonal pattern. The ferrule inner diameter is tapered at progressively shallower angles toward its tip and the final 2 mm are straight and only a few um larger than necessary to hold the desired number of fibers. This process scales to accommodate other fiber sizes and to IFUs with substantially larger fiber count. (Abridged), Comment: 23 pages, 30 figures, AJ accepted

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a new facility instrument for Subaru Telescope which will be installed in around 2017. It is a multi-object spectrograph fed by about 2400 fibers placed at the prime focus covering a hexagonal field-of-view with 1.35 deg diagonals and capable of simultaneously obtaining data of spectra with wavelengths ranging from 0.38 um to 1.26 um. The spectrograph system is composed of four identical modules each receiving the light from 600 fibers. Each module incorporates three channels covering the wavelength ranges 0.38-0.65 mu ("Blue"), 0.63-0.97 mu ("Red"), and 0.94-1.26 mu ("NIR") respectively; with resolving power which progresses fairly smoothly from about 2000 in the blue to about 4000 in the infrared. An additional spectral mode allows reaching a spectral resolution of 5000 at 0.8mu (red). The proposed optical design is based on a Schmidt collimator facing three Schmidt cameras (one per spectral channel). This architecture is very robust, well known and documented. It allows for high image quality with only few simple elements (high throughput) at the expense of the central obscuration, which leads to larger optics. Each module has to be modular in its design to allow for integration and tests and for its safe transport up to the telescope: this is the main driver for the mechanical design. In particular, each module will be firstly fully integrated and validated at LAM (France) before it is shipped to Hawaii. All sub-assemblies will be indexed on the bench to allow for their accurate repositioning. This paper will give an overview of the spectrograph system which has successfully passed the Critical Design Review (CDR) in 2014 March and which is now in the construction phase., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, submitted to "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Ian S. McLean, Hideki Takami, Editors, Proc. SPIE 9147 (2014)"

Instabilities are predicted for a sufficiently long hollow photonic optical fiber, or "cavity", containing a one dimensional Bose-gas in the presence of a classical, far red-detuned, confined weak electromagnetic mode. We examine both a single beam with Bose gas (a type of Brillouin instability) and the case of a standing wave, or optical lattice. The instabilities of these driven systems have pronounced spatial structure, of combined modulational instabilities in the electromagnetic and Bose density fields. Near the critical wave vectors for the instability the coupled modes of the BEC and light can be interpreted as "phonons" of the optical lattice. We conjecture these spatially-structured instabilities for the optical lattice, which we predict at weak fields, develop into the source of spatially homogeneous heating predicted for strong fields., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We examine the changes in the properties of galactic bulges and discs with environment for a volume-limited sample of 12500 nearby galaxies from SDSS. We focus on galaxies with classical bulges. Classical bulges seem to have the same formation history as ellipticals of the same mass, and we test if environment determines whether or not a classical bulge possesses a disc. Using the projected fifth nearest neighbour density as a measure of local environment, we look for correlations with environment at fixed bulge stellar mass. In groups with fewer than 20 members, we find no evidence for changes in disc morphology with local density. At fixed bulge mass, disc mass and disc scale length are independent of local density. However, disc colour does increase (Delta(g - r) ~ 0.05 mag) as a function of local density in relatively poor groups. Therefore, the colour--density relation for classical bulge+disc galaxies in the field and in poor groups is due solely to changes in disc colour with density. In contrast, we find no correlations between disc colour and local density for classical bulge+disc galaxies in large, relaxed groups and clusters. However, there is a weak correlation between disc mass and group crossing time, suggesting morphological transformation takes places in rich groups. Our results add to the evidence that star formation is quenched in group environments, instead of clusters, and that star formation quenching and morphological transformation are separate processes. Overall, we show that environment has two effects on galactic discs: relatively low density environments can quench star formation in discs, while processes occurring in higher density environments contribute to the morphological transformation from disc-dominated systems to bulge-dominated systems., Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures; MNRAS accepted

We present a set of bulge-disk decompositions for a sample of 71,825 SDSS main-sample galaxies in the redshift range 0.003

In this paper, we derive scaling relations between photometric observable quantities and disk galaxy rotation velocity V_rot, or Tully-Fisher relations (TFRs). Our methodology is dictated by our purpose of obtaining purely photometric, minimal-scatter estimators of V_rot applicable to large galaxy samples from imaging surveys. To achieve this goal, we have constructed a sample of 189 disk galaxies at redshifts z<0.1 with long-slit H-alpha spectroscopy from Pizagno et al. (2007) and new observations. By construction, this sample is a fair subsample of a large, well-defined parent disk sample of ~170 000 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7). The optimal photometric estimator of V_rot we find is stellar mass M_* from Bell et al. (2003), based on the linear combination of a luminosity and a colour. Assuming a Kroupa IMF, we find: log [V_{80}/(km s^-1)] = (2.142 +/- 0.004)+(0.278 +/- 0.010)[log (M_*/M_sun)-10.10], where V_{80} is the rotation velocity measured at the radius R_{80} containing 80 per cent of the i-band galaxy light. This relation has an intrinsic Gaussian scatter of 0.036 +/- 0.005 dex and a measured scatter of 0.056 dex in log V_{80}. For a fixed IMF, we find that the dynamical-to-stellar mass ratios within R_{80}, (M_dyn/M_*)(R_{80}), decrease from approximately 10 to 3, as stellar mass increases from M_* ~ 10^9 to 10^{11} M_sun. At a fixed stellar mass, (M_dyn/M_*)(R_{80}) increases with disk size, so that it correlates more tightly with stellar surface density than with stellar mass or disk size alone. In future work, we will use these results to study disk galaxy formation and evolution, and perform a fair, statistical analysis of the dynamics and masses of a photometrically-selected sample of disk galaxies. [Abridged], Comment: 47 pages, 33 figures, 16 tables, submitted to MNRAS

[Abridged] We present the first comprehensive study of short-timescale chromospheric H-alpha variability in M dwarfs using the individual 15 min spectroscopic exposures for 52,392 objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our sample contains about 10^3-10^4 objects per spectral type bin in the range M0-M9, with a total of about 206,000 spectra and a typical number of 3 exposures per object (ranging up to a maximum of 30 exposures). Using this extensive data set we find that about 16% of the sources exhibit H-alpha emission in at least one exposure, and of those about 45% exhibit H-alpha emission in all of the available exposures. Within the sample of objects with H-alpha emission, only 26% are consistent with non-variable emission, independent of spectral type. The H-alpha variability, quantified in terms of the ratio of maximum to minimum H-alpha equivalent width (R_EW), and the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean (sigma_EW/), exhibits a rapid rise from M0 to M5, followed by a plateau and a possible decline in M9 objects. In particular, R_EW increases from a median value of about 1.8 for M0-M3 to about 2.5 for M7-M9, and variability with R_EW>10 is only observed in objects later than M5. For the combined sample we find that the R_EW values follow an exponential distribution with N(R_EW) exp[-(R_EW-1)/2]; for M5-M9 objects the characteristic scale is R_EW-1\approx 2.7, indicative of stronger variability. In addition, we find that objects with persistent H-alpha emission exhibit smaller values of R_EW than those with intermittent H-alpha emission. Based on these results we conclude that H-alpha variability in M dwarfs on timescales of 15 min to 1 hr increases with later spectral type, and that the variability is larger for intermittent sources., Comment: Submitted to ApJ; 20 pages, 15 figures

Astronomy is changing. Large projects, large collaborations, and large budgets are becoming the norm. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is one example of this new astronomy, and in operating the original survey, we put in place and learned many valuable operating principles. Scientists sometimes have the tendency to invent everything themselves but when budgets are large, deadlines are many, and both are tight, learning from others and applying it appropriately can make the difference between success and failure. We offer here our experiences well as our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs on what we learned in operating the SDSS., Comment: Conference Proceedings, SPIE 2008

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) has embarked on a multi-year project to identify and measure light curves for intermediate-redshift (0.05 < z < 0.35) Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) using repeated five-band (ugriz) imaging over an area of 300 sq. deg. The survey region is a stripe 2.5 degrees wide centered on the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap that has been imaged numerous times in earlier years, enabling construction of a deep reference image for discovery of new objects. Supernova imaging observations are being acquired between 1 September and 30 November of 2005-7. During the first two seasons, each region was imaged on average every five nights. Spectroscopic follow-up observations to determine supernova type and redshift are carried out on a large number of telescopes. In its first two three-month seasons, the survey has discovered and measured light curves for 327 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia, 30 probable SNe Ia, 14 confirmed SNe Ib/c, 32 confirmed SNe II, plus a large number of photometrically identified SNe Ia, 94 of which have host-galaxy spectra taken so far. This paper provides an overview of the project and briefly describes the observations completed during the first two seasons of operation., Comment: Submitted to The Astronomical Journal (24 pages, 10 figures)

With the imminent advent of mesoscopic rotating BECs in the lowest Landau level (LLL) regime, we explore LLL vortex nucleation. An exact many-body analysis is presented in a weakly elliptical trap for up to 400 particles. Striking non-mean field features are exposed at filling factors >>1 . Eg near the critical rotation frequency pairs of energy levels approach each other with exponential accuracy. A physical interpretation is provided by requantising a mean field theory, where 1/N plays the role of Planck's constant, revealing two vortices cooperatively tunneling between classically degenerate energy minima. The tunnel splitting variation is described in terms of frequency, particle number and ellipticity., Comment: 4 pages,4 figures

The recent progress towards production of near-ground state quantum-degenerate molecules raises the issue of how such "small" molecules behave in an optical lattice. In this Letter we show that the coupling of the molecular orientation to the local electric field direction will provide severalnew phenomena. In the case where the lasers forming different crystallographic directions of the lattice are incoherent, the orientation of the molecules is conserved (for L = 1) and a novel form of anisotropic superfluidity can be expected. When the lasers are coherent, and the optical lattice is such that the splitting of the rotational levels is large compared to the centre of mass energies,an adiabaic description of the molecular orientation is appropriate. This leads to geometric vector potentials, pseudo-magnetic monopoles and a frustrated band structure with degenerate minima., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure

We present an algorithm to photometrically calibrate wide field optical imaging surveys, that simultaneously solves for the calibration parameters and relative stellar fluxes using overlapping observations. The algorithm decouples the problem of "relative" calibrations, from that of "absolute" calibrations; the absolute calibration is reduced to determining a few numbers for the entire survey. We pay special attention to the spatial structure of the calibration errors, allowing one to isolate particular error modes in downstream analyses. Applying this to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data, we achieve ~1% relative calibration errors across 8500 sq.deg. in griz; the errors are ~2% for the u band. These errors are dominated by unmodelled atmospheric variations at Apache Point Observatory. These calibrations, dubbed "ubercalibration", are now public with SDSS Data Release 6, and will be a part of subsequent SDSS data releases., Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, matches version accepted in ApJ. These calibrations are available at http://www.sdss.org/dr6

We discuss several results made possible by accurate SDSS astrometric measurements in a large sky area, with emphasis on asteroids and stellar proper motions obtained by comparing POSS and SDSS. SDSS has observed over 200,000 moving objects in five photometric bands, corresponding to about two orders of magnitude increase over previous multi--color surveys. These data were used to extend the measurement of asteroid size distribution to a smaller size limit, to demonstrate that asteroid dynamical families, defined as clusters in orbital parameter space, also strongly segregate in color space, and to discover a correlation between asteroid age and colors. A preliminary analysis of SDSS-POSS proper motions for about 1 million M dwarf stars demonstrates that, in the 0.1-1 kpc distance range, the rotational velocity and its dispersion for disk stars increase with the distance from the Galactic plane., Comment: 9 pages, color figures, presented at the meeting "Astrometry in the Era of the Next Generation of Large Telescopes", Flagstaff, Oct 18-20, 2004

In addition to optical photometry of unprecedented quality, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is also producing a massive spectroscopic database. We discuss determination of stellar parameters, such as effective temperature, gravity and metallicity from SDSS spectra, describe correlations between kinematics and metallicity, and study their variation as a function of the position in the Galaxy. We show that stellar parameter estimates by Beers et al. show a good correlation with the position of a star in the g-r vs. u-g color-color diagram, thereby demonstrating their robustness as well as a potential for photometric parameter estimation methods. Using Beers et al. parameters, we find that the metallicity distribution of the Milky Way stars at a few kpc from the galactic plane is bimodal with a local minimum at [Z/Zo]~ -1.3. The median metallicity for the low-metallicity [Z/Zo]<-1.3 subsample is nearly independent of Galactic cylindrical coordinates R and z, while it decreases with z for the high-metallicity [Z/Zo]> -1.3 sample. We also find that the low-metallicity sample has ~2.5 times larger velocity dispersion and that it does not rotate (at the ~10 km/s level), while the rotational velocity of the high-metallicity sample decreases smoothly with the height above the galactic plane., Comment: 8 pages, color figures, presented at the IAU Joint Discussion 13: "Exploiting Large Surveys for Galactic Astronomy", Prag, August 22-23, 2006

We compare Stetson's photometric standards with measurements listed in a standard star catalog constructed using repeated SDSS imaging observations. The SDSS catalog includes over 700,000 candidate standard stars from the equatorial stripe 82 (|Dec|<1.266 deg) in the RA range 20h 34' to 4h 00', and with the $r$ band magnitudes in the range 14--21. The distributions of measurements for individual sources demonstrate that the SDSS photometric pipeline correctly estimates random photometric errors, which are below 0.01 mag for stars brighter than (19.5, 20.5, 20.5, 20, 18.5) in ugriz, respectively (about twice as good as for individual SDSS runs). We derive mean photometric transformations between the SDSS gri and the BVRI system using 1165 Stetson stars found in the equatorial stripe 82, and then study the spatial variation of the difference in zeropoints between the two catalogs. Using third order polynomials to describe the color terms, we find that photometric measurements for main-sequence stars can be transformed between the two systems with systematic errors smaller than a few millimagnitudes. The spatial variation of photometric zeropoints in the two catalogs typically does not exceed 0.01 magnitude. Consequently, the SDSS Standard Star Catalog for Stripe 82 can be used to calibrate new data in both the SDSS ugriz and the BVRI systems with a similar accuracy., Comment: 10 pages, color figures, presented at the meeting "The Future of Photometric, Spectrophotometric, and Polarimetric Standardization", Blankenberge, May 8-11, 2006

We measure the large-scale real-space power spectrum P(k) using luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and use this measurement to sharpen constraints on cosmological parameters from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We employ a matrix-based power spectrum estimation method using Pseudo-Karhunen-Loeve eigenmodes, producing uncorrelated minimum-variance measurements in 20 k-bands of both the clustering power and its anisotropy due to redshift-space distortions, with narrow and well-behaved window functions in the range 0.01h/Mpc < k < 0.2h/Mpc. Results from the LRG and main galaxy samples are consistent, with the former providing higher signal-to-noise. Our results are robust to omitting angular and radial density fluctuations and are consistent between different parts of the sky. They provide a striking confirmation of the predicted large-scale LCDM power spectrum. Combining only SDSS LRG and WMAP data places robust constraints on many cosmological parameters that complement prior analyses of multiple data sets. The LRGs provide independent cross-checks on Om and the baryon fraction in good agreement with WMAP. Within the context of flat LCDM models, our LRG measurements complement WMAP by sharpening the constraints on the matter density, the neutrino density and the tensor amplitude by about a factor of two, giving Omega_m=0.24+-0.02 (1 sigma), sum m_nu < 0.9 eV (95%) and r<0.3 (95%). Baryon oscillations are clearly detected and provide a robust measurement of the comoving distance to the median survey redshift z=0.35 independent of curvature and dark energy properties. Within the LCDM framework, our power spectrum measurement improves the evidence for spatial flatness, sharpening the curvature constraint Omega_tot=1.05+-0.05 from WMAP alone to Omega_tot=1.003+-0.010. Assuming Omega_tot=1, the equation of state parameter is constrained to w=-0.94+-0.09, indicating the potential for more ambitious future LRG measurements to provide precision tests of the nature of dark energy. All these constraints are essentially independent of scales k>0.1h/Mpc and associated nonlinear complications, yet agree well with more aggressive published analyses where nonlinear modeling is crucial., Comment: Matches accepted PRD version. SDSS data, likelihood code, Markov chains and ppt figures available at http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/sdss.html 36 journal pages, 25 figs. CosmoMC plugin at http://cosmologist.info/cosmomc/

The photometric calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is a multi-step process which involves data from three different telescopes: the 1.0-m telescope at the US Naval Observatory (USNO), Flagstaff Station, Arizona (which was used to establish the SDSS standard star network); the SDSS 0.5-m Photometric Telescope (PT) at the Apache Point Observatory (APO), New Mexico (which calculates nightly extinctions and calibrates secondary patch transfer fields); and the SDSS 2.5-m telescope at APO (which obtains the imaging data for the SDSS proper). In this paper, we describe the Monitor Telescope Pipeline, MTPIPE, the software pipeline used in processing the data from the single-CCD telescopes used in the photometric calibration of the SDSS (i.e., the USNO 1.0-m and the PT). We also describe transformation equations that convert photometry on the USNO-1.0m u'g'r'i'z' system to photometry the SDSS 2.5m ugriz system and the results of various validation tests of the MTPIPE software. Further, we discuss the semi-automated PT factory, which runs MTPIPE in the day-to-day standard SDSS operations at Fermilab. Finally, we discuss the use of MTPIPE in current SDSS-related projects, including the Southern u'g'r'i'z' Standard Star project, the u'g'r'i'z' Open Star Clusters project, and the SDSS extension (SDSS-II)., Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures (1 color), accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten

We discuss the panchromatic properties of 99,088 galaxies selected from the SDSS Data Release 1 spectroscopic sample (a flux-limited sample for 1360 deg^2). These galaxies are positionally matched to sources detected by ROSAT, GALEX, 2MASS, IRAS, GB6, FIRST, NVSS and WENSS. We find strong correlations between the detection fraction at other wavelengths and optical properties such as flux, colors, and emission-line strengths. Using GALEX, SDSS, and 2MASS data, we construct the UV-IR broad-band spectral energy distributions for various types of galaxies, and find that they form a nearly one-parameter family. For example, based on SDSS u- and r-band data, supplemented with redshift, the K-band 2MASS magnitudes can be "predicted" with an rms scatter of only 0.2 mag. When a dust content estimate determined from SDSS data by Kauffmann et al. (2003) is also utilized, this scatter decreases to 0.1 mag. We demonstrate that this dust content is indeed higher for galaxies detected by IRAS and that it can be used to "predict" measured IRAS 60 micron flux density within a factor of two using only SDSS data. We also show that the position of a galaxy in the emission-line-based Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich diagram is correlated with the optical light concentration index and u-r color determined from the SDSS broad-band imaging data, and discuss changes in the morphology of this diagram induced by requiring detections at other wavelengths. We study the IR-radio correlation and find evidence that its slope may be different for AGN and star-forming galaxies and related to the H_alpha/H_beta line strength ratio., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 25 pages, 32 color figures

We synthesize the rest-frame Stroemgren colors using SDSS spectra for 99,088 galaxies selected from Data Release 1. This narrow-band ~200 AA photometric system (uz, vz, bz, yz), first designed for the determination of effective temperature, metallicity and gravity of stars, measures the continuum spectral slope of galaxies in the rest-frame 3200-5800 AA wavelength range. Galaxies form a remarkably narrow locus (~0.03 mag) in the resulting color-color diagram. The Bruzual & Charlot population synthesis models suggest that the position of a galaxy along this locus is controlled by a degenerate combination of metallicity and age of the dominant stellar population. Galaxy distribution along the locus is bimodal, with the local minimum corresponding to an ~1 Gyr old single stellar population. The position perpendicular to the locus is independent of metallicity and age, and reflects the galaxy's dust content, as implied by both the models and the statistics of IRAS detections. A comparison of this locus with the galaxy locus in the H_delta-D_n(4000) diagram, utilized by Kauffmann et al. (2003) to estimate stellar masses, reveals a tight correlation, although the two analyzed spectral ranges barely overlap. Overall, the galaxy spectral energy distribution in the entire UV to near-IR range can be described as a single-parameter family with an accuracy of 0.1 mag, or better. This nearly one-dimensional distribution of galaxies in the multi-dimensional space of measured parameters strongly supports the conclusion of Yip et al. (2004), based on a principal component analysis, that SDSS galaxy spectra can be described by a small number of eigenspectra. Apparently, the contributions of stellar populations that dominate the optical emission from galaxies are combined in a simple and well-defined way., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 19 pages, 28 color figures

We present the 3D real space clustering power spectrum of a sample of \~600,000 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), using photometric redshifts. This sample of galaxies ranges from redshift z=0.2 to 0.6 over 3,528 deg^2 of the sky, probing a volume of 1.5 (Gpc/h)^3, making it the largest volume ever used for galaxy clustering measurements. We measure the angular clustering power spectrum in eight redshift slices and combine these into a high precision 3D real space power spectrum from k=0.005 (h/Mpc) to k=1 (h/Mpc). We detect power on gigaparsec scales, beyond the turnover in the matter power spectrum, on scales significantly larger than those accessible to current spectroscopic redshift surveys. We also find evidence for baryonic oscillations, both in the power spectrum, as well as in fits to the baryon density, at a 2.5 sigma confidence level. The statistical power of these data to constrain cosmology is ~1.7 times better than previous clustering analyses. Varying the matter density and baryon fraction, we find \Omega_M = 0.30 \pm 0.03, and \Omega_b/\Omega_M = 0.18 \pm 0.04, The detection of baryonic oscillations also allows us to measure the comoving distance to z=0.5; we find a best fit distance of 1.73 \pm 0.12 Gpc, corresponding to a 6.5% error on the distance. These results demonstrate the ability to make precise clustering measurements with photometric surveys (abridged)., Comment: 23 pages, 27 figures, submitted to MNRAS

In rapidly rotating bose systems we show that there is a region of anomalous hydrodynamics whilst the system is still condensed, which coincides with the mean field quantum Hall regime. An immediate consequence is the absence of a normal fluid in any conventional sense. However, even the superfluid hydrodynamics is not described by conventional Bernoulli and continuity equations. We show there are kinematic constraints which connect spatial variations of density and phase, that the positions of vortices are not the simplest description of the dynamics of such a fluid (despite their utility in describing the instantaneous state of the condensate) and that the most compact description allows solution of some illuminating examples of motion. We demonstrate, inter alia, a very simple relation between vortices and surface waves. We show the surface waves can form a "normal fluid" which absorbs energy and angular momentum from vortex motion in the trap. The time scale of this process is sensitive to the initial configuration of the vortices, which can lead to long-lived vortex patches - perhaps related to those observed at JILA., Comment: 4 pages; 1 sentence and references modified

We have used the 2dF instrument on the AAT to obtain redshifts of a sample of z<3, 18.021 deep surveys. The 2SLAQ data exhibit no well defined ``break'' but do clearly flatten with increasing magnitude. The shape of the quasar luminosity function derived from 2SLAQ is in good agreement with that derived from type I quasars found in hard X-ray surveys. [Abridged], Comment: MNRAS, accepted; 15 pg., 14 fig. (9 color); high res. version at http://sdss2df.ncsa.uiuc.edu/publications/refereed/gtrichards_2SLAQ_QLF.ps

We present the third edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog. The catalog consists of the 46,420 objects in the SDSS Third Data Release that have luminosities larger than M_i = -22 (in a cosmology with H_0 = 70 km/s/Mpc, Omega_M = 0.3, and Omega_Lambda = 0.7), have at least one emission line with FWHM larger than 1000 km/s or are unambiguously broad absorption line quasars, are fainter than i = 15.0, and have highly reliable redshifts. The area covered by the catalog is 4188 sq. deg. The quasar redshifts range from 0.08 to 5.41, with a median value of 1.47; the high-redshift sample includes 520 quasars at redshifts greater than four, of which 17 are at redshifts greater than five. For each object the catalog presents positions accurate to better than 0.2 arcsec. rms per coordinate, five-band (ugriz) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag, and information on the morphology and selection method. The catalog also contains radio, near-infrared, and X-ray emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra cover the wavelength region 3800--9200A at a spectral resolution about 2000; the spectra can be retrieved from the public database using the information provided in the catalog. A total of 44,221 objects in the catalog were discovered by the SDSS; 28,400 of the SDSS discoveries are reported here for the first time., Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in AJ

We present the large-scale correlation function measured from a spectroscopic sample of 46,748 luminous red galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The survey region covers 0.72 h^{-3} Gpc^3 over 3816 square degrees and 0.16

Understanding of the scrape-off layer (SOL) physics in tokamaks requires diagnostics with sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. This contribution describes results of experiments performed in the SOL of the CASTOR tokamak (R=40 cm, a = 6 cm) by means of a ring of 124 Langmuir probes surrounding the whole poloidal cross section. The individual probes measure either the ion saturation current of the floating potential with the spatial resolution up to 3 mm. Experiments are performed in a particular magnetic configuration, characterized by a long parallel connection length in the SOL, L_par ~q2piR. We report on measurements in discharges, where the edge electric field is modified by inserting a biased electrode into the edge plasma. In particular, a complex picture is observed, if the biased electrode is located inside the SOL. The poloidal distribution of the floating potential appears to be strongly non-uniform at biasing. The peaks of potential are observed at particular poloidal angles. This is interpreted as formation of a biased flux tube, which emanates from the electrode along the magnetic field lines and snakes q times around the torus. The resulting electric field in the SOL is 2-dimensional, having the radial as well as the poloidal component. It is demonstrated that the poloidal electric field E_pol convects the edge plasma radially due to the E_pol x B_T drift either inward or outward depending on its sign. The convective particle flux is by two orders of magnitude larger than the fluctuation-induced one and consequently dominates., Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France)

We summarize the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data acquisition and processing steps, and describe runQA, a pipeline designed for automated data quality assessment. In particular, we show how the position of the stellar locus in color-color diagrams can be used to estimate the accuracy of photometric zeropoint calibration to better than 0.01 mag in 0.03 deg2 patches. Using this method, we estimate that typical photometric zeropoint calibration errors for SDSS imaging data are not larger than ~0.01 mag in the g, r, and i bands, 0.02 mag in the z band, and 0.03 mag in the u band (root-mean-scatter for zeropoint offsets)., Comment: 7 pages, color figures, published in AN 325, No. 6-8, 583-589

We study the luminosity and color dependence of the galaxy 2-point correlation function in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, starting from a sample of 200,000 galaxies over 2500 deg^2. We concentrate on the projected correlation function w(r_p), which is directly related to the real space \xi(r). The amplitude of w(r_p) grows continuously with luminosity, rising more steeply above the characteristic luminosity L_*. Redder galaxies exhibit a higher amplitude and steeper correlation function at all luminosities. The correlation amplitude of blue galaxies increases continuously with luminosity, but the luminosity dependence for red galaxies is less regular, with bright red galaxies more strongly clustered at large scales and faint red galaxies more strongly clustered at small scales. We interpret these results using halo occupation distribution (HOD) models assuming concordance cosmological parameters. For most samples, an HOD model with two adjustable parameters fits the w(r_p) data better than a power-law, explaining inflections at r_p ~ 1-3 Mpc/h as the transition between the 1-halo and 2-halo regimes of \xi(r). The implied minimum mass for a halo hosting a central galaxy above a luminosity threshold L grows as M_min ~ L at low luminosities and more steeply above L_*. The mass at which an average halo has one satellite galaxy brighter than L is M_1 ~ 23 M_min(L). These results imply a conditional luminosity function (at fixed halo mass) in which central galaxies lie far above a Schechter function extrapolation of the satellite population. HOD models nicely explain the joint luminosity-color dependence of w(r_p) in terms of the color fractions of central and satellite populations as a function of halo mass. The inferred HOD properties are in good qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions., Comment: 64 pages, 24 figures. Minor changes to match accepted ApJ version

We combine the constraints from the recent Ly-alpha forest and bias analysis of the SDSS with previous constraints from SDSS galaxy clustering, the latest supernovae, and WMAP . Combining WMAP and the lya we find for the primordial slope n_s=0.98\pm 0.02. We see no evidence of running, dn/d\ln k=-0.003\pm 0.010, a factor of 3 improvement over previous constraints. We also find no evidence of tensors, r<0.36 (95% c.l.). A positive correlation between tensors and primordial slope disfavors chaotic inflation type models with steep slopes: V \propto \phi^4 is outside the 3-sigma contour. For the amplitude we find sigma_8=0.90\pm 0.03 from the lyaf and WMAP alone. We find no evidence of neutrino mass: for the case of 3 massive neutrino families with an inflationary prior, \sum m_{\nu}<0.42eV and the mass of lightest neutrino is m_1<0.13eV at 95% c.l. For the 3 massless + 1 massive neutrino case we find m_{\nu}<0.79eV for the massive neutrino, excluding at 95% c.l. all neutrino mass solutions compatible with the LSND results. We explore dark energy constraints in models with a fairly general time dependence of dark energy equation of state, finding Omega_lambda=0.72\pm 0.02, w(z=0.3)=-0.98^{+0.10}_{-0.12}, the latter changing to w(z=0.3)=-0.92^{+0.09}_{-0.10} if tensors are allowed. We find no evidence for variation of the equation of state with redshift, w(z=1)=-1.03^{+0.21}_{-0.28}. These results rely on the current understanding of the lyaf and other probes, which need to be explored further both observationally and theoretically, but extensive tests reveal no evidence of inconsistency among different data sets used here., Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, submitted to PRD

We summarize the detection rates at wavelengths other than optical for \~99,000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 1 ``main'' spectroscopic sample. The analysis is based on positional cross-correlation with source catalogs from ROSAT, 2MASS, IRAS, GB6, FIRST, NVSS and WENSS surveys. We find that the rest-frame UV-IR broad-band galaxy SEDs form a remarkably uniform, nearly one parameter, family. As an example, the SDSS u and r band data, supplemented with redshift, can be used to predict K band magnitudes measured by 2MASS with an rms scatter of only 0.2 mag; when measurement uncertainties are taken into account, the astrophysical scatter appears not larger than ~0.1 mag., Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure. To appear in "The Interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galactic Nuclei", Proc. IAU 222 (Gramado, Brazil), eds. Th. Storchi Bergmann, L.C. Ho, H.R. Schmitt

We analyze the properties of quasar variability using repeated SDSS imaging data in five UV-to-far red photometric bands, accurate to 0.02 mag, for 13,000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars. The observed time lags span the range from 3 hours to over 3 years, and constrain the quasar variability for rest-frame time lags of up to two years, and at rest-frame wavelengths from 1000 Ang. to 6000 Ang. We demonstrate that 66,000 SDSS measurements of magnitude differences can be described within the measurement noise by a simple function of only three free parameters. The addition of POSS data constrains the long-term behavior of quasar variability and provides evidence for a turn-over in the structure function. This turn-over indicates that the characteristic time scale for optical variability of quasars is of the order 1 year., Comment: 2 pages, 2 color figures, "Proceedings IAU Symposium 222: The Interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galactic Nuclei", submitted

We present a study of variable faint optical sources discovered by comparing the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) catalogs. We use SDSS measurements to photometrically recalibrate several publicly available POSS catalogs; a piecewise recalibration in 100 arcmin2 patches generally results in an improvement of photometric accuracy (rms) by nearly a factor of two, compared to the original data. The POSS I magnitudes can be improved to ~0.15 mag accuracy, and POSS II magnitudes to \~0.10 mag accuracy. We use the recalibrated catalogs for the ~2,000 deg2 of sky in the SDSS Data Release 1 to construct a catalog of ~60,000 sources variable on time scales 10-50 years. A series of statistical tests based on the morphology of SDSS color-color diagrams, as well as visual comparison of images and comparison with repeated SDSS observations, demonstrate the robustness of the selection methods. We quantify the distribution of variable sources in the SDSS color-color diagrams, and the variability characteristics of quasars. We detect a turn-over in quasar structure function which suggests that the characteristic time scale for quasar variability is of the order one year. The long-term (>1 year) quasar variability decreases with luminosity and rest-frame wavelength similarly to the short-term (<1 year) behavior. We also demonstrate that candidate RR Lyrae stars trace the same halo structures, such as the Sgr dwarf tidal stream, that were discovered using repeated SDSS observations. We utilize the POSS-SDSS selected candidates to constrain the halo structure in the parts of sky for which repeated SDSS observations do not exist. (abridged), Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, submitted to AJ, high res. available as http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~ivezic/0403319.ps

We positionally match the 6 cm GB6, 20 cm FIRST and NVSS, and 92 cm WENSS radio catalogs and find 16,500 matches in ~3,000 deg2 of sky. Using this unified radio database, we construct radio "color-magnitude-morphology" diagrams and find that they display a clear structure, rather than a random scatter. We propose a simple, yet powerful, method for morphological classification of radio sources based on FIRST and NVSS measurements. For a subset of matched sources, we find optical identifications using the SDSS Data Release 1 catalogs, and separate them into quasars and galaxies. Compact radio sources with flat radio spectra are dominated by quasars, while compact sources with steep spectra, and resolved radio sources, contain substantial numbers of both quasars and galaxies., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of "Multiwavelength AGN Surveys", Cozumel, Dec 8 - 12, 2003

We report the discovery of a locus of stars in the SDSS g-r vs. u-g color-color diagram that connects the colors of white dwarfs and M dwarfs. While its contrast with respect to the main stellar locus is only ~1:2300, this previously unrecognized feature includes 863 stars from the SDSS Data Release 1. The position and shape of the feature are in good agreement with predictions of a simple binary star model that consists of a white dwarf and an M dwarf, with the components' luminosity ratio controlling the position along this binary system locus. SDSS DR1 spectra for 47 of these objects strongly support this model. The absolute magnitude--color distribution inferred for the white dwarf component is in good agreement with the models of Bergeron et al. (1995)., Comment: submitted to ApJ, 4 pages, 4 color figures

We report the first successful application of the astrometric color-induced displacement technique (CID, the displacement of the photocenter between different bandpasses due to a varying contribution of differently colored components to the total light), originally proposed by Wielen (1996) for discovering unresolved binary stars. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 1 with 2.5 million stars brighter than 21m in the u and g bands, we select 419 candidate binary stars with CID greater than 0.5 arcsec. The SDSS colors of the majority of these candidates are consistent with binary systems including a white dwarf and any main sequence star with spectral type later than ~K7. The astrometric CID method discussed here is complementary to the photometric selection of binary stars in SDSS discussed by Smolcic et al. (2004), but there is considerable overlap (15%) between the two samples of selected candidates. This overlap testifies both to the physical soundness of both methods, as well as to the astrometric and photometric quality of SDSS data., Comment: submitted to A&A, 13 pages, 6 figures

Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for the study of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. The cold-dark-matter model of the formation of large-scale structures predicts the existence of quasars gravitationally lensed by concentrations of dark matter so massive that the quasar images would be split by over 7 arcsec. Numerous searches for large-separation lensed quasars have, however, been unsuccessful. All of the roughly 70 lensed quasars known, including the first lensed quasar discovered, have smaller separations that can be explained in terms of galaxy-scale concentrations of baryonic matter. Although gravitationally lensed galaxies with large separations are known, quasars are more useful cosmological probes because of the simplicity of the resulting lens systems. Here we report the discovery of a lensed quasar, SDSS J1004+4112, which has a maximum separation between the components of 14.62 arcsec. Such a large separation means that the lensing object must be dominated by dark matter. Our results are fully consistent with theoretical expectations based on the cold-dark-matter model., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the 18th&25th Dec issue of Nature (Letters to Nature)

We study the recently discovered gravitational lens SDSS J1004+4112, the first quasar lensed by a cluster of galaxies. It consists of four images with a maximum separation of 14.62''. The system has been confirmed as a lensed quasar at z=1.734 on the basis of deep imaging and spectroscopic follow-up observations. We present color-magnitude relations for galaxies near the lens plus spectroscopy of three central cluster members, which unambiguously confirm that a cluster at z=0.68 is responsible for the large image separation. We find a wide range of lens models consistent with the data, but they suggest four general conclusions: (1) the brightest cluster galaxy and the center of the cluster potential well appear to be offset by several kpc; (2) the cluster mass distribution must be elongated in the North--South direction, which is consistent with the observed distribution of cluster galaxies; (3) the inference of a large tidal shear (~0.2) suggests significant substructure in the cluster; and (4) enormous uncertainty in the predicted time delays between the images means that measuring the delays would greatly improve constraints on the models. We also compute the probability of such large separation lensing in the SDSS quasar sample, on the basis of the CDM model. The lack of large separation lenses in previous surveys and the discovery of one in SDSS together imply a mass fluctuation normalization \sigma_8=1.0^{+0.4}_{-0.2} (95% CL), if cluster dark matter halos have an inner slope -1.5. Shallower profiles would require higher values of \sigma_8. Although the statistical conclusion might be somewhat dependent on the degree of the complexity of the lens potential, the discovery is consistent with the predictions of the abundance of cluster-scale halos in the CDM scenario. (Abridged), Comment: 21 pages, 24 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a ``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt, tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened., Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.html

We measure the large-scale real-space power spectrum P(k) using a sample of 205,443 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, covering 2417 square degrees with mean redshift z~0.1. We employ a matrix-based method using pseudo-Karhunen-Loeve eigenmodes, producing uncorrelated minimum-variance measurements in 22 k-bands of both the clustering power and its anisotropy due to redshift-space distortions, with narrow and well-behaved window functions in the range 0.02 h/Mpc < k < 0.3h/Mpc. We pay particular attention to modeling, quantifying and correcting for potential systematic errors, nonlinear redshift distortions and the artificial red-tilt caused by luminosity-dependent bias. Our final result is a measurement of the real-space matter power spectrum P(k) up to an unknown overall multiplicative bias factor. Our calculations suggest that this bias factor is independent of scale to better than a few percent for k<0.1h/Mpc, thereby making our results useful for precision measurements of cosmological parameters in conjunction with data from other experiments such as the WMAP satellite. As a simple characterization of the data, our measurements are well fit by a flat scale-invariant adiabatic cosmological model with h Omega_m =0.201+/- 0.017 and L* galaxy sigma_8=0.89 +/- 0.02 when fixing the baryon fraction Omega_b/Omega_m=0.17 and the Hubble parameter h=0.72; cosmological interpretation is given in a companion paper., Comment: 41 ApJ pages, 40 figs. Power spectrum data, likelihood software and ppt pics available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspower.html

We analyze the counts of low-redshift quasar candidates selected using nine-epoch SDSS imaging data. The co-added catalogs are more than 1 mag deeper than single-epoch SDSS data, and allow the selection of low-redshift quasar candidates using UV-excess and also variability techniques. The counts of selected candidates are robustly determined down to g=21.5. This is about 2 magnitudes deeper than the position of a change in the slope of the counts reported by Boyle et al. (1990, 2000) for a sample selected by UV-excess, and questioned by Hawkins & Veron (1995), who utilized a variability-selected sample. Using SDSS data, we confirm a change in the slope of the counts for both UV-excess and variability selected samples, providing strong support for the Boyle et al. results., Comment: to be published in the Proceedings of "AGN Physics with the SDSS"