A. Ealet

First direct observation of time-reversal non-invariance in the neutral-kaon system

Abstract We report on the first observation of time-reversal symmetry violation through a comparison of the probabilities of K 0 transforming into K0 and K0 into K 0 as a function of the neutral-kaon eigentime t. The comparison is based on the analysis of the neutral-kaon semileptonic decays recorded in the CPLEAR experiment. There, the strangeness of the neutral kaon at time t=0 was tagged by the kaon charge in the reaction p p → K ± π ∓ K 0 ( K 0 ) at rest, whereas the strangeness of the kaon at the decay time t=τ was tagged by the lepton charge in the final state. An average decay-rate asymmetry 〈 R( K 0 t=0 → e + π − ν t=τ )−R( K 0 t=0 → e − π + ν t=τ ) R( K 0 t=0 → e + π − ν t=τ )+R( K 0 t=0 → e − π + ν t=τ ) 〉=(6.6±1.3 stat ±1.0 syst )×10 −3 was measured over the interval 1 τ S τ S , thus leading to evidence for time-reversal non-invariance.

Designing future dark energy space missions - I. Building realistic galaxy spectro-photometric catalogs and their first applications

Context. Future dark energy space missions such as JDEM and EUCLID are being designed to survey the galaxy population to trace the geometry of the universe and the growth of structure, which both depend on the cosmological model. To reach the goal of high precision cosmology they need to evaluate the capabilities of different instrument designs based on realistic mock catalogs of the galaxy distribution. Aims. The aim of this paper is to construct realistic and flexible mock catalogs based on our knowledge of galaxy populations from current deep surveys. We explore two categories of mock catalogs: (i) based on luminosity functions that we fit to observations (GOODS, UDF, COSMOS, VVDS); (ii) based on the observed COSMOS galaxy distribution. Methods. The COSMOS mock catalog benefits from all the properties of the data-rich COSMOS survey and the highly accurate photometric redshift distribution based on 30-band photometry. Nevertheless this catalog is limited by the depth of the COSMOS survey. Thus, we also evaluate a mock galaxy catalog generated from luminosity functions using the Le Phare software. For these two catalogs, we have produced simulated number counts in several bands, color diagrams and redshift distributions for validation against real observational data. Results. Using these mock catalogs we derive some basic requirements to help design future Dark Energy missions in terms of the number of galaxies available for the weak-lensing analysis as a function of the PSF size and depth of the survey. We also compute the spectroscopic success rate for future spectroscopic redshift surveys (i) aiming at measuring BAO in the case of the wide field spectroscopic redshift survey, and (ii) for the photometric redshift calibration survey which is required to achieve weak lensing tomography with great accuracy. In particular, we demonstrate that for the photometric redshift calibration, using only NIR (1–1.7 µm) spectroscopy, we cannot achieve a complete spectroscopic survey down to the limit of the photometric survey (I < 25.5). Extending the wavelength coverage of the spectroscopic survey to cover 0.6–1.7 µm will then improve the fraction of very secure spectroscopic redshifts to nearly 80% of the galaxies, making possible a very accurate photometric redshift calibration. Conclusions. We have produced two realistic mock galaxy catalogs that can be used in determining the best survey strategy for future dark-energy missions in terms of photometric redshift accuracy and spectroscopic redshift surveys yield. These catalogues are publicly accessible at http://lamwws.oamp.fr/cosmowiki/RealisticSpectroPhotCat, or 
at the CDS.

An EPR experiment testing the non-separability of the wave function

Abstract The EPR-type strangeness correlation in the K0 K 0 system produced in the reaction p p → K 0 K 0 at rest has been tested using the CPLEAR detector. The strangeness was tagged via strong interaction with absorbers away from the creation point. The results are consistent with the QM non-separability of the wave function and exclude a spontaneous wave-function factorisation at creation (CL >99.99%).

Tests of CPT symmetry and quantum mechanics with experimental data from CPLEAR

Abstract We use fits to recent published CPLEAR data on neutral kaon decays to π + π − and πeν to constrain the CPT-violation parameters appearing in a formulation of the neutral kaon system as an open quantum-mechanical system. The obtained upper limits of the CPT-violation parameters are approaching the range suggested by certain ideas concerning quantum gravity.

Euclid: ESA's mission to map the geometry of the dark universe

Euclid is a space-borne survey mission developed and operated by ESA. It is designed to understand the origin of the Universes accelerating expansion. Euclid will use cosmological probes to investigate the nature of dark energy, dark matter and gravity by tracking their observational signatures on the geometry of the Universe and on the history of structure formation. The mission is optimised for the measurement of two independent cosmological probes: weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering. The payload consists of a 1.2 m Korsch telescope designed to provide a large field of view. The light is directed to two instruments provided by the Euclid Consortium: a visual imager (VIS) and a near-infrared spectrometer-photometer (NISP). Both instruments cover a large common field of view of 0.54 deg2, to be able to survey at least 15,000 deg2 for a nominal mission of 6 years. An overview of the mission will be presented: the scientific objectives, payload, satellite, and science operations. We report on the status of the Euclid mission with a foreseen launch in 2019.

Determination of the deceleration parameter from supernovae data

Supernovae searches have shown that a simple matter-dominated and decelerating universe should be ruled out. However, a determination of the present deceleration parameter

The 0.1 <z < 1.65 evolution of the bright end of the [O ii] luminosity function

{q}_{0}

Investigating Emission Line Galaxy Surveys with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Infrastructure

through a simple kinematical description is not exempt of possible drawbacks. We show that, with a time dependent equation of state for the dark energy, a bias is present for

Physics at CPLEAR

{q}_{0}

Stochastic bias of colour-selected BAO tracers by joint clustering-weak lensing analysis

: models which are very far from the so-called concordance model can be accommodated by the data, and a simple kinematical analysis can lead to wrong conclusions. We present a quantitative treatment of this bias and we present our conclusions when a possible dynamical dark energy is taken into account.