We employ robust weak gravitational lensing measurements to improve cosmological constraints from measurements of the galaxy cluster mass function and its evolution, using X-ray selected clusters detected in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. Our lensing analysis constrains the absolute mass scale of such clusters at the 8 per cent level, including both statistical and systematic uncertainties. Combining it with the survey data and X-ray follow-up observations, we find a tight constraint on a combination of the mean matter density and late-time normalization of the matter power spectrum, σ 8 (Ω m /0.3) 0.17 = 0.81 ± 0.03, with marginalized, one-dimensional constraints of Ω m = 0.26 ± 0.03 and σ 8 = 0.83 ± 0.04. For these two parameters, this represents a factor of two improvement in precision with respect to previous work, primarily due to the reduced systematic uncertainty in the absolute mass calibration provided by the lensing analysis. Our new results are in good agreement with constraints from cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, both WMAP and Planck (plus WMAP polarization), under the assumption of a flat ΛCDM cosmology with minimal neutrino mass. Consequently, we find no evidence for non-minimal neutrino mass from the combination of cluster data with CMB, supernova and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements, regardless of which all-sky CMB data set is used (and independent of the recent claimed detection of B-modes on degree scales). We also present improved constraints on models of dark energy (both constant and evolving), modifications of gravity, and primordial non-Gaussianity. Assuming flatness, the constraints for a constant dark energy equation of state from the cluster data alone are at the 15 per cent level, improving to ∼ 6 per cent when the cluster data are combined with other leading probes.

consumption by identifying milk from infected animals. Furthermore, the somatic cell count (SCC) in milk is used to monitor general udder health as a means of health improvement. As a result, measurement of SSC is one of the most frequently applied measurements made on milk.For general schemes, SSC is usually measured by optical instruments that detect and count fluorescently stained cells. The instruments are calibrated using reference samples that are counted using the reference method. This bulletin reports on an international collaborative study in which the reproducibility and repeatability of the current reference method was evaluated. The results revealed that there was considerable variability in the results of SSC on well defined reference samples. In view of the importance of SSC, suggestions were made for its improvement and a paper is presented dealing with strategies by which the reference method might be refined.This bulletin is essential reading for all reference laboratories in the milk and milk products sector, and would be a useful addition to the book shelf of all routine laboratories.

We derive a general expression for the probability of observing deviations from statistical isotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) if the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian and extend to superhorizon scales. The primary motivation is to properly characterize the monopole and dipole modulations of the primordial power spectrum that are generated by the coupling between superhorizon and subhorizon perturbations. Unlike previous proposals for generating the hemispherical power asymmetry, we do not assume that the power asymmetry results from a single large superhorizon mode. Instead, we extrapolate the observed power spectrum to superhorizon scales and compute the power asymmetry that would result from a specific realization of non-Gaussian perturbations on scales larger than the observable universe. Our study encompasses many of the scenarios that have been put forward as possible explanations for the CMB hemispherical power asymmetry. We confirm our analytic predictions for the probability of a given power asymmetry by comparing them to numerical realizations of CMB maps. We find that non-local models of nonGaussianity and scale-dependent local non-Gaussianity produce scale-dependent modulations of the power spectrum, thereby potentially producing both a monopolar and a dipolar power modulation on large scales. We then provide simple examples of finding the posterior distributions for the parameters of the bispectrum from the observed monopole and dipole modulations.

Recently, it was shown that local variance maps of temperature anisotropy are simple and useful tools for the study of large scale hemispherical power asymmetry. This was done by studying the distribution of dipoles of the local variance maps. In this work, we extend the study of the dipolar asymmetry in local variance maps using foreground cleaned Planck 143 GHz and 217 GHz data to smaller scales. In doing so, we include the effect of the CMB Doppler dipole. Further, we show that it is possible to use local variance maps to measure the Doppler dipole in these Planck channel maps, after removing large scale features (up to l = 600), at a significance of about 3σ. At these small scales, we do not find any power asymmetry in the direction of the anomalous large scale power asymmetry beyond that expected from cosmic variance. At large scales, we verify previous results i.e. the presence of hemispherical power asymmetry at a significance of at least 3.3σ.

We study the covariance in the angular power spectrum estimates of CMB fluctuations when the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian. The non-Gaussian covariance comes from a nonzero connected four-point correlation function -or the trispectrum in Fourier space -and can be large when long-wavelength (super-CMB) modes are strongly coupled to short-wavelength modes. The effect of such non-Gaussian covariance can be modeled through additional freedom in the theoretical CMB angular power spectrum and can lead to different inferred values of the standard cosmological parameters relative to those in ΛCDM. Taking the collapsed limit of the primordial trispectrum in the quasi-single field inflation model as an example, we study how the six standard ΛCDM parameters shift when two additional parameters describing the trispectrum are allowed. We find that the combination of Planck temperature data along with type Ia supernovae from Panstarrs and the distance-ladder measurement of the Hubble constant shows strong evidence for a primordial trispectrum-induced non-Gaussian covariance, with a likelihood improvement of ∆χ 2 ≈ −15 relative to ΛCDM. The improvement is driven by Planck data's preference for a higher lensing amplitude, which leads to an upward shift of the Planck-inferred Hubble constant.