Galaxy Bias and $\sigma_8$ from Counts in Cells from the SDSS Main
  Sample
  The counts-in-cells (CIC) galaxy probability distribution depends on both the
dark matter clustering amplitude $\sigma_8$ and the galaxy bias $b$. We present
a theory for the CIC distribution based on a previous prescription of the
underlying dark matter distribution and a linear volume transformation to
redshift space. We show that, unlike the power spectrum, the CIC distribution
breaks the degeneracy between $\sigma_8$ and $b$ on scales large enough that
both bias and redshift distortions are still linear; thus we obtain a
simultaneous fit for both parameters. We first validate the technique on the
Millennium Simulation and then apply it to the SDSS Main Galaxy Sample. We find
$\sigma_8 = 0.94^{+.11}_{-.10}$ and $b = 1.36^{+.14}_{-.11}$, consistent with
previous complementary results from redshift distortions and from Planck.
