105,661 research outputs found
Kinematic artifacts in prestack depth migration.
Strong refraction of waves in the migration velocity model introduces kinematic artifacts¿coherent events not corresponding to actual reflectors¿into the image volumes produced by prestack depth migration applied to individual data bins. Because individual bins are migrated independently, the migration has no access to the bin component of slowness. This loss of slowness information permits events to migrate along multiple incident-reflected ray pairs, thus introducing spurious coherent events into the image volume. This pathology occurs for all common binning strategies, including common-source, common-offset, and common-scattering angle. Since the artifacts move out with bin parameter, their effect on the final stacked image is minimal, provided that the migration velocity model is kinematically correct. However, common-image gathers may exhibit energetic primary events with substantial residual moveout, even with the kinematically accurate migration velocity model
A millisecond pulsar in a stellar triple system
Gravitationally bound three-body systems have been studied for hundreds of
years and are common in our Galaxy. They show complex orbital interactions,
which can constrain the compositions, masses, and interior structures of the
bodies and test theories of gravity, if sufficiently precise measurements are
available. A triple system containing a radio pulsar could provide such
measurements, but the only previously known such system, B1620-26 (with a
millisecond pulsar, a white dwarf, and a planetary-mass object in an orbit of
several decades), shows only weak interactions. Here we report precision timing
and multi-wavelength observations of PSR J0337+1715, a millisecond pulsar in a
hierarchical triple system with two other stars. Strong gravitational
interactions are apparent and provide the masses of the pulsar (1.4378(13)
Msun, where Msun is the solar mass and the parentheses contain the uncertainty
in the final decimal places) and the two white dwarf companions (0.19751(15)
Msun and 0.4101(3) Msun), as well as the inclinations of the orbits (both
approximately 39.2 degrees). The unexpectedly coplanar and nearly circular
orbits indicate a complex and exotic evolutionary past that differs from those
of known stellar systems. The gravitational field of the outer white dwarf
strongly accelerates the inner binary containing the neutron star, and the
system will thus provide an ideal laboratory in which to test the strong
equivalence principle of general relativity.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Published online by Nature on 5 Jan
2014. Extremely minor differences with published version may exis
Intelligent Management and Efficient Operation of Big Data
This chapter details how Big Data can be used and implemented in networking
and computing infrastructures. Specifically, it addresses three main aspects:
the timely extraction of relevant knowledge from heterogeneous, and very often
unstructured large data sources, the enhancement on the performance of
processing and networking (cloud) infrastructures that are the most important
foundational pillars of Big Data applications or services, and novel ways to
efficiently manage network infrastructures with high-level composed policies
for supporting the transmission of large amounts of data with distinct
requisites (video vs. non-video). A case study involving an intelligent
management solution to route data traffic with diverse requirements in a wide
area Internet Exchange Point is presented, discussed in the context of Big
Data, and evaluated.Comment: In book Handbook of Research on Trends and Future Directions in Big
Data and Web Intelligence, IGI Global, 201
Automated detection of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses in high resolution imaging data
Lens modeling is the key to successful and meaningful automated strong
galaxy-scale gravitational lens detection. We have implemented a lens-modeling
"robot" that treats every bright red galaxy (BRG) in a large imaging survey as
a potential gravitational lens system. Using a simple model optimized for
"typical" galaxy-scale lenses, we generate four assessments of model quality
that are used in an automated classification. The robot infers the lens
classification parameter H that a human would have assigned; the inference is
performed using a probability distribution generated from a human-classified
training set, including realistic simulated lenses and known false positives
drawn from the HST/EGS survey. We compute the expected purity, completeness and
rejection rate, and find that these can be optimized for a particular
application by changing the prior probability distribution for H, equivalent to
defining the robot's "character." Adopting a realistic prior based on the known
abundance of lenses, we find that a lens sample may be generated that is ~100%
pure, but only ~20% complete. This shortfall is due primarily to the
over-simplicity of the lens model. With a more optimistic robot, ~90%
completeness can be achieved while rejecting ~90% of the candidate objects. The
remaining candidates must be classified by human inspectors. We are able to
classify lens candidates by eye at a rate of a few seconds per system,
suggesting that a future 1000 square degree imaging survey containing 10^7
BRGs, and some 10^4 lenses, could be successfully, and reproducibly, searched
in a modest amount of time. [Abridged]Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Ap
On computing Belyi maps
We survey methods to compute three-point branched covers of the projective
line, also known as Belyi maps. These methods include a direct approach,
involving the solution of a system of polynomial equations, as well as complex
analytic methods, modular forms methods, and p-adic methods. Along the way, we
pose several questions and provide numerous examples.Comment: 57 pages, 3 figures, extensive bibliography; English and French
abstract; revised according to referee's suggestion
Algorithms for geodesics
Algorithms for the computation of geodesics on an ellipsoid of revolution are
given. These provide accurate, robust, and fast solutions to the direct and
inverse geodesic problems and they allow differential and integral properties
of geodesics to be computed.Comment: LaTex, 12 pages, 8 figures. Version 2 corrects some errors and adds
numerical examples. Supplementary material is available at
http://geographiclib.sourceforge.net/geod.htm
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