Libsharp - spherical harmonic transforms revisited

We present libsharp, a code library for spherical harmonic transforms (SHTs), which evolved from the libpsht library, addressing several of its shortcomings, such as adding MPI support for distributed memory systems and SHTs of fields with arbitrary spin, but also supporting new developments in CPU instruction sets like the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) or fused multiply-accumulate (FMA) instructions. The library is implemented in portable C99 and provides an interface that can be easily accessed from other programming languages such as C++, Fortran, Python etc. Generally, libsharp's performance is at least on par with that of its predecessor; however, significant improvements were made to the algorithms for scalar SHTs, which are roughly twice as fast when using the same CPU capabilities. The library is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/libsharp/ under the terms of the GNU General Public License

First light of the VLT planet finder SPHERE. II. The physical properties and the architecture of the young systems PZ Tel and HD 1160 revisited

[Abridged] Context. The young systems PZ Tel and HD 1160, hosting known low-mass companions, were observed during the commissioning of the new planet finder SPHERE with several imaging and spectroscopic modes. Aims. We aim to refine the physical properties and architecture of both systems. Methods. We use SPHERE commissioning data and REM observations, as well as literature and unpublished data from VLT/SINFONI, VLT/NaCo, Gemini/NICI, and Keck/NIRC2. Results. We derive new photometry and confirm the nearly daily photometric variability of PZ Tel A. Using literature data spanning 38 yr, we show that the star also exhibits a long-term variability trend. The 0.63-3.8 mic SED of PZ Tel B allows us to revise its properties: spectral type M7+/-1, Teff=2700+/-100 K, log(g)<4.5 dex, log(L/L_Sun)=-2.51+/-0.10 dex, and mass 38-72 MJ. The 1-3.8 mic SED of HD 1160 B suggests a massive brown dwarf or a low-mass star with spectral type M5.5-7.0, Teff=3000+/-100 K, [M/H]=-0.5-0.0 dex, log(L/L_Sun)=-2.81+/-0.10 dex, and mass 39-168 MJ. We confirm the deceleration and high eccentricity (e>0.66) of PZ Tel B. For e<0.9, the inclination, longitude of the ascending node, and time of periastron passage are well constrained. The system is seen close to an edge-on geometry. We reject other brown dwarf candidates outside 0.25" for both systems, and massive giant planets (>4 MJ) outside 0.5" for the PZ Tel system. We also show that K1-K2 color can be used with YJH low-resolution spectra to identify young L-type companions, provided high photometric accuracy (<0.05 mag) is achieved. Conclusions. SPHERE opens new horizons in the study of young brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets thanks to high-contrast imaging capabilities at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, as well as high signal-to-noise spectroscopy in the near-infrared from low (R~30-50) to medium resolutions (R~350).Comment: 25 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in A&A on Oct. 13th, 2015; version including language editing. Typo on co-author name on astroph page corrected, manuscript unchange

Next Generation High Throughput Satellite System

This paper aims at presenting an overview of the state-of-the-art in High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems for Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) and High Density-FSS. Promising techniques and innovative strategies that can enhance system performance are reviewed and analyzed aiming to show what to expect for next generation ultra-high capacity satellite systems. Potential air interface evolutions, efficient frequency plans,feeder link dimensioning strategies and interference cancellation techniques are presented to show how Terabit/s satellite myth may turn into reality real soon

Hunting Galaxies to (and for) Extinction

In studies of star-forming regions, near-infrared excess (NIRX) sources--objects with intrinsic colors redder than normal stars--constitute both signal (young stars) and noise (e.g. background galaxies). We hunt down (identify) galaxies using near-infrared observations in the Perseus star-forming region by combining structural information, colors, and number density estimates. Galaxies at moderate redshifts (z = 0.1 - 0.5) have colors similar to young stellar objects (YSOs) at both near- and mid-infrared (e.g. Spitzer) wavelengths, which limits our ability to identify YSOs from colors alone. Structural information from high-quality near-infrared observations allows us to better separate YSOs from galaxies, rejecting 2/5 of the YSO candidates identified from Spitzer observations of our regions and potentially extending the YSO luminosity function below K of 15 magnitudes where galaxy contamination dominates. Once they are identified we use galaxies as valuable extra signal for making extinction maps of molecular clouds. Our new iterative procedure: the Galaxies Near Infrared Color Excess method Revisited (GNICER), uses the mean colors of galaxies as a function of magnitude to include them in extinction maps in an unbiased way. GNICER increases the number of background sources used to probe the structure of a cloud, decreasing the noise and increasing the resolution of extinction maps made far from the galactic plane.Comment: 16 pages and 16 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full resolution version at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/COMPLETE/papers/Foster_HuntingGalaxies.pd

Fast Hessenberg reduction of some rank structured matrices

We develop two fast algorithms for Hessenberg reduction of a structured matrix $A = D + UV^H$ where $D$ is a real or unitary $n \times n$ diagonal matrix and $U, V \in\mathbb{C}^{n \times k}$. The proposed algorithm for the real case exploits a two--stage approach by first reducing the matrix to a generalized Hessenberg form and then completing the reduction by annihilation of the unwanted sub-diagonals. It is shown that the novel method requires $O(n^2k)$ arithmetic operations and it is significantly faster than other reduction algorithms for rank structured matrices. The method is then extended to the unitary plus low rank case by using a block analogue of the CMV form of unitary matrices. It is shown that a block Lanczos-type procedure for the block tridiagonalization of $\Re(D)$ induces a structured reduction on $A$ in a block staircase CMV--type shape. Then, we present a numerically stable method for performing this reduction using unitary transformations and we show how to generalize the sub-diagonal elimination to this shape, while still being able to provide a condensed representation for the reduced matrix. In this way the complexity still remains linear in $k$ and, moreover, the resulting algorithm can be adapted to deal efficiently with block companion matrices.Comment: 25 page