4,355 research outputs found
Tidal streams around galaxies in the SDSS DR7 archive
Context. Models of hierarchical structure formation predict the accretion of
smaller satellite galaxies onto more massive systems and this process should be
accompanied by a disintegration of the smaller companions visible, e.g., in
tidal streams. Aims. In order to verify and quantify this scenario we have
developed a search strategy for low surface brightness tidal structures around
a sample of 474 galaxies using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 archive.
Methods. Calibrated images taken from the SDSS archive were processed in an
automated manner and visually inspected for possible tidal streams. Results. We
were able to extract structures at surface brightness levels ranging from \sim
24 down to 28 mag arcsec-2. A significant number of tidal streams was found and
measured. Their apparent length varies as they seem to be in different stages
of accretion. Conclusions. At least 6% of the galaxies show distinct stream
like features, a total of 19% show faint features. Several individual cases are
described and discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 21 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
An elliptical tiling method to generate a 2-dimensional set of templates for gravitational wave search
Searching for a signal depending on unknown parameters in a noisy background
with matched filtering techniques always requires an analysis of the data with
several templates in parallel in order to ensure a proper match between the
filter and the real waveform. The key feature of such an implementation is the
design of the filter bank which must be small to limit the computational cost
while keeping the detection efficiency as high as possible. This paper presents
a geometrical method which allows one to cover the corresponding physical
parameter space by a set of ellipses, each of them being associated to a given
template. After the description of the main characteristics of the algorithm,
the method is applied in the field of gravitational wave (GW) data analysis,
for the search of damped sine signals. Such waveforms are expected to be
produced during the de-excitation phase of black holes -- the so-called
'ringdown' signals -- and are also encountered in some numerically computed
supernova signals.Comment: Accepted in PR
The Multiscale Morphology Filter: Identifying and Extracting Spatial Patterns in the Galaxy Distribution
We present here a new method, MMF, for automatically segmenting cosmic
structure into its basic components: clusters, filaments, and walls.
Importantly, the segmentation is scale independent, so all structures are
identified without prejudice as to their size or shape. The method is ideally
suited for extracting catalogues of clusters, walls, and filaments from samples
of galaxies in redshift surveys or from particles in cosmological N-body
simulations: it makes no prior assumptions about the scale or shape of the
structures.}Comment: Replacement with higher resolution figures. 28 pages, 17 figures. For
Full Resolution Version see:
http://www.astro.rug.nl/~weygaert/tim1publication/miguelmmf.pd
Comparison of filters for detecting gravitational wave bursts in interferometric detectors
Filters developed in order to detect short bursts of gravitational waves in
interferometric detector outputs are compared according to three main points.
Conventional Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) are first built for all
the considered filters and for three typical burst signals. Optimized ROC are
shown for a simple pulse signal in order to estimate the best detection
efficiency of the filters in the ideal case, while realistic ones obtained with
filters working with several ``templates'' show how detection efficiencies can
be degraded in a practical implementation. Secondly, estimations of biases and
statistical errors on the reconstruction of the time of arrival of pulse-like
signals are then given for each filter. Such results are crucial for future
coincidence studies between Gravitational Wave detectors but also with neutrino
or optical detectors. As most of the filters require a pre-whitening of the
detector noise, the sensitivity to a non perfect noise whitening procedure is
finally analysed. For this purpose lines of various frequencies and amplitudes
are added to a Gaussian white noise and the outputs of the filters are studied
in order to monitor the excess of false alarms induced by the lines. The
comparison of the performances of the different filters finally show that they
are complementary rather than competitive.Comment: 32 pages (14 figures), accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Lightcurve Classification in Massive Variability Surveys II: Transients towards the Large Magellanic Cloud
Automatic classification of variability is now possible with tools like
neural networks. Here, we present two neural networks for the identification of
microlensing events -- the first discriminates against variable stars and the
second against supernovae. The inputs to the networks include parameters
describing the shape and the size of the lightcurve, together with colour of
the event. The network computes the posterior probability of microlensing,
together with an estimate of the likely error. An algorithm is devised for
direct calculation of the microlensing rate from the output of the neural
networks. We present a new analysis of the microlensing candidates towards the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The neural networks confirm the microlensing
nature of only 7 of the possible 17 events identified by the MACHO experiment.
This suggests that earlier estimates of the microlensing optical depth towards
the LMC may have been overestimated. A smaller number of events is consistent
with the assumption that all the microlensing events are caused by the known
stellar populations in the outer Galaxy/LMC.Comment: 11 pages, MNRAS, in pres
How to Find More Supernovae with Less Work: Object Classification Techniques for Difference Imaging
We present the results of applying new object classification techniques to
difference images in the context of the Nearby Supernova Factory supernova
search. Most current supernova searches subtract reference images from new
images, identify objects in these difference images, and apply simple threshold
cuts on parameters such as statistical significance, shape, and motion to
reject objects such as cosmic rays, asteroids, and subtraction artifacts.
Although most static objects subtract cleanly, even a very low false positive
detection rate can lead to hundreds of non-supernova candidates which must be
vetted by human inspection before triggering additional followup. In comparison
to simple threshold cuts, more sophisticated methods such as Boosted Decision
Trees, Random Forests, and Support Vector Machines provide dramatically better
object discrimination. At the Nearby Supernova Factory, we reduced the number
of non-supernova candidates by a factor of 10 while increasing our supernova
identification efficiency. Methods such as these will be crucial for
maintaining a reasonable false positive rate in the automated transient alert
pipelines of upcoming projects such as PanSTARRS and LSST.Comment: 25 pages; 6 figures; submitted to Ap
Improving and Assessing Planet Sensitivity of the GPI Exoplanet Survey with a Forward Model Matched Filter
We present a new matched filter algorithm for direct detection of point
sources in the immediate vicinity of bright stars. The stellar Point Spread
Function (PSF) is first subtracted using a Karhunen-Lo\'eve Image Processing
(KLIP) algorithm with Angular and Spectral Differential Imaging (ADI and SDI).
The KLIP-induced distortion of the astrophysical signal is included in the
matched filter template by computing a forward model of the PSF at every
position in the image. To optimize the performance of the algorithm, we conduct
extensive planet injection and recovery tests and tune the exoplanet spectra
template and KLIP reduction aggressiveness to maximize the Signal-to-Noise
Ratio (SNR) of the recovered planets. We show that only two spectral templates
are necessary to recover any young Jovian exoplanets with minimal SNR loss. We
also developed a complete pipeline for the automated detection of point source
candidates, the calculation of Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC), false
positives based contrast curves, and completeness contours. We process in a
uniform manner more than 330 datasets from the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet
Survey (GPIES) and assess GPI typical sensitivity as a function of the star and
the hypothetical companion spectral type. This work allows for the first time a
comparison of different detection algorithms at a survey scale accounting for
both planet completeness and false positive rate. We show that the new forward
model matched filter allows the detection of fainter objects than a
conventional cross-correlation technique with a Gaussian PSF template for the
same false positive rate.Comment: ApJ accepte
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