14,292 research outputs found
Measurement of the small-scale structure of the intergalactic medium using close quasar pairs
The distribution of diffuse gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) imprints a
series of hydrogen absorption lines on the spectra of distant background
quasars known as the Lyman- forest. Cosmological hydrodynamical
simulations predict that IGM density fluctuations are suppressed below a
characteristic scale where thermal pressure balances gravity. We measured this
pressure-smoothing scale by quantifying absorption correlations in a sample of
close quasar pairs. We compared our measurements to hydrodynamical simulations,
where pressure smoothing is determined by the integrated thermal history of the
IGM. Our findings are consistent with standard models for photoionization
heating by the ultraviolet radiation backgrounds that reionized the universe.Comment: Accepted for publication on Scienc
A fast Bayesian approach to discrete object detection in astronomical datasets - PowellSnakes I
A new fast Bayesian approach is introduced for the detection of discrete
objects immersed in a diffuse background. This new method, called PowellSnakes,
speeds up traditional Bayesian techniques by: i) replacing the standard form of
the likelihood for the parameters characterizing the discrete objects by an
alternative exact form that is much quicker to evaluate; ii) using a
simultaneous multiple minimization code based on Powell's direction set
algorithm to locate rapidly the local maxima in the posterior; and iii)
deciding whether each located posterior peak corresponds to a real object by
performing a Bayesian model selection using an approximate evidence value based
on a local Gaussian approximation to the peak. The construction of this
Gaussian approximation also provides the covariance matrix of the uncertainties
in the derived parameter values for the object in question. This new approach
provides a speed up in performance by a factor of `hundreds' as compared to
existing Bayesian source extraction methods that use MCMC to explore the
parameter space, such as that presented by Hobson & McLachlan. We illustrate
the capabilities of the method by applying to some simplified toy models.
Furthermore PowellSnakes has the advantage of consistently defining the
threshold for acceptance/rejection based on priors which cannot be said of the
frequentist methods. We present here the first implementation of this technique
(Version-I). Further improvements to this implementation are currently under
investigation and will be published shortly. The application of the method to
realistic simulated Planck observations will be presented in a forthcoming
publication.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures, revised version with minor changes, accepted
for publication in MNRA
Data analysis of gravitational-wave signals from spinning neutron stars. IV. An all-sky search
We develop a set of data analysis tools for a realistic all-sky search for
continuous gravitational-wave signals. The methods that we present apply to
data from both the resonant bar detectors that are currently in operation and
the laser interferometric detectors that are in the final stages of
construction and commissioning. We show that with our techniques we shall be
able to perform an all-sky 2-day long coherent search of the narrow-band data
from the resonant bar EXPLORER with no loss of signals with the dimensionless
amplitude greater than .Comment: REVTeX, 26 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev.
A Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features in the SDSS BOSS DR12 Galaxy Bispectrum
We present the first high significance detection () of the Baryon
Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) feature in the galaxy bispectrum of the twelfth
data release (DR12) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) CMASS
sample (). We measured the scale dilation parameter,
, using the power spectrum, bispectrum, and both simultaneously for
DR12, plus 2048 MultiDark-PATCHY mocks in the North and South Galactic Caps
(NGC and SGC, respectively), and the volume weighted averages of those two
samples (N+SGC). The fitting to the mocks validated our analysis pipeline,
yielding values consistent with the mock cosmology. By fitting to the power
spectrum and bispectrum separately, we tested the robustness of our results,
finding consistent values from the NGC, SGC and N+SGC in all cases. We found
Mpc,
Mpc, and
Mpc from
the N+SGC power spectrum, bispectrum and simultaneous fitting, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 13
pages, 11 figure
Implementation of barycentric resampling for continuous wave searches in gravitational wave data
We describe an efficient implementation of a coherent statistic for
continuous gravitational wave searches from neutron stars. The algorithm works
by transforming the data taken by a gravitational wave detector from a moving
Earth bound frame to one that sits at the Solar System barycenter. Many
practical difficulties arise in the implementation of this algorithm, some of
which have not been discussed previously. These difficulties include
constraints of small computer memory, discreteness of the data, losses due to
interpolation and gaps in real data. This implementation is considerably more
efficient than previous implementations of these kinds of searches on Laser
Interferometer Gravitational Wave (LIGO) detector data.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Advanced Algorithms for Satellite Communication Signal Processing
Dizertační práce je zaměřena na softwarově definované přijímače určené k úzkopásmové družicové komunikaci. Komunikační kanály družicových spojů zahrnujících komunikaci s hlubokým vesmírem jsou zatíženy vysokými úrovněmi šumu, typicky modelovaného AWGN, a silným Dopplerovým posuvem signálu způsobeným mimořádnou rychlostí pohybu objektu. Dizertační práce představuje možné postupy řešení výpočetně efektivní digitální downkonverze úzkopásmových signálů a systému odhadu kmitočtu nosné úzkopásmových signálů zatížených Dopplerovým posuvem v řádu násobků šířky pásma signálu. Popis navrhovaných algoritmů zahrnuje analytický postup jejich vývoje a tam, kde je to možné, i analytické hodnocení jejich chování. Algoritmy jsou modelovány v prostředí MATLAB Simulink a tyto modely jsou využity pro ověření vlastností simulacemi. Modely byly také využity k experimentálním testům na reálném signálu přijatém z družice PSAT v laboratoři experimentálních družic na ústavu radioelektroniky.The dissertation is focused on software defined receivers intended for narrowband satellite communication. The satellite communication channel including deep space communication suffers from a high level of noise, typically modeled by AWGN, and from a strong Doppler shift of a signal caused by the unprecedented speed of an object in motion. The dissertation shows possible approaches to the issues of computationally efficient digital downconversion of narrowband signals and the carrier frequency estimation of narrowband signals distorted by the Doppler shift in the order of multiples of the signal bandwidth. The description of the proposed algorithms includes an analytical approach of its development and, if possible, the analytical performance assessment. The algorithms are modeled in MATLAB Simulink and the models are used for validating the performance by the simulation. The models were also used for experimental tests on the real signal received from the PSAT satellite at the laboratory of experimental satellites at the department of radio electronics.
Data analysis of gravitational-wave signals from spinning neutron stars. V. A narrow-band all-sky search
We present theory and algorithms to perform an all-sky coherent search for
periodic signals of gravitational waves in narrow-band data of a detector. Our
search is based on a statistic, commonly called the -statistic,
derived from the maximum-likelihood principle in Paper I of this series. We
briefly review the response of a ground-based detector to the
gravitational-wave signal from a rotating neuron star and the derivation of the
-statistic. We present several algorithms to calculate efficiently
this statistic. In particular our algorithms are such that one can take
advantage of the speed of fast Fourier transform (FFT) in calculation of the
-statistic. We construct a grid in the parameter space such that
the nodes of the grid coincide with the Fourier frequencies. We present
interpolation methods that approximately convert the two integrals in the
-statistic into Fourier transforms so that the FFT algorithm can
be applied in their evaluation. We have implemented our methods and algorithms
into computer codes and we present results of the Monte Carlo simulations
performed to test these codes.Comment: REVTeX, 20 pages, 8 figure
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