10,743 research outputs found
Nonparametric Methods in Astronomy: Think, Regress, Observe -- Pick Any Three
Telescopes are much more expensive than astronomers, so it is essential to
minimize required sample sizes by using the most data-efficient statistical
methods possible. However, the most commonly used model-independent techniques
for finding the relationship between two variables in astronomy are flawed. In
the worst case they can lead without warning to subtly yet catastrophically
wrong results, and even in the best case they require more data than necessary.
Unfortunately, there is no single best technique for nonparametric regression.
Instead, we provide a guide for how astronomers can choose the best method for
their specific problem and provide a python library with both wrappers for the
most useful existing algorithms and implementations of two new algorithms
developed here.Comment: 19 pages, PAS
Spitzer Secondary Eclipses of the Dense, Modestly-irradiated, Giant Exoplanet HAT-P-20b Using Pixel-Level Decorrelation
HAT-P-20b is a giant exoplanet that orbits a metal-rich star. The planet
itself has a high total density, suggesting that it may also have a high
metallicity in its atmosphere. We analyze two eclipses of the planet in each of
the 3.6- and 4.5 micron bands of Warm Spitzer. These data exhibit intra-pixel
detector sensitivity fluctuations that were resistant to traditional
decorrelation methods. We have developed a simple, powerful, and radically
different method to correct the intra-pixel effect for Warm Spitzer data, which
we call pixel-level decorrelation (PLD). PLD corrects the intra-pixel effect
very effectively, but without explicitly using - or even measuring - the
fluctuations in the apparent position of the stellar image. We illustrate and
validate PLD using synthetic and real data, and comparing the results to
previous analyses. PLD can significantly reduce or eliminate red noise in
Spitzer secondary eclipse photometry, even for eclipses that have proven to be
intractable using other methods. Our successful PLD analysis of four HAT-P-20b
eclipses shows a best-fit blackbody temperature of 1134 +/-29K, indicating
inefficient longitudinal transfer of heat, but lacking evidence for strong
molecular absorption. We find sufficient evidence for variability in the 4.5
micron band that the eclipses should be monitored at that wavelength by
Spitzer, and this planet should be a high priority for JWST spectroscopy. All
four eclipses occur about 35 minutes after orbital phase 0.5, indicating a
slightly eccentric orbit. A joint fit of the eclipse and transit times with
extant RV data yields e(cos{omega}) = 0.01352 (+0.00054, -0.00057), and
establishes the small eccentricity of the orbit to high statistical confidence.
Given the existence of a bound stellar companion, HAT-P-20b is another
excellent candidate for orbital evolution via Kozai migration or other
three-body mechanism.Comment: version published in ApJ, minor text and figure revision
Robust nonparametric estimation via wavelet median regression
In this paper we develop a nonparametric regression method that is
simultaneously adaptive over a wide range of function classes for the
regression function and robust over a large collection of error distributions,
including those that are heavy-tailed, and may not even possess variances or
means. Our approach is to first use local medians to turn the problem of
nonparametric regression with unknown noise distribution into a standard
Gaussian regression problem and then apply a wavelet block thresholding
procedure to construct an estimator of the regression function. It is shown
that the estimator simultaneously attains the optimal rate of convergence over
a wide range of the Besov classes, without prior knowledge of the smoothness of
the underlying functions or prior knowledge of the error distribution. The
estimator also automatically adapts to the local smoothness of the underlying
function, and attains the local adaptive minimax rate for estimating functions
at a point. A key technical result in our development is a quantile coupling
theorem which gives a tight bound for the quantile coupling between the sample
medians and a normal variable. This median coupling inequality may be of
independent interest.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS513 the Annals of
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Brightness of Solar Magnetic Elements as a Function of Magnetic Flux at High Spatial Resolution
We investigate the relationship between the photospheric magnetic field of
small-scale magnetic elements in the quiet Sun (QS) at disc centre, and the
brightness at 214 nm, 300 nm, 313 nm, 388 nm, 397 nm, and at 525.02 nm. To this
end we analysed spectropolarimetric and imaging time series acquired
simultaneously by the IMaX magnetograph and the SuFI filter imager on-board the
balloon-borne observatory Sunrise during its first science flight in 2009, with
high spatial and temporal resolution.
We find a clear dependence of the contrast in the near ultraviolet (NUV) and
the visible on the line-of-sight component of the magnetic field, , which is best described by a logarithmic model. This function represents
well the relationship between the Ca II H-line emission and , and
works better than a power-law fit adopted by previous studies. This, along with
the high contrast reached at these wavelengths, will help with determining the
contribution of small-scale elements in the QS to the irradiance changes for
wavelengths below 388 nm. At all wavelengths including the continuum at 525.40
nm the intensity contrast does not decrease with increasing . This
result also strongly supports that Sunrise has resolved small strong magnetic
field elements in the internetwork, resulting in constant contrasts for large
magnetic fields in our continuum contrast at 525.40 nm vs.
scatterplot, unlike the turnover obtained in previous observational studies.
This turnover is due to the intermixing of the bright magnetic features with
the dark intergranular lanes surrounding them
- …