The Submillimeter Array Polarimeter

We describe the Submillimeter Array (SMA) Polarimeter, a polarization converter and feed multiplexer installed on the SMA. The polarimeter uses narrow-band quarter-wave plates to generate circular polarization sensitivity from the linearly-polarized SMA feeds. The wave plates are mounted in rotation stages under computer control so that the polarization handedness of each antenna is rapidly selectable. Positioning of the wave plates is found to be highly repeatable, better than 0.2 degrees. Although only a single polarization is detected at any time, all four cross correlations of left- and right-circular polarization are efficiently sampled on each baseline through coordinated switching of the antenna polarizations in Walsh function patterns. The initial set of anti-reflection coated quartz and sapphire wave plates allows polarimetry near 345 GHz; these plates have been have been used in observations between 325 and 350 GHz. The frequency-dependent cross-polarization of each antenna, largely due to the variation with frequency of the retardation phase of the single-element wave plates, can be measured precisely through observations of bright point sources. Such measurements indicate that the cross-polarization of each antenna is a few percent or smaller and stable, consistent with the expected frequency dependence and very small alignment errors. The polarimeter is now available for general use as a facility instrument of the SMA.Comment: To appear in Proc. SPIE 7020, 'Millimeter and Submillimeter Detectors and Instrumentation'. Uses spie.cl

On Experimental Designs for Derivative Random Fields

Es werden differenzierbare zufällige Felder zweiter Ordnung untersucht und Vorschläge zur Versuchsplanung von Beobachtungen der abgeleiteten Felder unterbreitet. Von einem gewissen Standpunkt aus werden die folgenden Fragen beantwortet: Wie viele Informationen liefern Beobachtungen von Ableitungen für die Vorhersage des zugrunde liegenden Stochastischen Feldes? Wie beeinflusst eine a priori Wahl der Kovarianzfunktion das Informationsverhältnis zwischen verschiedenen abgeleiteten Feldern im Hinblick auf die Vorhersage? Als Zielfunktion wird das so genannte "imse-update" für den besten linearen Prädiktor betrachtet. Den zentralen Teil stellt die Untersuchung von Versuchsplänen mit (asymptotisch) verschwindenden Korrelationen dar. Hier wird insbesondere der Einfluss der Maternschen Klasse und J-Besselschen Klassen von Kovarianzfuntionen untersucht. Ferner wird der Einfluss gleichzeitiger Beobachtung von verschiedenen Ableitungen untersucht. Schließlich werden einige empirische Studien durchgeführt, aus denen einige praktische Ratschläge abgeleitet werden

TT-optimal designs for discrimination between two polynomial models

This paper is devoted to the explicit construction of optimal designs for discrimination between two polynomial regression models of degree $n-2$ and $n$. In a fundamental paper, Atkinson and Fedorov [Biometrika 62 (1975a) 57--70] proposed the $T$-optimality criterion for this purpose. Recently, Atkinson [MODA 9, Advances in Model-Oriented Design and Analysis (2010) 9--16] determined $T$-optimal designs for polynomials up to degree 6 numerically and based on these results he conjectured that the support points of the optimal design are cosines of the angles that divide half of the circle into equal parts if the coefficient of $x^{n-1}$ in the polynomial of larger degree vanishes. In the present paper we give a strong justification of the conjecture and determine all $T$-optimal designs explicitly for any degree $n\in\mathbb{N}$. In particular, we show that there exists a one-dimensional class of $T$-optimal designs. Moreover, we also present a generalization to the case when the ratio between the coefficients of $x^{n-1}$ and $x^n$ is smaller than a certain critical value. Because of the complexity of the optimization problem, $T$-optimal designs have only been determined numerically so far, and this paper provides the first explicit solution of the $T$-optimal design problem since its introduction by Atkinson and Fedorov [Biometrika 62 (1975a) 57--70]. Finally, for the remaining cases (where the ratio of coefficients is larger than the critical value), we propose a numerical procedure to calculate the $T$-optimal designs. The results are also illustrated in an example.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOS956 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Information contained in design points of experiments with correlated observations

summary:A random process (field) with given parametrized mean and covariance function is observed at a finite number of chosen design points. The information about its parameters is measured via the Fisher information matrix (for normally distributed observations) or using information functionals depending on that matrix. Conditions are stated, under which the contribution of one design point to this information is zero. Explicit expressions are obtained for the amount of information coming from a selected subset of a given design. Relations to some algorithms for optimum design of experiments in case of correlated observations are indicated

Criteria for optimal design of small-sample experiments with correlated observations

summary:We consider observations of a random process (or a random field), which is modeled by a nonlinear regression with a parametrized mean (or trend) and a parametrized covariance function. Optimality criteria for parameter estimation are to be based here on the mean square errors (MSE) of estimators. We mention briefly expressions obtained for very small samples via probability densities of estimators. Then we show that an approximation of MSE via Fisher information matrix is possible, even for small or moderate samples, when the errors of observations are normal and small. Finally, we summarize some properties of optimality criteria known for the noncorrelated case, which can be transferred to the correlated case, in particular a recently published concept of universal optimality

Incorporating covariance estimation uncertainty in spatial sampling design for prediction with trans-Gaussian random fields

Recently, Spock and Pilz [38], demonstratedthat the spatial sampling design problem forthe Bayesian linear kriging predictor can betransformed to an equivalent experimentaldesign problem for a linear regression modelwith stochastic regression coefficients anduncorrelated errors. The stochastic regressioncoefficients derive from the polar spectralapproximation of the residual process. Thus,standard optimal convex experimental designtheory can be used to calculate optimal spatialsampling designs. The design functionals ̈considered in Spock and Pilz [38] did nottake into account the fact that kriging isactually a plug-in predictor which uses theestimated covariance function. The resultingoptimal designs were close to space-fillingconfigurations, because the design criteriondid not consider the uncertainty of thecovariance function.In this paper we also assume that thecovariance function is estimated, e.g., byrestricted maximum likelihood (REML). Wethen develop a design criterion that fully takesaccount of the covariance uncertainty. Theresulting designs are less regular and space-filling compared to those ignoring covarianceuncertainty. The new designs, however, alsorequire some closely spaced samples in orderto improve the estimate of the covariancefunction. We also relax the assumption ofGaussian observations and assume that thedata is transformed to Gaussianity by meansof the Box-Cox transformation. The resultingprediction method is known as trans-Gaussiankriging. We apply the Smith and Zhu [37]approach to this kriging method and show thatresulting optimal designs also depend on theavailable data. We illustrate our results witha data set of monthly rainfall measurementsfrom Upper Austria

Optimum designs for second order processes with general linear means

Issued as Preprint, and Final report, Project no. G-37-61