1,741 research outputs found
Applications of an exact counting formula in the Bousso-Polchinski Landscape
The Bousso-Polchinski (BP) Landscape is a proposal for solving the
Cosmological Constant Problem. The solution requires counting the states in a
very thin shell in flux space. We find an exact formula for this counting
problem which has two simple asymptotic regime one of them being the method of
counting low states given originally by Bousso and Polchinski. We
finally give some applications of the extended formula: a robust property of
the Landscape which can be identified with an effective occupation number, an
estimator for the minimum cosmological constant and a possible influence on the
KKLT stabilization mechanism.Comment: 43 pages, 11 figures, 2 appendices. We have added a new section (3.4)
on the influence of the fraction of non-vanishing fluxes in the KKLT
mechanism. Other minor changes also mad
Determination of Transverse Density Structuring from Propagating MHD Waves in the Solar Atmosphere
We present a Bayesian seismology inversion technique for propagating
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) transverse waves observed in coronal waveguides. The
technique uses theoretical predictions for the spatial damping of propagating
kink waves in transversely inhomogeneous coronal waveguides. It combines wave
amplitude damping length scales along the waveguide with theoretical results
for resonantly damped propagating kink waves to infer the plasma density
variation across the oscillating structures. Provided the spatial dependence of
the velocity amplitude along the propagation direction is measured and the
existence of two different damping regimes is identified, the technique would
enable us to fully constrain the transverse density structuring, providing
estimates for the density contrast and its transverse inhomogeneity length
scale
Spatial deconvolution of spectropolarimetric data: an application to quiet Sun magnetic elements
Observations of the Sun from the Earth are always limited by the presence of
the atmosphere, which strongly disturbs the images. A solution to this problem
is to place the telescopes in space satellites, which produce observations
without any (or limited) atmospheric aberrations. However, even though the
images from space are not affected by atmospheric seeing, the optical
properties of the instruments still limit the observations. In the case of
diffraction limited observations, the PSF establishes the maximum allowed
spatial resolution, defined as the distance between two nearby structures that
can be properly distinguished. In addition, the shape of the PSF induce a
dispersion of the light from different parts of the image, leading to what is
commonly termed as stray light or dispersed light. This effect produces that
light observed in a spatial location at the focal plane is a combination of the
light emitted in the object at relatively distant spatial locations. We aim to
correct the effect produced by the telescope's PSF using a deconvolution
method, and we decided to apply the code on Hinode/SP quiet Sun observations.
We analyze the validity of the deconvolution process with noisy data and we
infer the physical properties of quiet Sun magnetic elements after the
deconvolution process.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Analysis of Quiet-Sun Internetwork Magnetic Fields Based on Linear Polarization Signals
We present results from the analysis of Fe I 630 nm measurements of the quiet
Sun taken with the spectropolarimeter of the Hinode satellite. Two data sets
with noise levels of 1.2{\times}10-3 and 3{\times}10-4 are employed. We
determine the distribution of field strengths and inclinations by inverting the
two observations with a Milne-Eddington model atmosphere. The inversions show a
predominance of weak, highly inclined fields. By means of several tests we
conclude that these properties cannot be attributed to photon noise effects. To
obtain the most accurate results, we focus on the 27.4% of the pixels in the
second data set that have linear polarization amplitudes larger than 4.5 times
the noise level. The vector magnetic field derived for these pixels is very
precise because both circular and linear polarization signals are used
simultaneously. The inferred field strength, inclination, and filling factor
distributions agree with previous results, supporting the idea that
internetwork fields are weak and very inclined, at least in about one quarter
of the area occupied by the internetwork. These properties differ from those of
network fields. The average magnetic flux density and the mean field strength
derived from the 27.4% of the field of view with clear linear polarization
signals are 16.3 Mx cm-2 and 220 G, respectively. The ratio between the average
horizontal and vertical components of the field is approximately 3.1. The
internetwork fields do not follow an isotropic distribution of orientations.Comment: To appear in APJ, Vol 749, 201
The Minimum Description Length Principle and Model Selection in Spectropolarimetry
It is shown that the two-part Minimum Description Length Principle can be
used to discriminate among different models that can explain a given observed
dataset. The description length is chosen to be the sum of the lengths of the
message needed to encode the model plus the message needed to encode the data
when the model is applied to the dataset. It is verified that the proposed
principle can efficiently distinguish the model that correctly fits the
observations while avoiding over-fitting. The capabilities of this criterion
are shown in two simple problems for the analysis of observed
spectropolarimetric signals. The first is the de-noising of observations with
the aid of the PCA technique. The second is the selection of the optimal number
of parameters in LTE inversions. We propose this criterion as a quantitative
approach for distinguising the most plausible model among a set of proposed
models. This quantity is very easy to implement as an additional output on the
existing inversion codes.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
- …