10,745 research outputs found
Systematic Atmospheric Refreaction Errors of Baseline Type Radio Tracking Systems and Methods for their Correction
The theory of systematic atmospheric radio refraction errors affecting measurements of range and range differences (and associated time rate of change of these quantities) is developed. It is shown that the refraction errors, particularly in range difference measurements, can seriously affect the accuracy of baseline-type tracking systems. A method is derived by which the systematic portion of tL.ese errors can be removed by means of linear relationships involving the surface value of the radio refractive index; the correction process cievlsea can be used in real time if desired. Several test cases are examined where horizontally-varying profiles of the refractive index variation with height are used to calculate the errors, and the correction process based on surface refractive index values is found to be useful under these more general conditions. Approximately 98 percent of the total range or rangt difference error can be removed using this correction procedure. The problem of baseline optimization for deep-space tracking is examined briefly, and it is shown that a baseline length of about 4, 000 miles is optimal for targets more than about 6, 000 miles from the earth, and foi such a system residual atmospheric refraction errors would be only a fe\\ hundredths of a microradian, assuming the validity of ray optics and of the models of the atmosphere used in this paper
New Analysis Indicates No Thermal Inversion in the Atmosphere of HD 209458b
An important focus of exoplanet research is the determination of the
atmospheric temperature structure of strongly irradiated gas giant planets, or
hot Jupiters. HD 209458b is the prototypical exoplanet for atmospheric thermal
inversions, but this assertion does not take into account recently obtained
data or newer data reduction techniques. We re-examine this claim by
investigating all publicly available Spitzer Space Telescope secondary-eclipse
photometric data of HD 209458b and performing a self-consistent analysis. We
employ data reduction techniques that minimize stellar centroid variations,
apply sophisticated models to known Spitzer systematics, and account for
time-correlated noise in the data. We derive new secondary-eclipse depths of
0.119 +/- 0.007%, 0.123 +/- 0.006%, 0.134 +/- 0.035%, and 0.215 +/- 0.008% in
the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 micron bandpasses, respectively. We feed these
results into a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval analysis and determine that it is
unnecessary to invoke a thermal inversion to explain our secondary-eclipse
depths. The data are well-fitted by a temperature model that decreases
monotonically between pressure levels of 1 and 0.01 bars. We conclude that
there is no evidence for a thermal inversion in the atmosphere of HD 209458b.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
A Search for Water in the Atmosphere of HAT-P-26b Using LDSS-3C
The characterization of a physically-diverse set of transiting exoplanets is
an important and necessary step towards establishing the physical properties
linked to the production of obscuring clouds or hazes. It is those planets with
identifiable spectroscopic features that can most effectively enhance our
understanding of atmospheric chemistry and metallicity. The newly-commissioned
LDSS-3C instrument on Magellan provides enhanced sensitivity and suppressed
fringing in the red optical, thus advancing the search for the spectroscopic
signature of water in exoplanetary atmospheres from the ground. Using data
acquired by LDSS-3C and the Spitzer Space Telescope, we search for evidence of
water vapor in the transmission spectrum of the Neptune-mass planet HAT-P-26b.
Our measured spectrum is best explained by the presence of water vapor, a lack
of potassium, and either a high-metallicity, cloud-free atmosphere or a
solar-metallicity atmosphere with a cloud deck at ~10 mbar. The emergence of
multi-scale-height spectral features in our data suggests that future
observations at higher precision could break this degeneracy and reveal the
planet's atmospheric chemical abundances. We also update HAT-P-26b's transit
ephemeris, t_0 = 2455304.65218(25) BJD_TDB, and orbital period, p =
4.2345023(7) days.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
Autonomous clustering using rough set theory
This paper proposes a clustering technique that minimises the need for subjective
human intervention and is based on elements of rough set theory. The proposed algorithm is
unified in its approach to clustering and makes use of both local and global data properties to
obtain clustering solutions. It handles single-type and mixed attribute data sets with ease and
results from three data sets of single and mixed attribute types are used to illustrate the
technique and establish its efficiency
Vector magnetic hysteresis of hard superconductors
Critical state problems which incorporate more than one component for the
magnetization vector of hard superconductors are investigated. The theory is
based on the minimization of a cost functional
which weighs the changes of the magnetic field vector within the sample. We
show that Bean's simplest prescription of choosing the correct sign for the
critical current density in one dimensional problems is just a particular
case of finding the components of the vector . is
determined by minimizing under the constraint , with a bounded set. Upon the selection of
different sets we discuss existing crossed field measurements and
predict new observable features. It is shown that a complex behavior in the
magnetization curves may be controlled by a single external parameter, i.e.:
the maximum value of the applied magnetic field .Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Comparing Infrared Dirac-Born-Infeld Brane Inflation to Observations
We compare the Infrared Dirac-Born-Infeld (IR DBI) brane inflation model to
observations using a Bayesian analysis. The current data cannot distinguish it
from the \LambdaCDM model, but is able to give interesting constraints on
various microscopic parameters including the mass of the brane moduli
potential, the fundamental string scale, the charge or warp factor of throats,
and the number of the mobile branes. We quantify some distinctive testable
predictions with stringy signatures, such as the large non-Gaussianity, and the
large, but regional, running of the spectral index. These results illustrate
how we may be able to probe aspects of string theory using cosmological
observations.Comment: 54 pages, 13 figures. v2: non-Gaussianity constraint has been applied
to the model; parameter constraints have tightened significantly, conclusions
unchanged. References added; v3, minor revision, PRD versio
Delayed Recombination and Standard Rulers
Measurements of Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations in galaxy surveys have been
recognized as a powerful tool for constraining dark energy. However, this
method relies on the knowledge of the size of the acoustic horizon at
recombination derived from Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy measurements.
This estimate is typically derived assuming a standard recombination scheme;
additional radiation sources can delay recombination altering the cosmic
ionization history and the cosmological inferences drawn from CMB and BAO data.
In this paper we quantify the effect of delayed recombination on the
determination of dark energy parameters from future BAO surveys such as BOSS
and WFMOS. We find the impact to be small but still not negligible. In
particular, if recombination is non-standard (to a level still allowed by CMB
data), but this is ignored, future surveys may incorrectly suggest the presence
of a redshift dependent dark energy component. On the other hand, in the case
of delayed recombination, adding to the analysis one extra parameter describing
deviations from standard recombination, does not significantly degrade the
error-bars on dark energy parameters and yields unbiased estimates.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
A semi-analytical approach to perturbations in mutated hilltop inflation
We study cosmological perturbations and observational aspects for mutated
hilltop model of inflation. Employing mostly analytical treatment, we evaluate
observable parameters during inflation as well as post-inflationary
perturbations. This further leads to exploring observational aspects related to
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. This semi-analytical treatment
reduces complications related to numerical computation to some extent for
studying the different phenomena related to CMB angular power spectrum for
mutated hilltop inflation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Improved version to appear in IJMP
Duality Cascade in Brane Inflation
We show that brane inflation is very sensitive to tiny sharp features in
extra dimensions, including those in the potential and in the warp factor. This
can show up as observational signatures in the power spectrum and/or
non-Gaussianities of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). One
general example of such sharp features is a succession of small steps in a
warped throat, caused by Seiberg duality cascade using gauge/gravity duality.
We study the cosmological observational consequences of these steps in brane
inflation. Since the steps come in a series, the prediction of other steps and
their properties can be tested by future data and analysis. It is also possible
that the steps are too close to be resolved in the power spectrum, in which
case they may show up only in the non-Gaussianity of the CMB temperature
fluctuations and/or EE polarization. We study two cases. In the slow-roll
scenario where steps appear in the inflaton potential, the sensitivity of brane
inflation to the height and width of the steps is increased by several orders
of magnitude comparing to that in previously studied large field models. In the
IR DBI scenario where steps appear in the warp factor, we find that the
glitches in the power spectrum caused by these sharp features are generally
small or even unobservable, but associated distinctive non-Gaussianity can be
large. Together with its large negative running of the power spectrum index,
this scenario clearly illustrates how rich and different a brane inflationary
scenario can be when compared to generic slow-roll inflation. Such distinctive
stringy features may provide a powerful probe of superstring theory.Comment: Corrections in Eq.(5.47), Eq (5.48), Eq(5.49) and Fig
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