6,887 research outputs found
Small-angle approximation to the transfer of narrow laser beams in anisotropic scattering media
The broadening and the signal power detected of a laser beam traversing an anisotropic scattering medium were examined using the small-angle approximation to the radiative transfer equation in which photons suffering large-angle deflections are neglected. To obtain tractable answers, simple Gaussian and non-Gaussian functions for the scattering phase functions are assumed. Two other approximate approaches employed in the field to further simplify the small-angle approximation solutions are described, and the results obtained by one of them are compared with those obtained using small-angle approximation. An exact method for obtaining the contribution of each higher order scattering to the radiance field is examined but no results are presented
The Hunting of the Bump: On Maximizing Statistical Discrepancy
Anomaly detection has important applications in biosurveilance and
environmental monitoring. When comparing measured data to data drawn from a
baseline distribution, merely, finding clusters in the measured data may not
actually represent true anomalies. These clusters may likely be the clusters of
the baseline distribution. Hence, a discrepancy function is often used to
examine how different measured data is to baseline data within a region. An
anomalous region is thus defined to be one with high discrepancy.
In this paper, we present algorithms for maximizing statistical discrepancy
functions over the space of axis-parallel rectangles. We give provable
approximation guarantees, both additive and relative, and our methods apply to
any convex discrepancy function. Our algorithms work by connecting statistical
discrepancy to combinatorial discrepancy; roughly speaking, we show that in
order to maximize a convex discrepancy function over a class of shapes, one
needs only maximize a linear discrepancy function over the same set of shapes.
We derive general discrepancy functions for data generated from a one-
parameter exponential family. This generalizes the widely-used Kulldorff scan
statistic for data from a Poisson distribution. We present an algorithm running
in that computes the maximum
discrepancy rectangle to within additive error , for the Kulldorff
scan statistic. Similar results hold for relative error and for discrepancy
functions for data coming from Gaussian, Bernoulli, and gamma distributions.
Prior to our work, the best known algorithms were exact and ran in time
.Comment: 11 pages. A short version of this paper will appear in SODA06. This
full version contains an additional short appendi
Energy Efficiency Analysis of the Discharge Circuit of Caltech Spheromak Experiment
The Caltech spheromak experiment uses a size A
ignitron in switching a 59-μF capacitor bank (charged up to
8 kV) across an inductive plasma load. Typical power levels in the
discharge circuit are ~200 MW for a duration of ~10 μs. This
paper describes the setup of the circuit and the measurements of
various impedances in the circuit. The combined impedance of the
size A ignitron and the cables was found to be significantly larger
than the plasma impedance. This causes the circuit to behave like
a current source with low energy transfer efficiency. This behavior
is expected to be common with other pulsed plasma experiments
of similar size that employ an ignitron switch
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