492 research outputs found
The spectrum of imaging findings in pulmonary hydatid disease and the additive value of T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in its diagnosis
Purpose: To describe the spectrum of imaging findings in pulmonary echinococcosis and to study the additive value of T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the characterisation of pulmonary hydatid disease. Material and methods: This was a descriptive, prospective study conducted for a period of 3 years from December 2016 to November 2019. Patients suspected of having pulmonary echinococcosis (n = 110) on preliminary chest radiography were examined with chest computed tomography (CT). Among them 41 cases were additionally examined with T2-weighted MRI of thorax. Final diagnosis was based on surgery or histopathology. Results: Of the 110 patients enrolled for the study 15 were lost to attrition, and among the final cohort of 95 patients CT correctly diagnosed 68/84 (80.9%) as hydatid cyst, whereas 16/84 (19.1%) received an erroneous alternate diagnosis on CT. Based on the classical findings of hyperintense pulmonary cystic lesion with T2-weighted hypointense rim or detached internal T2-weighted hypointense membrane, a correct diagnosis of hydatid cyst was possible in 30 patients whereas a correct alternate diagnosis was made in 8 cases. T2-weighted MRI was found to have sensitivity of 96.7%, specificity of 80%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 93.7% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 88.9% with an overall diagnostic accuracy of 92.6%. Using the McNemar test, MRI was found to be diagnostically superior to CT (p = 0.019). Conclusions: Most of the pulmonary hydatid cysts can be diagnosed on CT; however, sometimes the findings may be indeterminate or atypical, leading to a diagnostic dilemma. MRI, owing to its ability to demonstrate hypointense endocyst, can act as a useful adjunct to correctly diagnose hydatid cyst or suggest an alternative diagnosis
Fitting the Phenomenological MSSM
We perform a global Bayesian fit of the phenomenological minimal
supersymmetric standard model (pMSSM) to current indirect collider and dark
matter data. The pMSSM contains the most relevant 25 weak-scale MSSM
parameters, which are simultaneously fit using `nested sampling' Monte Carlo
techniques in more than 15 years of CPU time. We calculate the Bayesian
evidence for the pMSSM and constrain its parameters and observables in the
context of two widely different, but reasonable, priors to determine which
inferences are robust. We make inferences about sparticle masses, the sign of
the parameter, the amount of fine tuning, dark matter properties and the
prospects for direct dark matter detection without assuming a restrictive
high-scale supersymmetry breaking model. We find the inferred lightest CP-even
Higgs boson mass as an example of an approximately prior independent
observable. This analysis constitutes the first statistically convergent pMSSM
global fit to all current data.Comment: Added references, paragraph on fine-tunin
Impact of subdominant modes on the interpretation of gravitational-wave signals from heavy binary black hole systems
Over the past year, a handful of new gravitational wave models have been developed to include multiple harmonic modes thereby enabling for the first time fully Bayesian inference studies including higher modes to be performed. Using one recently developed numerical relativity surrogate model, NRHybSur3dq8, we investigate the importance of higher modes on parameter inference of coalescing massive binary black holes. We focus on examples relevant to the current three-detector network of observatories, with a detector-frame mass set to
120 M⊙ and with signal amplitude values that are consistent with plausible candidates for the next few observing runs. We show that for such systems the higher mode content will be important for interpreting coalescing binary black holes, reducing systematic bias, and computing properties of the remnant object. Even for comparable-mass binaries and at low signal amplitude, the omission of higher modes can influence posterior probability distributions. We discuss the impact of our results on source population inference and self-consistency tests of general relativity. Our work can be used to better understand asymmetric binary black hole merger events, such as GW190412. Higher modes are critical for such systems, and their omission usually produces substantial parameter biases
Recovering 3D structural properties of galaxies from SDSS-like photometry
Because of the 3D nature of galaxies, an algorithm for constructing spatial
density distribution models of galaxies on the basis of galaxy images has many
advantages over surface density distribution approximations. We present a
method for deriving spatial structure and overall parameters of galaxies from
images and estimate its accuracy and derived parameter degeneracies on a sample
of idealised model galaxies. The test galaxies consist of a disc-like component
and a spheroidal component with varying proportions and properties. Both
components are assumed to be axially symmetric and coplanar. We simulate these
test galaxies as if observed in the SDSS project through ugriz filters, thus
gaining a set of realistically imperfect images of galaxies with known
intrinsic properties. These artificial SDSS galaxies were thereafter remodelled
by approximating the surface brightness distribution with a 2D projection of a
bulge+disc spatial distribution model and the restored parameters were compared
to the initial ones. Down to the r-band limiting magnitude 18, errors of the
restored integral luminosities and colour indices remain within 0.05 mag and
errors of the luminosities of individual components within 0.2 mag. Accuracy of
the restored bulge-to-disc ratios (B/D) is within 40% in most cases, and
becomes worse for galaxies with low B/D, but the general balance between bulges
and discs is not shifted systematically. Assuming that the intrinsic disc axial
ratio is < 0.3, the inclination angles can be estimated with errors < 5deg for
most of the galaxies with B/D < 2 and with errors < 15deg up to B/D = 6. Errors
of the recovered sizes of the galactic components are below 10% in most cases.
In general, models of disc components are more accurate than models of
spheroidal components for geometrical reasons.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in RA
Analysis of GWTC-3 with fully precessing numerical relativity surrogate models
The third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) contains 90 binary
coalescence candidates detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration (LVK). We
provide a re-analysis of binary black hole (BBH) events using a recently
developed numerical relativity (NR) waveform surrogate model, NRSur7dq4, that
includes all spin-weighted spherical harmonic modes as well as
the complete physical effects of precession. Properties of the remnant black
holes' (BH's) mass, spin vector, and kick vector are found using an associated
remnant surrogate model NRSur7dq4Remnant. Both NRSur7dq4 and NRSur7dq4Remnant
models have errors comparable to numerical relativity simulations and allow for
high-accuracy parameter estimates. We restrict our analysis to 47 BBH events
that fall within the regime of validity of NRSur7dq4 (mass ratios greater than
1/6 and total masses greater than ). While for most of these
events our results match the LVK analyses that were obtained using the
semi-analytical models such as IMRPhenomXPHM and SEOBNRv4PHM, we find that for
more than 20\% of events the NRSur7dq4 model recovers noticeably different
measurements of black hole properties like the masses and spins, as well as
extrinsic properties like the binary inclination and distance. For instance,
GW150914_095045 exhibits noticeable differences in spin precession and spin
magnitude measurements. Other notable findings include one event
(GW191109_010717) that constrains the effective spin to be
negative at a 99.3\% credible level and two events (GW191109_010717 and
GW200129_065458) with well-constrained kick velocities. Furthermore, compared
to the models used in the LVK analyses, NRSur7dq4 recovers a larger
signal-to-noise ratio and/or Bayes factors for several events.Comment: Posteriors and animations are made publicly available at
https://nrsur-catalog.github.io/NRSurCat-
Detection Strategies for Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals
The capture of compact stellar remnants by galactic black holes provides a
unique laboratory for exploring the near horizon geometry of the Kerr
spacetime, or possible departures from general relativity if the central cores
prove not to be black holes. The gravitational radiation produced by these
Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs) encodes a detailed map of the black hole
geometry, and the detection and characterization of these signals is a major
scientific goal for the LISA mission. The waveforms produced are very complex,
and the signals need to be coherently tracked for hundreds to thousands of
cycles to produce a detection, making EMRI signals one of the most challenging
data analysis problems in all of gravitational wave astronomy. Estimates for
the number of templates required to perform an exhaustive grid-based
matched-filter search for these signals are astronomically large, and far out
of reach of current computational resources. Here I describe an alternative
approach that employs a hybrid between Genetic Algorithms and Markov Chain
Monte Carlo techniques, along with several time saving techniques for computing
the likelihood function. This approach has proven effective at the blind
extraction of relatively weak EMRI signals from simulated LISA data sets.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Updated for LISA 8 Symposium Proceeding
A blind detection of a large, complex, Sunyaev--Zel'dovich structure
We present an interesting Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) detection in the first of
the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) 'blind', degree-square fields to have
been observed down to our target sensitivity of 100{\mu}Jy/beam. In follow-up
deep pointed observations the SZ effect is detected with a maximum peak
decrement greater than 8 \times the thermal noise. No corresponding emission is
visible in the ROSAT all-sky X-ray survey and no cluster is evident in the
Palomar all-sky optical survey. Compared with existing SZ images of distant
clusters, the extent is large (\approx 10') and complex; our analysis favours a
model containing two clusters rather than a single cluster. Our Bayesian
analysis is currently limited to modelling each cluster with an ellipsoidal or
spherical beta-model, which do not do justice to this decrement. Fitting an
ellipsoid to the deeper candidate we find the following. (a) Assuming that the
Evrard et al. (2002) approximation to Press & Schechter (1974) correctly gives
the number density of clusters as a function of mass and redshift, then, in the
search area, the formal Bayesian probability ratio of the AMI detection of this
cluster is 7.9 \times 10^4:1; alternatively assuming Jenkins et al. (2001) as
the true prior, the formal Bayesian probability ratio of detection is 2.1
\times 10^5:1. (b) The cluster mass is MT,200 = 5.5+1.2\times 10^14h-1M\odot.
(c) Abandoning a physical model with num- -1.3 70 ber density prior and instead
simply modelling the SZ decrement using a phenomenological {\beta}-model of
temperature decrement as a function of angular distance, we find a central SZ
temperature decrement of -295+36 {\mu}K - this allows for CMB primary
anisotropies, receiver -15 noise and radio sources. We are unsure if the
cluster system we observe is a merging system or two separate clusters.Comment: accepted MNRAS. 12 pages, 9 figure
Probing the primordial power spectra with inflationary priors
We investigate constraints on power spectra of the primordial curvature and
tensor perturbations with priors based on single-field slow-roll inflation
models. We stochastically draw the Hubble slow-roll parameters and generate the
primordial power spectra using the inflationary flow equations. Using data from
recent observations of CMB and several measurements of geometrical distances in
the late Universe, Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection are
performed for models that have separate priors on the slow-roll parameters. The
same analysis is also performed adopting the standard parameterization of the
primordial power spectra. We confirmed that the scale-invariant
Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum is disfavored with increased significance from
previous studies. While current observations appear to be optimally modeled
with some simple models of single-field slow-roll inflation, data is not enough
constraining to distinguish these models.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in JCA
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