5,295 research outputs found
BSAURUS- A Package For Inclusive B-Reconstruction in DELPHI
BSAURUS is a software package for the inclusive reconstruction of B-hadrons
in Z-decay events taken by the DELPHI detector at LEP. The BSAURUS goal is to
reconstruct B-decays, by making use of as many properties of b-jets as
possible, with high efficiency and good purity. This is achieved by exploiting
the capabilities of the DELPHI detector to their extreme, applying wherever
possible physics knowledge about B production and decays and combining
different information sources with modern tools- mainly artificial neural
networks. This note provides a reference of how BSAURUS outputs are formed, how
to access them within the DELPHI framework, and the physics performance one can
expect.Comment: 52 pages, 24 figures, added author Z.
Monolithic MHz-frame rate digital SiPM-IC with sub-100 ps precision and 70m pixel pitch
This paper presents the design and characterization of a monolithic
integrated circuit (IC) including digital silicon photomultipliers (dSiPMs)
arranged in a 3232 pixel matrix at 70m pitch. The IC provides
per-quadrant time stamping and hit-map readout, and is fabricated in a standard
150-nm CMOS technology. Each dSiPM pixel consists of four single-photon
avalanche diodes (SPADs) sharing a quenching and subsequent processing
circuitry and has a fill factor of 30. A sub-100ps precision, 12-bit
time-to-digital converter (TDC) provides timestamps per quadrant with an
acquisition rate of 3MHz. Together with the hit map, the total sustained
data throughput of the IC amounts to 4Gbps. Measurements obtained in a dark,
temperature-stable environment as well as by using a pulsed laser environment
show the full dSiPM-IC functionality. The dark-count rate (DCR) as function of
the overvoltage and temperature, the TDC resolution, differential and integral
nonlinearity (DNL/INL) as well as the propagation-delay variations across the
matrix are presented. With aid of additional peripheral test structures, the
main building blocks are characterized and key parameters are presented.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl
Evidence of Environmental Dependencies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by Local H{\alpha}
(Abridged) We study the host galaxy regions in close proximity to Type Ia
supernovae (SNe Ia) to analyze relations between the properties of SN Ia events
and environments most similar to where their progenitors formed. We focus on
local H\alpha\ emission as an indicator of young environments. The Nearby
Supernova Factory has obtained flux-calibrated spectral timeseries for SNe Ia
using integral field spectroscopy, allowing the simultaneous measurement of the
SN and its immediate vicinity. For 89 SNe Ia we measure H\alpha\ emission
tracing ongoing star formation within a 1 kpc radius around each SN. This
constitutes the first direct study of the local environment for a large sample
of SNe Ia also having accurate luminosity, color and stretch measurements. We
find that SNe Ia with local H\alpha\ emission are redder by 0.036+/-0.017 mag,
and that the previously-noted correlation between stretch and host mass is
entirely driven by the SNe Ia coming from passive regions. Most importantly,
the mean standardized brightness for SNe Ia with local H\alpha\ emission is
0.094+/-0.031 mag fainter than for those without. This offset arises from a
bimodal structure in the Hubble residuals, that also explains the
previously-known host-mass bias. We combine this bimodality with the cosmic
star-formation rate to predict changes with redshift in the mean SN Ia
brightness and the host-mass bias. This change is confirmed using high-redshift
SNe Ia from the literature. These environmental dependences point to remaining
systematic errors in SNe Ia standardization. The observed brightness offset is
predicted to cause a significant bias in measurements of the dark energy
equation of state. Recognition of these effects offers new opportunities to
improve SNe Ia as cosmological probes - e.g. SNe Ia having local H\alpha\
emission are more homogeneous, having a brightness dispersion of 0.105+/-0.012
mag.Comment: accepted for publication in Section 3. Cosmology of A&A (The official
date of acceptance is 30/08/2013
Type Ia Supernova Hubble Residuals and Host-Galaxy Properties
Kim et al. (2013) [K13] introduced a new methodology for determining
peak-brightness absolute magnitudes of type Ia supernovae from multi-band light
curves. We examine the relation between their parameterization of light curves
and Hubble residuals, based on photometry synthesized from the Nearby Supernova
Factory spectrophotometric time series, with global host-galaxy properties. The
K13 Hubble residual step with host mass is mag for a supernova
subsample with data coverage corresponding to the K13 training; at , the step is not significant and lower than previous measurements.
Relaxing the data coverage requirement the Hubble residual step with host mass
is mag for the larger sample; a calculation using the modes of
the distributions, less sensitive to outliers, yields a step of 0.019 mag. The
analysis of this article uses K13 inferred luminosities, as distinguished from
previous works that use magnitude corrections as a function of SALT2 color and
stretch parameters: Steps at significance are found in SALT2 Hubble
residuals in samples split by the values of their K13 and
light-curve parameters. affects the light-curve width and color around
peak (similar to the and stretch parameters), and
affects colors, the near-UV light-curve width, and the light-curve decline 20
to 30 days after peak brightness. The novel light-curve analysis, increased
parameter set, and magnitude corrections of K13 may be capturing features of
SN~Ia diversity arising from progenitor stellar evolution.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Astrophysical Journa
The Extinction Properties of and Distance to the Highly Reddened Type Ia Supernova SN 2012cu
Correction of Type Ia Supernova brightnesses for extinction by dust has
proven to be a vexing problem. Here we study the dust foreground to the highly
reddened SN 2012cu, which is projected onto a dust lane in the galaxy NGC 4772.
The analysis is based on multi-epoch, spectrophotometric observations spanning
3,300 - 9,200 {\AA}, obtained by the Nearby Supernova Factory. Phase-matched
comparison of the spectroscopically twinned SN 2012cu and SN 2011fe across 10
epochs results in the best-fit color excess of (E(B-V), RMS) = (1.00, 0.03) and
total-to-selective extinction ratio of (RV , RMS) = (2.95, 0.08) toward SN
2012cu within its host galaxy. We further identify several diffuse interstellar
bands, and compare the 5780 {\AA} band with the dust-to-band ratio for the
Milky Way. Overall, we find the foreground dust-extinction properties for SN
2012cu to be consistent with those of the Milky Way. Furthermore we find no
evidence for significant time variation in any of these extinction tracers. We
also compare the dust extinction curve models of Cardelli et al. (1989),
O'Donnell (1994), and Fitzpatrick (1999), and find the predictions of
Fitzpatrick (1999) fit SN 2012cu the best. Finally, the distance to NGC4772,
the host of SN 2012cu, at a redshift of z = 0.0035, often assigned to the Virgo
Southern Extension, is determined to be 16.61.1 Mpc. We compare this
result with distance measurements in the literature.Comment: 48 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal. The spectral time series data presented in this article can be found
at http://snfactory.lbl.gov/snf/data
Improving Cosmological Distance Measurements Using Twin Type Ia Supernovae
We introduce a method for identifying "twin" Type Ia supernovae, and using
them to improve distance measurements. This novel approach to Type Ia supernova
standardization is made possible by spectrophotometric time series observations
from the Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory). We begin with a well-measured
set of supernovae, find pairs whose spectra match well across the entire
optical window, and then test whether this leads to a smaller dispersion in
their absolute brightnesses. This analysis is completed in a blinded fashion,
ensuring that decisions made in implementing the method do not inadvertently
bias the result. We find that pairs of supernovae with more closely matched
spectra indeed have reduced brightness dispersion. We are able to standardize
this initial set of SNfactory supernovae to 0.083 +/- 0.012 magnitudes,
implying a dispersion of 0.072 +/- 0.010 magnitudes in the absence of peculiar
velocities. We estimate that with larger numbers of comparison SNe, e.g, using
the final SNfactory spectrophotometric dataset as a reference, this method will
be capable of standardizing high-redshift supernovae to within 0.06-0.07
magnitudes. These results imply that at least 3/4 of the variance in Hubble
residuals in current supernova cosmology analyses is due to previously
unaccounted-for astrophysical differences among the supernovaeComment: 37 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Fixed
typo in arXiv abstrac
Measuring cosmic bulk flows with Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory
Context. Our Local Group of galaxies appears to be moving relative to the
cosmic microwave background with the source of the peculiar motion still
uncertain. While in the past this has been studied mostly using galaxies as
distance indicators, the weight of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) has increased
recently with the continuously improving statistics of available low-redshift
supernovae.
Aims. We measured the bulk flow in the nearby universe ()
using 117 SNe Ia observed by the Nearby Supernova Factory, as well as the
Union2 compilation of SN Ia data already in the literature.
Methods. The bulk flow velocity was determined from SN data binned in
redshift shells by including a coherent motion (dipole) in a cosmological fit.
Additionally, a method of spatially smoothing the Hubble residuals was used to
verify the results of the dipole fit. To constrain the location and mass of a
potential mass concentration (e.g., the Shapley supercluster) responsible for
the peculiar motion, we fit a Hubble law modified by adding an additional mass
concentration.
Results. The analysis shows a bulk flow that is consistent with the direction
of the CMB dipole up to , thereby doubling the volume over which
conventional distance measures are sensitive to a bulk flow. We see no
significant turnover behind the center of the Shapley supercluster. A simple
attractor model in the proximity of the Shapley supercluster is only marginally
consistent with our data, suggesting the need for another, more distant source.
In the redshift shell , we constrain the bulk flow velocity to
(68% confidence level) for the direction of the CMB
dipole, in contradiction to recent claims of the existence of a large-amplitude
dark flow.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, added corrigendum
(http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015A%26A...578C...1F
Massive stars exploding in a He-rich circumstellar medium. VI. Observations of two distant Type Ibn supernova candidates discovered by La Silla-QUEST
We present optical observations of the peculiar stripped-envelope supernovae
(SNe) LSQ12btw and LSQ13ccw discovered by the La Silla-QUEST survey. LSQ12btw
reaches an absolute peak magnitude of M(g) = -19.3 +- 0.2, and shows an
asymmetric light curve. Stringent prediscovery limits constrain its rise time
to maximum light to less than 4 days, with a slower post-peak luminosity
decline, similar to that experienced by the prototypical SN~Ibn 2006jc.
LSQ13ccw is somewhat different: while it also exhibits a very fast rise to
maximum, it reaches a fainter absolute peak magnitude (M(g) = -18.4 +- 0.2),
and experiences an extremely rapid post-peak decline similar to that observed
in the peculiar SN~Ib 2002bj. A stringent prediscovery limit and an early
marginal detection of LSQ13ccw allow us to determine the explosion time with an
uncertainty of 1 day. The spectra of LSQ12btw show the typical narrow He~I
emission lines characterising Type Ibn SNe, suggesting that the SN ejecta are
interacting with He-rich circumstellar material. The He I lines in the spectra
of LSQ13ccw exhibit weak narrow emissions superposed on broad components. An
unresolved Halpha line is also detected, suggesting a tentative Type Ibn/IIn
classification. As for other SNe~Ibn, we argue that LSQ12btw and LSQ13ccw
likely result from the explosions of Wolf-Rayet stars that experienced
instability phases prior to core collapse. We inspect the host galaxies of SNe
Ibn, and we show that all of them but one are hosted in spiral galaxies, likely
in environments spanning a wide metallicity range.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables. Accepted by MNRA
Photon polarization in radiative B decays
We study decay distributions in B -> K pi pi gamma, combining contributions
from several overlapping resonances in a K pi pi mass range near 1400 MeV,
(1^+) K_1(1400), (2^+) K^*_2(1430) and (1^-) K^*(1410). A method is proposed
for using these distributions to determine a photon polarization parameter in
the effective radiative weak Hamiltonian. This parameter is measured through an
up-down asymmetry of the photon direction relative to the K pi pi decay plane.
We calculate a dominant up-down asymmetry of 0.33 +- 0.05 from the K1(1400)
resonance, which can be measured with about 10^8 B B-bar pairs, thus providing
a new test for the Standard Model and a probe for some of its extensions.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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