566 research outputs found
Asteroseismic Stellar Modelling with AIMS
The goal of AIMS (Asteroseismic Inference on a Massive Scale) is to estimate
stellar parameters and credible intervals/error bars in a Bayesian manner from
a set of asteroseismic frequency data and so-called classical constraints. To
achieve reliable parameter estimates and computational efficiency, it searches
through a grid of pre-computed models using an MCMC algorithm -- interpolation
within the grid of models is performed by first tessellating the grid using a
Delaunay triangulation and then doing a linear barycentric interpolation on
matching simplexes. Inputs for the modelling consist of individual frequencies
from peak-bagging, which can be complemented with classical spectroscopic
constraints. AIMS is mostly written in Python with a modular structure to
facilitate contributions from the community. Only a few computationally
intensive parts have been rewritten in Fortran in order to speed up
calculations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Tutorial presented at the IVth Azores
International Advanced School in Space Sciences on "Asteroseismology and
Exoplanets: Listening to the Stars and Searching for New Worlds"
(arXiv:1709.00645), which took place in Horta, Azores Islands, Portugal in
July 201
A Superheated Droplet Detector for Dark Matter Search
We discuss the operation principle of a detector based on superheated
droplets of Freon-12 and its feasibility for the search of weakly interacting
cold dark matter particles. In particular we are interested in a neutralino
search experiment in the mass range from 10 to 10^4 GeV/c^2 and with a
sensitivity of better than 10^-2 events/kg/d. We show that our new proposed
detector can be operated at ambient pressure and room temperature in a mode
where it is exclusively sensitive to nuclear recoils like those following
neutralino interactions, which allows a powerful background discrimination. An
additional advantage of this technique is due to the fact that the detection
material, Freon-12, is cheap and readily available in large quantities.
Moreover we were able to show that piezoelectric transducers allow efficient
event localization in large volumes.Comment: 15 pages LATEX; 11 figures on request from [email protected]
submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods
Domain Wall Dynamics of Phase Interfaces
The statics and dynamics of a surface separating two phases of a relativistic
quantum field theory at or near the critical temperature typically make use of
a free energy as a functional of an order parameter. This free energy
functional also affords an economical description of states away from
equilibrium. The similarities and differences between using a scalar field as
the order parameter versus the energy density are examined, and a peculiarity
is noted. We also point out several conceptual errors in the literature dealing
with the dynamical prefactor in the nucleation rate.Comment: 12 pages plus 5 figure
Newtonian Collapse of Scalar Field Dark Matter
In this letter, we develop a Newtonian approach to the collapse of galaxy
fluctuations of scalar field dark matter under initial conditions inferred from
simple assumptions. The full relativistic system, the so called
Einstein-Klein-Gordon, is reduced to the Schr\"odinger-Newton one in the weak
field limit. The scaling symmetries of the SN equations are exploited to track
the non-linear collapse of single scalar matter fluctuations. The results can
be applied to both real and complex scalar fields.Comment: 4 pages RevTex4 file, 4 eps figure
Latent class analysis variable selection
We propose a method for selecting variables in latent class analysis, which is the most common model-based clustering method for discrete data. The method assesses a variable's usefulness for clustering by comparing two models, given the clustering variables already selected. In one model the variable contributes information about cluster allocation beyond that contained in the already selected variables, and in the other model it does not. A headlong search algorithm is used to explore the model space and select clustering variables. In simulated datasets we found that the method selected the correct clustering variables, and also led to improvements in classification performance and in accuracy of the choice of the number of classes. In two real datasets, our method discovered the same group structure with fewer variables. In a dataset from the International HapMap Project consisting of 639 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 210 members of different groups, our method discovered the same group structure with a much smaller number of SNP
Milagrito: a TeV air-shower array
Milagrito, a large, covered water-Cherenkov detector, was the world's first
air-shower-particle detector sensitive to cosmic gamma rays below 1 TeV. It
served as a prototype for the Milagro detector and operated from February 1997
to May 1998. This paper gives a description of Milagrito, a summary of the
operating experience, and early results that demonstrate the capabilities of
this technique.Comment: 38 pages including 24 figure
Homogeneous nucleation of quark-gluon plasma, finite size effects and long-lived metastable objects
The general formalism of homogeneous nucleation theory is applied to study
the hadronization pattern of the ultra-relativistic quark-gluon plasma (QGP)
undergoing a first order phase transition. A coalescence model is proposed to
describe the evolution dynamics of hadronic clusters produced in the nucleation
process. The size distribution of the nucleated clusters is important for the
description of the plasma conversion. The model is most sensitive to the
initial conditions of the QGP thermalization, time evolution of the energy
density, and the interfacial energy of the plasma-hadronic matter interface.
The rapidly expanding QGP is first supercooled by about . Then it reheats again up to the critical temperature T_c. Finally it
breaks up into hadronic clusters and small droplets of plasma. This fast
dynamics occurs within the first . The finite size effects and
fluctuations near the critical temperature are studied. It is shown that a drop
of longitudinally expanding QGP of the transverse radius below 4.5 fm can
display a long-lived metastability. However, both in the rapid and in the
delayed hadronization scenario, the bulk pion yield is emitted by sources as
large as 3-4.5 fm. This may be detected experimentally both by a HBT
interferometry signal and by the analysis of the rapidity distributions of
particles in narrow p_T-intervals at small p_T on an event-by-event basis.Comment: 29 pages, incl. 12 figures and 1 table; to be published in Phys. Rev.
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