292 research outputs found
Photometric observations of selected, optically bright quasars for Space Interferometry Mission and other future celestial reference frames
Photometric observations of 235 extragalactic objects that are potential
targets for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) are presented. Mean B, V, R,
I magnitudes at the 5% level are obtained at 1 - 4 epochs between 2005 and 2007
using the 1-m telescopes at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and Naval
Observatory Flagstaff Station. Of the 134 sources which have V magnitudes in
the Veron & Veron-Cetty catalog a difference of over 1.0 mag is found for the
observed-catalog magnitudes for about 36% of the common sources, and 10 sources
show over 3 mag difference. Our first set of observations presented here form
the basis of a long-term photometric variability study of the selected
reference frame sources to assist in mission target selection and to support in
general QSO multi-color photometric variability studies.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures, 4 table
Unilateral Peters' Anomaly with Chorioretinal Coloboma in the Other Eye
An 18-year-old man presented with poor vision in both eyes that had been present since birth. Central corneal opacity and inferior peripheral sclerocornea with iridocorneal adhesion were observed upon anterior segment examination of the left eye. A coloboma of the iris was observed in the patient's right eye, which manifested as a small notch in the inferior pupillary margin and cataract. Fundus examination of the right eye showed a large inferior chorioretinal coloboma involving the optic disc and macula. It is essential to examine the fundus in detail, if possible, in cases of Peters' anomaly, because these patients may have congenital anomalies such as chorioretinal coloboma
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Indoor air quality measurements in energy efficient buildings
The Energy Efficient Buildings Program of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) has designed and fabricated a mobile laboratory for research and development studies of ventilation requirements and energy utilization in residential and commercial buildings. The Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Mobile Laboratory is used in studies of indoor air quality in buildings before and after energy conservation retrofits and in new buildings incorporating energy efficient designs. Indoor air quality measurements have been conducted in residential buildings and work in progress includes indoor air quality monitoring in schools, hospitals, and energy efficient residential buildings. The monitoring program includes measurement of CO, CO/sub 2/, SO/sub 2/, NO, NO/sub 2/, O/sub 3/, infiltration rate (tracer gas technique), and aerosol size distribution on a continuous basis. Total and respirable-fraction particulate samples are collected on membrane filter media for analysis by x-ray fluorescence (XRFA), photoelectron spectroscopy (ESCA), proton activation analysis (PAA), combustion, and wet-chemistry techniques for the determination of particulate elemental composition (S, N, C, etc.) and ionic species such as SO/sub 4//sup 2 -/, NO/sub 3//sup -/, and NH/sub 4//sup +/. Results of the initial phases of this program indicate that the concentrations of some gaseous and respirable particulate air pollutants in specific indoor environments exceed those levels commonly found in the outdoor urban air environment
Spectral networks
We introduce new geometric objects called spectral networks. Spectral
networks are networks of trajectories on Riemann surfaces obeying certain local
rules. Spectral networks arise naturally in four-dimensional N=2 theories
coupled to surface defects, particularly the theories of class S. In these
theories spectral networks provide a useful tool for the computation of BPS
degeneracies: the network directly determines the degeneracies of solitons
living on the surface defect, which in turn determine the degeneracies for
particles living in the 4d bulk. Spectral networks also lead to a new map
between flat GL(K,C) connections on a two-dimensional surface C and flat
abelian connections on an appropriate branched cover Sigma of C. This
construction produces natural coordinate systems on moduli spaces of flat
GL(K,C) connections on C, which we conjecture are cluster coordinate systems.Comment: 87 pages, 48 figures; v2: typos, correction to general rule for signs
of BPS count
Selecting Quasars by their Intrinsic Variability
We present a new and simple technique for selecting extensive, complete and
pure quasar samples, based on their intrinsic variability. We parametrize the
single-band variability by a power-law model for the light-curve structure
function, with amplitude A and power-law index gamma. We show that quasars can
be efficiently separated from other non-variable and variable sources by the
location of the individual sources in the A-gamma plane. We use ~60 epochs of
imaging data, taken over ~5 years, from the SDSS stripe 82 (S82) survey, where
extensive spectroscopy provides a reference sample of quasars, to demonstrate
the power of variability as a quasar classifier in multi-epoch surveys. For
UV-excess selected objects, variability performs just as well as the standard
SDSS color selection, identifying quasars with a completeness of 90% and a
purity of 95%. In the redshift range 2.5<z<3, where color selection is known to
be problematic, variability can select quasars with a completeness of 90% and a
purity of 96%. This is a factor of 5-10 times more pure than existing
color-selection of quasars in this redshift range. Selecting objects from a
broad griz color box without u-band information, variability selection in S82
can afford completeness and purity of 92%, despite a factor of 30 more
contaminants than quasars in the color-selected feeder sample. This confirms
that the fraction of quasars hidden in the 'stellar locus' of color-space is
small. To test variability selection in the context of Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) we
created mock PS1 data by down-sampling the S82 data to just 6 epochs over 3
years. Even with this much sparser time sampling, variability is an
encouragingly efficient classifier. For instance, a 92% pure and 44% complete
quasar candidate sample is attainable from the above -selected catalog.Comment: 16 pages, 9 color figures and 5 tables - v3: Equations corrected and
text updated (see Erratum for details of corrections). Erratum:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ApJ...721.1941S Original Paper:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ApJ...714.1194
Discovery of a Radio-Selected z ~ 6 Quasar
We present the discovery of only the second radio-selected, z ~ 6 quasar. We
identified SDSS J222843.54+011032.2 (z=5.95) by matching the optical detections
of the deep Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 with their radio
counterparts in the Stripe82 VLA Survey. We also matched the
Canadian-France-Hawaiian Telescope Legacy Survey Wide (CFHTLS Wide) with the
Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (FIRST) survey but have yet to find
any z ~ 6 quasars in this survey area. The discovered quasar is
optically-faint, z = 22.3 and M_{1450} ~ -24.5, but radio-bright, with a flux
density of f = 0.31mJy and a radio-loudness of R ~ 1100 (where
R = f_{5GHz}/f_{2500}). The i-z color of the discovered quasar places it
outside the color selection criteria for existing optical surveys. We conclude
by discussing the need for deeper wide-area radio surveys in the context of
high-redshift quasars.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, and ApJ accepte
A Large, Uniform Sample of X-ray Emitting AGN from the ROSAT All-Sky and Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: the Data Release 5 Sample
We describe further results of a program aimed to yield ~10^4 fully
characterized optical identifications of ROSAT X-ray sources. Our program
employs X-ray data from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS), and both optical
imaging and spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).
RASS/SDSS data from 5740 deg^2 of sky spectroscopically covered in SDSS Data
Release 5 (DR5) provide an expanded catalog of 7000 confirmed quasars and other
AGN that are probable RASS identifications. Again in our expanded catalog, the
identifications as X-ray sources are statistically secure, with only a few
percent of the SDSS AGN likely to be randomly superposed on unrelated RASS
X-ray sources. Most identifications continue to be quasars and Seyfert 1s with
15<m<21 and 0.01<z<4; but the total sample size has grown to include very
substantial numbers of even quite rare AGN, e.g., now including several
hundreds of candidate X-ray emitting BL Lacs and narrow-line Seyfert 1
galaxies. In addition to exploring rare subpopulations, such a large total
sample may be useful when considering correlations between the X-ray and the
optical, and may also serve as a resource list from which to select the "best"
object (e.g., X-ray brightest AGN of a certain subclass, at a preferred
redshift or luminosity) for follow-on X-ray spectral or alternate detailed
studies.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ; 32 pages, including 11 figures, and 6
example table
Unified Topographic and Atmospheric Correction for Remote Imaging Spectroscopy
Models linking surface characteristics within incident solar radiation are inexorably dependent on the topography of the given region. To date, however, most operational surface reflectance retrievals treat this dependence by assuming a flat terrain, leading to significant deviations in the estimated reflectance. Here, we demonstrate that incorporating dynamic topography directly into the joint surface and atmospheric model during retrievals has several advantages. First, it allows for a more complete physical accounting of downwelling illumination, providing more accurate estimates of the absolute magnitude of reflectance. Second, it facilitates a superior resolution of the atmospheric state, most notably due to the confounding influence of atmospheric aerosols and unresolved topographic effects. Our methodology utilizes a practical, high-fidelity, model-driven approach to separate out diffuse and direct irradiation and account for topographic effects during the joint inversion of atmosphere and surface properties. We achieve this by enhancing the atmosphere/surface inversion to account for the radiative transfer effects of surface slope. We further demonstrate how uncertainties in topographic features can be quantified and leveraged within our formulation for a more realistic posterior uncertainty estimates. Our results demonstrate that the inclusion of topographic effects into the retrieval model reduces errors in the reflectance of an only moderately rugged terrain by more than 15%, and that a post hoc accounting of topography cannot achieve these same results
An Initial Survey of White Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
An initial assessment is made of white dwarf and hot subdwarf stars observed
in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In a small area of sky (190 square degrees),
observed much like the full survey will be, 269 white dwarfs and 56 hot
subdwarfs are identified spectroscopically where only 44 white dwarfs and 5 hot
subdwarfs were known previously. Most are ordinary DA (hydrogen atmosphere) and
DB (helium) types. In addition, in the full survey to date, a number of WDs
have been found with uncommon spectral types. Among these are blue DQ stars
displaying lines of atomic carbon; red DQ stars showing molecular bands of C_2
with a wide variety of strengths; DZ stars where Ca and occasionally Mg, Na,
and/or Fe lines are detected; and magnetic WDs with a wide range of magnetic
field strengths in DA, DB, DQ, and (probably) DZ spectral types. Photometry
alone allows identification of stars hotter than 12000 K, and the density of
these stars for 15<g<20 is found to be ~2.2 deg^{-2} at Galactic latitudes
29-62 deg. Spectra are obtained for roughly half of these hot stars. The
spectra show that, for 15<g<17, 40% of hot stars are WDs and the fraction of
WDs rises to ~90% at g=20. The remainder are hot sdB and sdO stars.Comment: Accepted for AJ; 43 pages, including 12 figures and 5 table
Optical and Radio Properties of Extragalactic Sources Observed by the FIRST and SDSS Surveys
We discuss the optical and radio properties of 30,000 FIRST sources
positionally associated with an SDSS source in 1230 deg of sky. The
majority (83%) of the FIRST sources identified with an SDSS source brighter
than r=21 are optically resolved. We estimate an upper limit of 5% for the
fraction of quasars with broad-band optical colors indistinguishable from those
of stars. The distribution of quasars in the radio flux -- optical flux plane
supports the existence of the "quasar radio-dichotomy"; 8% of all quasars with
i<18.5 are radio-loud and this fraction seems independent of redshift and
optical luminosity. The radio-loud quasars have a redder median color by 0.08
mag, and a 3 times larger fraction of objects with red colors. FIRST galaxies
represent 5% of all SDSS galaxies with r<17.5, and 1% for r<20, and are
dominated by red galaxies. Magnitude and redshift limited samples show that
radio galaxies have a different optical luminosity distribution than non-radio
galaxies selected by the same criteria; when galaxies are further separated by
their colors, this result remains valid for both blue and red galaxies. The
distributions of radio-to-optical flux ratio are similar for blue and red
galaxies in redshift-limited samples; this similarity implies that the
difference in their luminosity functions, and resulting selection effects, are
the dominant cause for the preponderance of red radio galaxies in flux-limited
samples. We confirm that the AGN-to-starburst galaxy number ratio increases
with radio flux, and find that radio emission from AGNs is more concentrated
than radio emission from starburst galaxies (abridged).Comment: submitted to AJ, color gif figures, PS figures available from
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