58,087 research outputs found
Thermal Dileptons from Hot and Dense Strongly Interacting Matter
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied muon-pair production in 158A
GeV In-In collisions. The unprecedented precision of the data has allowed to
isolate a strong excess of pairs above the known sources in the whole invariant
mass region 0.2<M<2.6 GeV. The (mostly) Planck-like shape of the mass spectra,
exponential m_T spectra, zero polarization and the general agreement with
thermal-model results allow for a consistent interpretation of the excess
dimuons as thermal radiation from a randomized system. For M<1 GeV, the process
pi+pi- -> rho -> mu+mu- dominates. The associated space-time averaged rho
spectral function shows a nearly diverging width in approaching chiral symmetry
restoration, but essentially no shift in mass. Some in-medium effects are also
seen for the omega, but not for the phi. For M>1 GeV, the average temperature
associated with the mass spectrum is about 200 MeV, considerably above T_c=170
MeV, implying a transition to dominantly partonic emission sources in this
region. The transition itself is mirrored by a large jump-like drop in the
inverse slope of the transverse mass spectra around 1 GeV.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of Chiral 2010 (Valencia, June
21-24, 2010
Period, epoch and prediction errors of ephemeris from continuous sets of timing measurements
Space missions such as Kepler and CoRoT have led to large numbers of eclipse
or transit measurements in nearly continuous time series. This paper shows how
to obtain the period error in such measurements from a basic linear
least-squares fit, and how to correctly derive the timing error in the
prediction of future transit or eclipse events. Assuming strict periodicity, a
formula for the period error of such time series is derived: sigma_P = sigma_T
(12/( N^3-N))^0.5, where sigma_P is the period error; sigma_T the timing error
of a single measurement and N the number of measurements. Relative to the
iterative method for period error estimation by Mighell & Plavchan (2013), this
much simpler formula leads to smaller period errors, whose correctness has been
verified through simulations. For the prediction of times of future periodic
events, the usual linear ephemeris where epoch errors are quoted for the first
time measurement, are prone to overestimation of the error of that prediction.
This may be avoided by a correction for the duration of the time series. An
alternative is the derivation of ephemerides whose reference epoch and epoch
error are given for the centre of the time series. For long continuous or
near-continuous time series whose acquisition is completed, such central epochs
should be the preferred way for the quotation of linear ephemerides. While this
work was motivated from the analysis of eclipse timing measures in space-based
light curves, it should be applicable to any other problem with an
uninterrupted sequence of discrete timings for which the determination of a
zero point, of a constant period and of the associated errors is needed.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, accepte
Specification and estimation of spatial econometric models : A discussion of alternative strategies for spatial economic modelling
The semantical insufficiency of (spatial) economic theories necessitates the making of additional assumptions — thereby introducing substantial specification uncertainty — in order to arrive at a fully specified econometric model. The traditional or current approach to econometric modelling treats specification uncertainty inadequately. This proposition is illustrated by two well-known examples from the spatial economic literature. Two alternative specification strategies for spatial economic modelling — designed to improve the current spatial econometric modelling approach — are proposed. One of these strategies is used for a specification analysis of agricultural output in Eire
Experimental Conference Summary
Experimental summary talk given at International Conference on
Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2001), Stony Brook, New York,
15-20 Jan 2001.Comment: Proceedings of a summary talk given at International Conference on
Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2001), Stony Brook, New York,
15-20 Jan 200
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