348 research outputs found
Reionization and Beyond: detecting the peaks of the cosmological 21cm signal
[ABRIDGED] The cosmological 21cm signal is set to become the most powerful
probe of the early Universe, with first generation interferometers aiming to
make statistical detections of reionization. There is increasing interest also
in the pre-reionization epoch when the intergalactic medium was heated by an
early X-ray background. Here we perform parameter studies varying the halo
masses hosting galaxies, and their X-ray production efficiencies. We also
relate these to popular models of Warm Dark Matter cosmologies. For each
parameter combination we compute the signal-to-noise (S/N) of the large-scale
(k~0.1/Mpc) 21cm power for both reionization and X-ray heating for a 2000h
observation with several instruments: 128 tile Murchison Wide Field Array
(MWA128T), a 256 tile extension (MWA256T), the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), the
128 element Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER), and
the second generation Square Kilometre Array (SKA). We show that X-ray heating
and reionization in many cases are of comparable detectability. For fiducial
astrophysical parameters, MWA128T might detect X-ray heating thanks to its
extended bandpass. When it comes to reionization, both MWA128T and PAPER will
also only achieve marginal detections, unless foregrounds on larger scales can
be mitigated. On the other hand, LOFAR should detect plausible models of
reionization at S/N > 10. The SKA will easily detect both X-ray heating and
reionization.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS in-pres
TIME SERIES ANALYSIS OF SATELLITE DATA: DEFORESTATION IN SOUTHERN MEXICO
Tropical deforestation is significant to a range of themes that have relevance for the study of environmental change and economic development, including global warming, land degradation, species extinction, and sustainability issues. Recognition that both the location and pattern of forest clearance are often as important as its magnitude has motivated an increasing number of econometric studies that link satellite data and government census data with the aim of modeling the spatial dimensions of deforestation processes. Initial research focused on time series analysis, while recent work has started developing models that make use of time series data on land use. In this paper, we use satellite data from three dates over an approximate 15-year period to estimate the probability of a satellite pixel being in a forested or human-disturbed state. Our study focuses on land-use change in an agricultural frontier spanning the southern Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo. This region contains one of the largest and oldest expanses of tropical forests in the Americas outside of Amazonia and has been identified as a "hot spot" of forest and biotic diversity loss. Over the past 30 years, these forests have been under sustained pressure following the construction of a highway in 1972 that opened the frontier to settlement. The road was part of a larger development effort to promote agricultural colonization and has contributed to a prolonged period of land transformation that has been captured by Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery. We capture these landscape dynamics by assembling a spatial database that links the pixels from three TM images spanning the years 1986-1997 and other spatial environmental and GIS-location derived data with government census socio-economic data of data. We develop a simple utility-maximizing model of the forest clearance decision. Based on previous research, the theoretical model suggests many possible determinants of forest clearance in an economic environment characterized by missing or thin markets, as typifies frontier regions in the nascent stages of economic development. We subsequently test the significance of these determinants using discrete choice analysis These modeling questions have particular relevance for informing carbon sequestration and global warming policy initiatives. Other on-going research conducted by the ecologists associated with the project focus on the species composition, abundance, structure, and re-growth of the different forests types in the region. In addition, litter and biomass studies have been completed which included carbon estimates for the different forest types, including forest re-growth on agricultural land, as function of fallow cycle dynamics. Fallow cycle dynamics are extremely important as the region is dominated by semi-subsistence agriculture with very little chemical inputs, so farmers depend on the fallow cycle to restore soil productivity. It will be these detailed data that will be used to calculate baseline carbon sequestration amounts.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,
Detecting the 21 cm Forest in the 21 cm Power Spectrum
We describe a new technique for constraining the radio loud population of
active galactic nuclei at high redshift by measuring the imprint of 21 cm
spectral absorption features (the 21 cm forest) on the 21 cm power spectrum.
Using semi-numerical simulations of the intergalactic medium and a
semi-empirical source population we show that the 21 cm forest dominates a
distinctive region of -space, . By simulating
foregrounds and noise for current and potential radio arrays, we find that a
next generation instrument with a collecting area on the order of (such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array) may
separately constrain the X-ray heating history at large spatial scales and
radio loud active galactic nuclei of the model we study at small ones. We
extrapolate our detectability predictions for a single radio loud active
galactic nuclei population to arbitrary source scenarios by analytically
relating the 21 cm forest power spectrum to the optical depth power spectrum
and an integral over the radio luminosity function.Comment: 20 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Specification-level change impact analysis with use case maps
In this research, we present a lightweight approach to identify the impact of requirement changes at the specification level. We use specification information included in Use Case Maps to analyze the potential impact of requirement changes on a system. We propose dependency definitions and algorithms to identify Use Case Map scenario and component relationships. Also, techniques for ripple effect analysis at the scenario, component and element levels of abstraction are presented. Further, we present our tool that implements the proposed approaches showing the possibility of automation. A simple case study makes use of this tool to analyze an existing Use Case Map to show the information that is returned by our approach and its applicability in change impact analysis
Constraining High Redshift X-ray Sources with Next Generation 21 cm Power Spectrum Measurements
We use the Fisher matrix formalism and semi-numerical simulations to derive
quantitative predictions of the constraints that power spectrum measurements on
next-generation interferometers, such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization
Array (HERA) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will place on the
characteristics of the X-ray sources that heated the high redshift
intergalactic medium. Incorporating observations between and , we
find that the proposed 331 element HERA and SKA phase 1 will be capable of
placing constraints on the spectral properties of these first
X-ray sources, even if one is unable to perform measurements within the
foreground contaminated "wedge" or the FM band. When accounting for the
enhancement in power spectrum amplitude from spin temperature fluctuations, we
find that the observable signatures of reionization extend well beyond the peak
in the power spectrum usually associated with it. We also find that lower
redshift degeneracies between the signatures of heating and reionization
physics lead to errors on reionization parameters that are significantly
greater than previously predicted. Observations over the heating epoch are able
to break these degeneracies and improve our constraints considerably. For these
two reasons, 21\,cm observations during the heating epoch significantly enhance
our understanding of reionization as well.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, Accepted to MNRA
The Sensitivity of First Generation Epoch of Reionization Observatories and Their Potential for Differentiating Theoretical Power Spectra
Statistical observations of the epoch of reionization (EOR) power spectrum
provide a rich data set for understanding the transition from the cosmic "dark
ages" to the ionized universe we see today. EOR observations have become an
active area of experimental cosmology, and three first generation
observatories--MWA, PAST, and LOFAR--are currently under development. In this
paper we provide the first quantitative calculation of the three dimensional
power spectrum sensitivity, incorporating the design parameters of a planned
array. This calculation is then used to explore the constraints these first
generation observations can place on the EOR power spectrum. The results
demonstrate the potential of upcoming power spectrum observations to constrain
theories of structure formation and reionization.Comment: 7 pages with 5 figures. Submitted to Ap
A multipole-Taylor expansion for the potential of gravitational lens MG J0414+0534
We employ a multipole-Taylor expansion to investigate how tightly the
gravitational potential of the quadruple-image lens MG J0414+0534 is
constrained by recent VLBI observations. These observations revealed that each
of the four images of the background radio source contains four distinct
components, thereby providing more numerous and more precise constraints on the
lens potential than were previously available. We expand the two-dimensional
lens potential using multipoles for the angular coordinate and a modified
Taylor series for the radial coordinate. After discussing the physical
significance of each term, we compute models of MG J0414+0534 using only VLBI
positions as constraints. The best-fit model has both interior and exterior
quadrupole moments as well as exterior m=3 and m=4 multipole moments. The
deflector centroid in the models matches the optical galaxy position, and the
quadrupoles are aligned with the optical isophotes. The radial distribution of
mass could not be well constrained. We discuss the implications of these models
for the deflector mass distribution and for the predicted time delays between
lensed components.Comment: 44 pages, 5 figures, 11 tables, accepted for publication in Ap
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