3,199 research outputs found
A maximum-likelihood method for improving faint source flux and color estimates
Flux estimates for faint sources or transients are systematically biased high
because there are far more truly faint sources than bright. Corrections which
account for this effect are presented as a function of signal-to-noise ratio
and the (true) slope of the faint-source number-flux relation. The corrections
depend on the source being originally identified in the image in which it is
being photometered. If a source has been identified in other data, the
corrections are different; a prescription for calculating the corrections is
presented. Implications of these corrections for analyses of surveys are
discussed; the most important is that sources identified at signal-to-noise
ratios of four or less are practically useless.Comment: 9 pp., accepted for publication in PAS
GaAs-based Self-Aligned Stripe Superluminescent Diodes Processed Normal to the Cleaved Facet
We demonstrate GaAs-based superluminescent diodes (SLDs) incorporating a window-like back facet in a self-aligned stripe. SLDs are realised with low spectral modulation depth (SMD) at high power spectral density, without application of anti-reflection coatings. Such application of a window-like facet reduces effective facet reflectivity in a broadband manner. We demonstrate 30mW output power in a narrow bandwidth with only 5% SMD, outline the design criteria for high power and low SMD, and describe the deviation from a linear dependence of SMD on output power as a result of Joule heating in SLDs under continuous wave current injection. Furthermore, SLDs processed normal to the facet demonstrate output powers as high as 20mW, offering improvements in beam quality, ease of packaging and use of real estate. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only
Fast computation by block permanents of cumulative distribution functions of order statistics from several populations
The joint cumulative distribution function for order statistics arising from
several different populations is given in terms of the distribution function of
the populations. The computational cost of the formula in the case of two
populations is still exponential in the worst case, but it is a dramatic
improvement compared to the general formula by Bapat and Beg. In the case when
only the joint distribution function of a subset of the order statistics of
fixed size is needed, the complexity is polynomial, for the case of two
populations.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure
The impact of HPV cervical screening on negative large loop excision of the transformation zone (LLETZ):A comparative cohort study
The First Detections of the Extragalactic Background Light at 3000, 5500, and 8000A (III): Cosmological Implications
(Abridged) We have used HST WFPC2 and ground-based spectroscopy to measure
the integrated extragalactic background light (EBL) at optical wavelengths. We
have also computed the integrated light from individual galaxy counts in the
images used to measure the EBL and in the Hubble Deep Field. We find that the
flux in galaxies as measured by standard galaxy photometry methods has
generally been underestimated by about 50%. Further, we find that the total
flux in individually detected galaxies is a factor of 2 to 3 less than the EBL
at 3000--8000A. We show that a significant fraction of the EBL may come from
normal galaxies at z<4, which are simply undetectable as a result of
K-corrections and cosmological surface brightness dimming. This is consistent
with recent redshift surveys at z<4. In the context of some simple models, we
discuss the constraints placed by the EBL on the evolution of the luminosity
density at z>1. Based on our optical EBL and published UV and IR EBL
measurements, we estimate that the total EBL from 0.1--1000 microns is 100+/-20
nW/m^2/sr. If the total EBL were produced entirely by stellar nucleosynthesis,
then we estimate that the total baryonic mass processed through stars is
Omega_* = 0.0062 (+/- 0.0022) h^{-2}, which corresponds to 0.33+/-0.12 Omega_B
for currently favored values of the baryon density. This estimate is smaller by
roughly 7% if 7 h_{0.7} nW/m^2/sr of the total EBL comes from accretion onto
central black holes. This estimate of Omega_* suggests that the universe has
been enriched to a total metal mass of 0.21(+/-0.13) Z_sun Omega_B. Our
estimate is consistent with other measurements of the cumulative metal mass
fraction of stars, stellar remnants, and the intracluster medium of galaxy
clusters in the local universe.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 pages using emulateapj.sty,
version with higher resolution figures available at
http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~rab/publications.html or at
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept01/Bernstein3/frames.htm
The Statistical Approach to Quantifying Galaxy Evolution
Studies of the distribution and evolution of galaxies are of fundamental
importance to modern cosmology; these studies, however, are hampered by the
complexity of the competing effects of spectral and density evolution.
Constructing a spectroscopic sample that is able to unambiguously disentangle
these processes is currently excessively prohibitive due to the observational
requirements. This paper extends and applies an alternative approach that
relies on statistical estimates for both distance (z) and spectral type to a
deep multi-band dataset that was obtained for this exact purpose.
These statistical estimates are extracted directly from the photometric data
by capitalizing on the inherent relationships between flux, redshift, and
spectral type. These relationships are encapsulated in the empirical
photometric redshift relation which we extend to z ~ 1.2, with an intrinsic
dispersion of dz = 0.06. We also develop realistic estimates for the
photometric redshift error for individual objects, and introduce the
utilization of the galaxy ensemble as a tool for quantifying both a
cosmological parameter and its measured error. We present deep, multi-band,
optical number counts as a demonstration of the integrity of our sample. Using
the photometric redshift and the corresponding redshift error, we can divide
our data into different redshift intervals and spectral types. As an example
application, we present the number redshift distribution as a function of
spectral type.Comment: 40 pages (LaTex), 21 Figures, requires aasms4.sty; Accepted by the
Astrophysical Journa
Transformations between WISE, 2MASS, SDSS and BVRI photometric systems: I. Transformation equations for dwarfs
We present colour transformations for the conversion of the W1 and W2
magnitudes of WISE photometric system to the Johnson-Cousins' BVRI, SDSS (gri),
and 2MASS (JHK_s) photometric systems, for dwarfs. The W3 and W4 magnitudes
were not considered due to their insufficient signal to noise ratio (S/N). The
coordinates of 825 dwarfs along with their BVRI, gri, and JHK_s data, taken
from Bilir et al. (2008) were matched with the coordinates of stars in the
preliminary data release of WISE (Wright et al., 2010) and a homogeneous dwarf
sample with high S/N ratio have been obtained using the following constraints:
1) the data were dereddened, 2) giants were identified and excluded from the
sample, 3) sample stars were selected according to data quality, 4)
transformations were derived for sub samples of different metallicity range,
and 5) transformations are two colour dependent. These colour transformations,
coupled with known absolute magnitudes at shorter wavelenghts, can be used in
space density evaluation for the Galactic (thin and thick) discs, at distances
larger than the ones evaluated with JHK_s photometry.Comment: 16 pages, including 5 figures and 7 tables, accepted for publication
in MNRA
Quantum heuristic algorithm for traveling salesman problem
We propose a quantum heuristic algorithm to solve a traveling salesman
problem by generalizing Grover search. Sufficient conditions are derived to
greatly enhance the probability of finding the tours with extremal costs,
reaching almost to unity and they are shown characterized by statistical
properties of tour costs. In particular for a Gaussian distribution of the
tours along the cost we show that the quantum algorithm exhibits the quadratic
speedup of its classical counterpart, similarly to Grover search.Comment: Published versio
Comparison of two serotyping methods of L. monocytogenes isolated from human cases of listeriosis, food and food plants environment
- …