2,398 research outputs found
An Induced Natural Selection Heuristic for Finding Optimal Bayesian Experimental Designs
Bayesian optimal experimental design has immense potential to inform the
collection of data so as to subsequently enhance our understanding of a variety
of processes. However, a major impediment is the difficulty in evaluating
optimal designs for problems with large, or high-dimensional, design spaces. We
propose an efficient search heuristic suitable for general optimisation
problems, with a particular focus on optimal Bayesian experimental design
problems. The heuristic evaluates the objective (utility) function at an
initial, randomly generated set of input values. At each generation of the
algorithm, input values are "accepted" if their corresponding objective
(utility) function satisfies some acceptance criteria, and new inputs are
sampled about these accepted points. We demonstrate the new algorithm by
evaluating the optimal Bayesian experimental designs for the previously
considered death, pharmacokinetic and logistic regression models. Comparisons
to the current "gold-standard" method are given to demonstrate the proposed
algorithm as a computationally-efficient alternative for moderately-large
design problems (i.e., up to approximately 40-dimensions)
Origin of differences in the excess volume of copper and nickel grain boundaries
The excess volume associated with grain boundaries is one of the primary factors driving defect segregation and diffusion which controls the electronic, mechanical and chemical properties of many polycrystalline materials. Experimental measurements of the grain boundary excess volume of fcc metals Cu and Ni have shown a difference of over 40%. The difference in lattice constant between Cu and Ni is only 3%, therefore this substantial difference is currently lacking explanation. In this article we employ a high throughput computational approach to determine the atomic structure, formation energy and excess volume of a large number of tilt grain boundaries in Cu and Ni. By considering 400 distinct grain boundary orientations we confirm that theoretically there is a systematic difference between the excess volumes in the two materials and we provide atomistic insight into the origin of the effect
New Analysis Indicates No Thermal Inversion in the Atmosphere of HD 209458b
An important focus of exoplanet research is the determination of the
atmospheric temperature structure of strongly irradiated gas giant planets, or
hot Jupiters. HD 209458b is the prototypical exoplanet for atmospheric thermal
inversions, but this assertion does not take into account recently obtained
data or newer data reduction techniques. We re-examine this claim by
investigating all publicly available Spitzer Space Telescope secondary-eclipse
photometric data of HD 209458b and performing a self-consistent analysis. We
employ data reduction techniques that minimize stellar centroid variations,
apply sophisticated models to known Spitzer systematics, and account for
time-correlated noise in the data. We derive new secondary-eclipse depths of
0.119 +/- 0.007%, 0.123 +/- 0.006%, 0.134 +/- 0.035%, and 0.215 +/- 0.008% in
the 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 micron bandpasses, respectively. We feed these
results into a Bayesian atmospheric retrieval analysis and determine that it is
unnecessary to invoke a thermal inversion to explain our secondary-eclipse
depths. The data are well-fitted by a temperature model that decreases
monotonically between pressure levels of 1 and 0.01 bars. We conclude that
there is no evidence for a thermal inversion in the atmosphere of HD 209458b.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
A Search for Water in the Atmosphere of HAT-P-26b Using LDSS-3C
The characterization of a physically-diverse set of transiting exoplanets is
an important and necessary step towards establishing the physical properties
linked to the production of obscuring clouds or hazes. It is those planets with
identifiable spectroscopic features that can most effectively enhance our
understanding of atmospheric chemistry and metallicity. The newly-commissioned
LDSS-3C instrument on Magellan provides enhanced sensitivity and suppressed
fringing in the red optical, thus advancing the search for the spectroscopic
signature of water in exoplanetary atmospheres from the ground. Using data
acquired by LDSS-3C and the Spitzer Space Telescope, we search for evidence of
water vapor in the transmission spectrum of the Neptune-mass planet HAT-P-26b.
Our measured spectrum is best explained by the presence of water vapor, a lack
of potassium, and either a high-metallicity, cloud-free atmosphere or a
solar-metallicity atmosphere with a cloud deck at ~10 mbar. The emergence of
multi-scale-height spectral features in our data suggests that future
observations at higher precision could break this degeneracy and reveal the
planet's atmospheric chemical abundances. We also update HAT-P-26b's transit
ephemeris, t_0 = 2455304.65218(25) BJD_TDB, and orbital period, p =
4.2345023(7) days.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
Ground-based optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-1b
Time-series spectrophotometric studies of exoplanets during transit using
ground-based facilities are a promising approach to characterize their
atmospheric compositions. We aim to investigate the transit spectrum of the hot
Jupiter HAT-P-1b. We compare our results to those obtained at similar
wavelengths by previous space-based observations. We observed two transits of
HAT-P-1b with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) instrument on the
Gemini North telescope using two instrument modes covering the 320 - 800 nm and
520 - 950 nm wavelength ranges. We used time-series spectrophotometry to
construct transit light curves in individual wavelength bins and measure the
transit depths in each bin. We accounted for systematic effects. We addressed
potential photometric variability due to magnetic spots in the planet's host
star with long-term photometric monitoring. We find that the resulting transit
spectrum is consistent with previous Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations.
We compare our observations to transit spectroscopy models that marginally
favor a clear atmosphere. However, the observations are also consistent with a
flat spectrum, indicating high-altitude clouds. We do not detect the Na
resonance absorption line (589 nm), and our observations do not have sufficient
precision to study the resonance line of K at 770 nm. We show that even a
single Gemini/GMOS transit can provide constraining power on the properties of
the atmosphere of HAT-P-1b to a level comparable to that of HST transit studies
in the optical when the observing conditions and target and reference star
combination are suitable. Our 520 - 950 nm observations reach a precision
comparable to that of HST transit spectra in a similar wavelength range of the
same hot Jupiter, HAT-P-1b. However, our GMOS transit between 320 - 800 nm
suffers from strong systematic effects and yields larger uncertainties.Comment: A&A, accepted, 16 pages, 8 figures, 5 table
Hubble Space Telescope Near-IR Transmission Spectroscopy of the Super-Earth HD 97658b
Recent results from the Kepler mission indicate that super-Earths (planets
with masses between 1-10 times that of the Earth) are the most common kind of
planet around nearby Sun-like stars. These planets have no direct solar system
analogue, and are currently one of the least well-understood classes of
extrasolar planets. Many super-Earths have average densities that are
consistent with a broad range of bulk compositions, including both
water-dominated worlds and rocky planets covered by a thick hydrogen and helium
atmosphere. Measurements of the transmission spectra of these planets offer the
opportunity to resolve this degeneracy by directly constraining the scale
heights and corresponding mean molecular weights of their atmospheres. We
present Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared spectroscopy of two transits of
the newly discovered transiting super-Earth HD 97658b. We use the Wide Field
Camera 3's scanning mode to measure the wavelength-dependent transit depth in
thirty individual bandpasses. Our averaged differential transmission spectrum
has a median 1 sigma uncertainty of 23 ppm in individual bins, making this the
most precise observation of an exoplanetary transmission spectrum obtained with
WFC3 to date. Our data are inconsistent with a cloud-free solar metallicity
atmosphere at the 10 sigma level. They are consistent at the 0.4 sigma level
with a flat line model, as well as effectively flat models corresponding to a
metal-rich atmosphere or a solar metallicity atmosphere with a cloud or haze
layer located at pressures of 10 mbar or higher.Comment: ApJ in press; revised version includes an updated orbital ephemeris
for the plane
Atomic structure and electronic properties of MgO grain boundaries in tunnelling magnetoresistive devices
Polycrystalline metal oxides find diverse applications in areas such as nanoelectronics, photovoltaics and catalysis. Although grain boundary defects are ubiquitous their structure and electronic properties are very poorly understood since it is extremely challenging to probe the structure of buried interfaces directly. In this paper we combine novel plan-view high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and first principles calculations to provide atomic level understanding of the structure and properties of grain boundaries in the barrier layer of a magnetic tunnel junction. We show that the highly [001] textured MgO films contain numerous tilt grain boundaries. First principles calculations reveal how these grain boundaries are associated with locally reduced band gaps (by up to 3 eV). Using a simple model we show how shunting a proportion of the tunnelling current through grain boundaries imposes limits on the maximum magnetoresistance that can be achieved in devices
Detection of Helium in the Atmosphere of the Exo-Neptune HAT-P-11b
The helium absorption triplet at a wavelength of 10,833 \AA\ has been
proposed as a way to probe the escaping atmospheres of exoplanets. Recently
this feature was detected for the first time using Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
WFC3 observations of the hot Jupiter WASP-107b. We use similar HST/WFC3
observations to detect helium in the atmosphere of the hot Neptune HAT-P-11b at
the confidence level. We compare our observations to a grid of 1D
models of hydrodynamic escape to constrain the thermospheric temperatures and
mass loss rate. We find that our data are best fit by models with high mass
loss rates of - g s. Although we do
not detect the planetary wind directly, our data are consistent with the
prediction that HAT-P-11b is experiencing hydrodynamic atmospheric escape.
Nevertheless, the mass loss rate is low enough that the planet has only lost up
to a few percent of its mass over its history, leaving its bulk composition
largely unaffected. This matches the expectation from population statistics,
which indicate that close-in planets with radii greater than 2 R
form and retain H/He-dominated atmospheres. We also confirm the independent
detection of helium in HAT-P-11b obtained with the CARMENES instrument, making
this the first exoplanet with the detection of the same signature of
photoevaporation from both ground- and space-based facilities.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
A Precise Water Abundance Measurement for the Hot Jupiter WASP-43b
The water abundance in a planetary atmosphere provides a key constraint on
the planet's primordial origins because water ice is expected to play an
important role in the core accretion model of planet formation. However, the
water content of the Solar System giant planets is not well known because water
is sequestered in clouds deep in their atmospheres. By contrast, short-period
exoplanets have such high temperatures that their atmospheres have water in the
gas phase, making it possible to measure the water abundance for these objects.
We present a precise determination of the water abundance in the atmosphere of
the 2 short-period exoplanet WASP-43b based on thermal
emission and transmission spectroscopy measurements obtained with the Hubble
Space Telescope. We find the water content is consistent with the value
expected in a solar composition gas at planetary temperatures (0.4-3.5x solar
at 1 confidence). The metallicity of WASP-43b's atmosphere suggested
by this result extends the trend observed in the Solar System of lower metal
enrichment for higher planet masses.Comment: Accepted to ApJL; this version contains three supplemental figures
that are not included in the published paper. See also our companion paper
"Thermal structure of an exoplanet atmosphere from phase-resolved emission
spectroscopy" by Stevenson et a
A new method to correct for host star variability in multi-epoch observations of exoplanet transmission spectra
Transmission spectra of exoplanets orbiting active stars suffer from
wavelength-dependent effects due to stellar photospheric heterogeneity.
WASP-19b, an ultra-hot Jupiter (T 2100 K), is one such strongly
irradiated gas-giant orbiting an active solar-type star. We present optical
(520-900 nm) transmission spectra of WASP-19b obtained across eight epochs
using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini-South
telescope. We apply our recently developed Gaussian Processes regression based
method to model the transit light curve systematics and extract the
transmission spectrum at each epoch. We find that WASP-19b's transmission
spectrum is affected by stellar variability at individual epochs. We report an
observed anticorrelation between the relative slopes and offsets of the spectra
across all epochs. This anticorrelation is consistent with the predictions from
the forward transmission models, which account for the effect of unocculted
stellar spots and faculae measured previously for WASP-19. We introduce a new
method to correct for this stellar variability effect at each epoch by using
the observed correlation between the transmission spectral slopes and offsets.
We compare our stellar variability corrected GMOS transmission spectrum with
previous contradicting MOS measurements for WASP-19b and attempt to reconcile
them. We also measure the amplitude and timescale of broadband stellar
variability of WASP-19 from TESS photometry, which we find to be consistent
with the effect observed in GMOS spectroscopy and ground-based broadband
photometric long-term monitoring. Our results ultimately caution against
combining multi-epoch optical transmission spectra of exoplanets orbiting
active stars before correcting each epoch for stellar variability.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
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