The Kink Phenomenon in Fejér and Clenshaw-Curtis Quadrature

The Fejér and Clenshaw-Curtis rules for numerical integration exhibit a curious phenomenon when applied to certain analytic functions. When N, (the number of points in the integration rule) increases, the error does not decay to zero evenly but does so in two distinct stages. For N less than a critical value, the error behaves like $O(\varrho^{-2N})$, where $\varrho$ is a constant greater than 1. For these values of N the accuracy of both the Fejér and Clenshaw-Curtis rules is almost indistinguishable from that of the more celebrated Gauss-Legendre quadrature rule. For larger N, however, the error decreases at the rate $O(\varrho^{-N})$, i.e., only half as fast as before. Convergence curves typically display a kink where the convergence rate cuts in half. In this paper we derive explicit as well as asymptotic error formulas that provide a complete description of this phenomenon.\ud \ud This work was supported by the Royal Society of the UK and the National Research Foundation of South Africa under the South Africa-UK Science Network Scheme. The first author also acknowledges grant FA2005032300018 of the NRF

Parabolic and Hyperbolic Contours for Computing the Bromwich Integral

Some of the most effective methods for the numerical inversion of the Laplace transform are based on the approximation of the Bromwich contour integral. The accuracy of these methods often hinges on a good choice of contour, and several such contours have been proposed in the literature. Here we analyze two recently proposed contours, namely a parabola and a hyperbola. Using a representative model problem, we determine estimates for the optimal parameters that define these contours. An application to a fractional diffusion equation is presented.\ud \ud JACW was supported by the National Research Foundation in South Africa under grant FA200503230001

The exponentially convergent trapezoidal rule

It is well known that the trapezoidal rule converges geometrically when applied to analytic functions on periodic intervals or the real line. The mathematics and history of this phenomenon are reviewed and it is shown that far from being a curiosity, it is linked with computational methods all across scientific computing, including algorithms related to inverse Laplace transforms, special functions, complex analysis, rational approximation, integral equations, and the computation of functions and eigenvalues of matrices and operators

Effect of Hot Baryons on the Weak-Lensing Shear Power Spectrum

We investigate the impact of the intracluster medium on the weak-lensing shear power spectrum (PS). Using a halo model we find that, compared to the dark matter only case, baryonic pressure leads to a suppression of the shear PS on the order of a few percent or more for $l \gtrsim 1000$. Cooling/cooled baryons and the intergalactic medium can further alter the shear PS. Therefore, the interpretation of future precision weak lensing data at high multipoles must take into account the effects of baryons.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Melody based tune retrieval over the World Wide Web

In this paper we describe the steps taken to develop a Web-based version of an existing stand-alone, single-user digital library application for melodical searching of a collection of music. For the three key components: input, searching, and output, we assess the suitability of various Web-based strategies that deal with the now distributed software architecture and explain the decisions we made. The resulting melody indexing service, known as MELDEX, has been in operation for one year, and the feed-back we have received has been favorable

Talbot quadratures and rational approximations

Many computational problems can be solved with the aid of contour integrals containing $e^z$ in the the integrand: examples include inverse Laplace transforms, special functions, functions of matrices and operators, parabolic PDEs, and reaction-diffusion equations. One approach to the numerical quadrature of such integrals is to apply the trapezoid rule on a Hankel contour defined by a suitable change of variables. Optimal parameters for three classes of such contours have recently been derived: (a) parabolas, (b) hyperbolas, and (c) cotangent contours, following Talbot in 1979. The convergence rates for these optimized quadrature formulas are very fast: roughly $O(3^{-N})$, where $N$ is the number of sample points or function evaluations. On the other hand, convergence at a rate apparently about twice as fast, $O(9.28903^{-N})$, can be achieved by using a different approach: best supremum-norm rational approximants to $e^z$ for $z\in (-\infty,0]$, following Cody, Meinardus and Varga in 1969. (All these rates are doubled in the case of self-adjoint operators or real integrands.) It is shown that the quadrature formulas can be interpreted as rational approximations and the rational approximations as quadrature formulas, and the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are discussed in the light of these connections. A MATLAB function is provided for computing Cody--Meinardus--Varga approximants by the method of Carathèodory-Fejèr approximation

The Birmingham-CfA cluster scaling project - I: gas fraction and the M-T relation

We have assembled a large sample of virialized systems, comprising 66 galaxy clusters, groups and elliptical galaxies with high quality X-ray data. To each system we have fitted analytical profiles describing the gas density and temperature variation with radius, corrected for the effects of central gas cooling. We present an analysis of the scaling properties of these systems and focus in this paper on the gas distribution and M-T relation. In addition to clusters and groups, our sample includes two early-type galaxies, carefully selected to avoid contamination from group or cluster X-ray emission. We compare the properties of these objects with those of more massive systems and find evidence for a systematic difference between galaxy-sized haloes and groups of a similar temperature. We derive a mean logarithmic slope of the M-T relation within R_200 of 1.84+/-0.06, although there is some evidence of a gradual steepening in the M-T relation, with decreasing mass. We recover a similar slope using two additional methods of calculating the mean temperature. Repeating the analysis with the assumption of isothermality, we find the slope changes only slightly, to 1.89+/-0.04, but the normalization is increased by 30%. Correspondingly, the mean gas fraction within R_200 changes from (0.13+/-0.01)h70^-1.5 to (0.11+/-0.01)h70^-1.5, for the isothermal case, with the smaller fractional change reflecting different behaviour between hot and cool systems. There is a strong correlation between the gas fraction within 0.3*R_200 and temperature. This reflects the strong (5.8 sigma) trend between the gas density slope parameter, beta, and temperature, which has been found in previous work. (abridged)Comment: 27 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS; uses longtable.sty & lscape.st

Entanglement in a Valence-Bond-Solid State

We study entanglement in Valence-Bond-Solid state. It describes the ground state of Affleck, Kennedy, Lieb and Tasaki quantum spin chain. The AKLT model has a gap and open boundary conditions. We calculate an entropy of a subsystem (continuous block of spins). It quantifies the entanglement of this block with the rest of the ground state. We prove that the entanglement approaches a constant value exponentially fast as the size of the subsystem increases. Actually we proved that the density matrix of the continuous block of spins depends only on the length of the block, but not on the total size of the chain [distance to the ends also not essential]. We also study reduced density matrices of two spins both in the bulk and on the boundary. We evaluated concurrencies.Comment: 4pages, no figure

A high-speed bi-polar outflow from the archetypical pulsating star Mira A

Optical images and high-dispersion spectra have been obtained of the ejected material surrounding the pulsating AGB star Mira A. The two streams of knots on either side of the star, found in far ultra-viollet (FUV) GALEX images, have now been imaged clearly in the light of Halpha. Spatially resolved profiles of the same line reveal that the bulk of these knots form a bi-polar outflow with radial velocity extremes of +- 150 km/s with respect to the central star. The South stream is approaching and the North stream receding from the observer. A displacement away from Mira A between the position of one of the South stream knots in the new Halpha image and its position in the previous Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS I) red plate has been noted. If interpreted as a consequence of expansion proper motions the bipolar outflow is tilted at 69deg +- 2deg to the plane of the sky, has an outflow velocity of 160 +- 10 km/s and is ~1000 y old.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for pubication by A&

Efficient Bayesian Nonparametric Modelling of Structured Point Processes

This paper presents a Bayesian generative model for dependent Cox point processes, alongside an efficient inference scheme which scales as if the point processes were modelled independently. We can handle missing data naturally, infer latent structure, and cope with large numbers of observed processes. A further novel contribution enables the model to work effectively in higher dimensional spaces. Using this method, we achieve vastly improved predictive performance on both 2D and 1D real data, validating our structured approach.Comment: Presented at UAI 2014. Bibtex: @inproceedings{structcoxpp14_UAI, Author = {Tom Gunter and Chris Lloyd and Michael A. Osborne and Stephen J. Roberts}, Title = {Efficient Bayesian Nonparametric Modelling of Structured Point Processes}, Booktitle = {Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI)}, Year = {2014}