Astrometric signal profile fitting for Gaia

A tool for representation of the one-dimensional astrometric signal of Gaia is described and investigated in terms of fit discrepancy and astrometric performance with respect to number of parameters required. The proposed basis function is based on the aberration free response of the ideal telescope and its derivatives, weighted by the source spectral distribution. The influence of relative position of the detector pixel array with respect to the optical image is analysed, as well as the variation induced by the source spectral emission. The number of parameters required for micro-arcsec level consistency of the reconstructed function with the detected signal is found to be 11. Some considerations are devoted to the issue of calibration of the instrument response representation, taking into account the relevant aspects of source spectrum and focal plane sampling. Additional investigations and other applications are also suggested.Comment: 13 pages, 21 figures, Accepted by MNRAS 2010 January 29. Received 2010 January 28; in original form 2009 September 3

Is There a Significant Difference Between the Results of the Coulomb Dissociation of 8B and the Direct Capture 7Be(p,g)8B Reaction?

Recent claims of the Seattle group of evidence of "slope difference between CD [Coulomb Dissociation] and direct [capture] results" are based on wrong and selective data. When the RIKEN2 data are included correctly, and previously published Direct Capture (DC) data are also included, we observe only a 1.9 sigma difference in the extracted so called "scale independent slope (b)", considerably smaller than claimed by the Seattle group. The very parameterization used by the Seattle group to extract the so called b-slope parameter has no physical foundation. Considering the physical slope (S' = dS/dE), we observe a 1.0 sigma agreement between slopes (S') measured in CD and DC, refuting the need for new theoretical investigation. The claim that S17(0) values extracted from CD data are approximately 10% lower than DC results, is based on misunderstanding of the CD method. Considering all of the published CD S17(0) results, with adding back an unconfirmed E2 correction of the MSU data, yields very consistent S17(0) results that agree with recent DC measurements of the Seattle and Weizmann groups. The recent correction of the b-slope parameter (0.25 1/MeV) suggested by Esbensen, Bertsch and Snover was applied to the wrong b-slope parameter calculated by the Seattle group. When considering the correct slope of the RIKEN2 data, this correction in fact leads to a very small b-slope parameter (0.14 1/MeV), less than half the central value observed for DC data, refuting the need to correct the RIKEN2 data. In particular it confirms that the E2 contribution in the RIKEN2 data is negligible. The dispersion of measured S17(0) is mostly due to disagreement among individual DC experiments and not due to either experimental or theoretical aspects of CD.Comment: Reference 12 amended with an important communication from Dr. Bertsc

Impact of Expressive Writing about Workplace Events : Stress, Job Satisfaction and Well-Being

Expressive Writing interventions have been widely used in clinical and medical settings. It has been shown that by exploring thoughts and feelings associated with stressful events can help individuals benefit in terms of reducing stress and improving health and psychological well-being. The present study examines the effectiveness of an expressive writing intervention among expatriates from Asia working in Information Technology industry in United States. A pre-post test design was applied. The study was conducted over 12 weeks, in which participants (N=30) completed pre assessment, and then were randomly assigned to different writing conditions Thoughts and Emotions condition (focused on thinking processes and feeling aspects) and Thoughts, Emotions and Social Support condition (focused on thoughts and feeling along with emphasis on support systems during a stressful event) in which they wrote for 3 consecutive days and this was followed by a post assessment. Post intervention, participants reported significant benefits of expressive writing through self report measures of stress, higher levels of job satisfaction & improved health and well-being. Interestingly, the study did not report any significant improvement on the social support variable, but noted a significant improvement in the social support satisfaction levels. Finally, the study also did not report any significant difference between the two writing conditions. The findings from this study gives insight into the use and benefits of EW intervention in workplace setting and suggest that there is tremendous potential in exploring the benefits of expressive writing in other sphere of workplace

Three-Dimensional Analysis of Wakefields Generated by Flat Electron Beams in Planar Dielectric-Loaded Structures

An electron bunch passing through dielectric-lined waveguide generates $\check{C}$erenkov radiation that can result in high-peak axial electric field suitable for acceleration of a subsequent bunch. Axial field beyond Gigavolt-per-meter are attainable in structures with sub-mm sizes depending on the achievement of suitable electron bunch parameters. A promising configuration consists of using planar dielectric structure driven by flat electron bunches. In this paper we present a three-dimensional analysis of wakefields produced by flat beams in planar dielectric structures thereby extending the work of Reference [A. Tremaine, J. Rosenzweig, and P. Schoessow, Phys. Rev. E 56, No. 6, 7204 (1997)] on the topic. We especially provide closed-form expressions for the normal frequencies and field amplitudes of the excited modes and benchmark these analytical results with finite-difference time-domain particle-in-cell numerical simulations. Finally, we implement a semi-analytical algorithm into a popular particle tracking program thereby enabling start-to-end high-fidelity modeling of linear accelerators based on dielectric-lined planar waveguides.Comment: 12 pages, 2 tables, 10 figure

Neural network correction of astrometric chromaticity

In this paper we deal with the problem of chromaticity, i.e. apparent position variation of stellar images with their spectral distribution, using neural networks to analyse and process astronomical images. The goal is to remove this relevant source of systematic error in the data reduction of high precision astrometric experiments, like Gaia. This task can be accomplished thanks to the capability of neural networks to solve a nonlinear approximation problem, i.e. to construct an hypersurface that approximates a given set of scattered data couples. Images are encoded associating each of them with conveniently chosen moments, evaluated along the y axis. The technique proposed, in the current framework, reduces the initial chromaticity of few milliarcseconds to values of few microarcseconds.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Asteroseismology of KIC 8263801:Is it a member of NGC 6866 and a red clump star?

We present an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler light curve of KIC 8263801, a red-giant star in the open cluster NGC 6866 that has previously been reported to be a helium-burning red-clump star. We extracted the frequencies of the radial and quadrupole modes from its frequency power spectrum and determined its properties using a grid of evolutionary models constructed with MESA. The oscillation frequencies were calculated using the GYRE code and the surface term was corrected using the Ball & Gizon(2014) prescription. We find that the star has a mass of $M/M_{\odot} = 1.793\pm 0.072$, age $t=1.48\pm 0.21$ Gyr and radius $R/R_{\odot} = 10.53\pm 0.28$. By analyzing the internal structure of the best-fitting model, we infer the evolutionary status of the star KIC 8263801 as being on the ascending part of the red giant branch, and not on the red clump. This result is verified using a purely asteroseismic diagnostic, the $\epsilon_{c}-\Delta\nu_{c}$ diagram which can distinguish red giant branch stars from red clump stars. Finally, by comparing its age with NGC 6866 ($t=0.65 \pm 0.1$ Gyr) we conclude that KIC 8263801 is not a member of this open cluster

An efficient PSF construction method

Image computation is a fundamental tool for performance assessment of astronomical instrumentation, usually implemented by Fourier transform techniques. We review the numerical implementation, evaluating a direct implementation of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) algorithm, compared with fast Fourier transform (FFT) tools. Simulations show that the precision is quite comparable, but in the case investigated the computing performance is considerably higher for DFT than FFT. The application to image simulation for the mission Gaia and for Extremely Large Telescopes is discussed.Comment: The paper contains 7 figures and 1 tabl