27,847 research outputs found
Bias to CMB Lensing Reconstruction from Temperature Anisotropies due to Large-Scale Galaxy Motions
Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is expected to
be amongst the most powerful cosmological tools for ongoing and upcoming CMB
experiments. In this work, we investigate a bias to CMB lensing reconstruction
from temperature anisotropies due to the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ)
effect, that is, the Doppler shift of CMB photons induced by Compton-scattering
off moving electrons. The kSZ signal yields biases due to both its own
intrinsic non-Gaussianity and its non-zero cross-correlation with the CMB
lensing field (and other fields that trace the large-scale structure). This
kSZ-induced bias affects both the CMB lensing auto-power spectrum and its
cross-correlation with low-redshift tracers. Furthermore, it cannot be removed
by multifrequency foreground separation techniques because the kSZ effect
preserves the blackbody spectrum of the CMB. While statistically negligible for
current datasets, we show that it will be important for upcoming surveys, and
failure to account for it can lead to large biases in constraints on neutrino
masses or the properties of dark energy. For a Stage 4 CMB experiment, the bias
can be as large as 15% or 12% in cross-correlation with LSST galaxy
lensing convergence or galaxy overdensity maps, respectively, when the maximum
temperature multipole used in the reconstruction is ,
and about half of that when . Similarly, we find that
the CMB lensing auto-power spectrum can be biased by up to several percent.
These biases are many times larger than the expected statistical errors.
Reducing can significantly mitigate the bias at the cost of a
decrease in the overall lensing reconstruction signal-to-noise.
Polarization-only reconstruction may be the most robust mitigation strategy.Comment: Updated to match published version and fixed typo. Improved study of
secondary contractions and end-to-end simulation
Footprints of emergence
It is ironic that the management of education has become more closed while learning has become more open, particularly over the past 10-20 years. The curriculum has become more instrumental, predictive, standardized, and micro-managed in the belief that this supports employability as well as the management of educational processes, resources, and value. Meanwhile, people have embraced interactive, participatory, collaborative, and innovative networks for living and learning. To respond to these challenges, we need to develop practical tools to help us describe these new forms of learning which are multivariate, self-organised, complex, adaptive, and unpredictable. We draw on complexity theory and our experience as researchers, designers, and participants in open and interactive learning to go beyond conventional approaches. We develop a 3D model of landscapes of learning for exploring the relationship between prescribed and emergent learning in any given curriculum. We do this by repeatedly testing our descriptive landscapes (or footprints) against theory, research, and practice across a range of case studies. By doing this, we have not only come up with a practical tool which can be used by curriculum designers, but also realised that the curriculum itself can usefully be treated as emergent, depending on the dynamicsbetween prescribed and emergent learning and how the learning landscape is curated
Sudakov Safety in Perturbative QCD
Traditional calculations in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) are
based on an order-by-order expansion in the strong coupling .
Observables that are calculable in this way are known as "safe". Recently, a
class of unsafe observables was discovered that do not have a valid
expansion but are nevertheless calculable in pQCD using all-orders resummation.
These observables are called "Sudakov safe" since singularities at each
order are regulated by an all-orders Sudakov form factor. In this
letter, we give a concrete definition of Sudakov safety based on conditional
probability distributions, and we study a one-parameter family of momentum
sharing observables that interpolate between the safe and unsafe regimes. The
boundary between these regimes is particularly interesting, as the resulting
distribution can be understood as the ultraviolet fixed point of a generalized
fragmentation function, yielding a leading behavior that is independent of
.Comment: 4+5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Version accepted for publication in
PR
An Experiment in Incentive-Based Welfare: The Impact of PROGRESA on Health in Mexico
We investigate the impact of a unique anti-poverty program in Mexico on health outcomes. The program, PROGRESA, combines a traditional cash transfer program with financial incentives for families to invest in human capital of children. Our analysis takes advantage of a controlled randomized study design with household panel data. We find that the program significantly increased utilization of public health clinics for preventive care. The program also lowered the number of inpatient hospitalizations and visits to private providers, which is consistent with the hypothesis that PROGESA lowered the incidence of severe illness. We found a significant improvement in the health of both children and adults.anti-pverty program, child health, Mexico
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Methyl chloride and the U.S. cigarette.
Various brands and types of cigarettes were purchased at retail locations in southern California. Volatile gas samples were analyzed using multicolumn/multidetector gas chromatography. Results showed methyl chloride (CH(3)Cl) levels as much as four orders of magnitude higher than typical urban levels, about 30-500 ppmv (1.5-5.3 mg/cigarette), compared with about 500 pptv in urban air. The concentration of CH(3)Cl correlated well with the levels of both CO (r (2) = 0.63) and CO(2) (r (2) = 0.77), showing the link between CH(3)Cl and combustion. In some brands, CH(3)Cl levels were well above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum exposure limit of 200 ppmv. Light branded cigarettes tended to have higher CH(3)Cl levels than the heavier and filtered brands, possibly showing the dependence of cigarette packing on CH(3)Cl production. In addition, CH(3)Cl emitted from cigarette smoke may prove to be an important anthropogenic source of CH(3)Cl in the United States, at about 5%
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