Adaptive Binning of X-ray data with Weighted Voronoi Tesselations

We present a technique to adaptively bin sparse X-ray data using weighted Voronoi tesselations (WVTs). WVT binning is a generalisation of Cappellari & Copin's (2001) Voronoi binning algorithm, developed for integral field spectroscopy. WVT binning is applicable to many types of data and creates unbiased binning structures with compact bins that do not lead the eye. We apply the algorithm to simulated data, as well as several X-ray data sets, to create adaptively binned intensity images, hardness ratio maps and temperature maps with constant signal-to-noise ratio per bin. We also illustrate the separation of diffuse gas emission from contributions of unresolved point sources in elliptical galaxies. We compare the performance of WVT binning with other adaptive binning and adaptive smoothing techniques. We find that the CIAO tool csmooth creates serious artefacts and advise against its use to interpret diffuse X-ray emission.Comment: 14 pages; submitted to MNRAS; code freely available at http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~diehl/WVT/index.html with user manual, examples and high-resolution version of this pape

The Hot Interstellar Medium in Normal Elliptical Galaxies III: The Thermal Structure of the Gas

This is the third paper in a series analyzing X-ray emission from the hot interstellar medium in a sample of 54 normal elliptical galaxies observed by Chandra, focusing on 36 galaxies with sufficient signal to compute radial temperature profiles. We distinguish four qualitatively different types of profile: positive gradient (outwardly rising), negative gradients (falling), quasi-isothermal (flat) and hybrid (falling at small radii, then rising). We measure the mean logarithmic temperature gradients in two radial regions: from 0--2 $J$-band effective radii $R_J$ (excluding the central point source), and from 2--$4R_J$. We find the outer gradient to be uncorrelated with intrinsic host galaxy properties, but strongly influenced by the environment: galaxies in low-density environments tend to show negative outer gradients, while those in high-density environments show positive outer gradients, suggesting influence of circumgalactic hot gas. The inner temperature gradient is unaffected by the environment but strongly correlated with intrinsic host galaxy characteristics: negative inner gradients are more common for smaller, optically faint, low radio-luminosity galaxies, whereas positive gradients are found in bright galaxies with stronger radio sources. There is no evidence for bimodality in the distribution of inner or outer gradients. We propose three scenarios to explain the inner temperature gradients: (1) Weak AGN heat the ISM locally, higher-luminosity AGN heat the system globally through jets inflating cavities at larger radii; (2) The onset of negative inner gradients indicates a declining importance of AGN heating relative to other sources, such as compressional heating or supernovae; (3) The variety of temperature profiles are snapshots of different stages of a time-dependent flow.Comment: 18 pages, emulateapj, 55 figures (36 online-only figures included in astro-ph version), submitted to Ap

Shared memory parallelism in Modern C++ and HPX

Parallel programming remains a daunting challenge, from the struggle to express a parallel algorithm without cluttering the underlying synchronous logic, to describing which devices to employ in a calculation, to correctness. Over the years, numerous solutions have arisen, many of them requiring new programming languages, extensions to programming languages, or the addition of pragmas. Support for these various tools and extensions is available to a varying degree. In recent years, the C++ standards committee has worked to refine the language features and libraries needed to support parallel programming on a single computational node. Eventually, all major vendors and compilers will provide robust and performant implementations of these standards. Until then, the HPX library and runtime provides cutting edge implementations of the standards, as well as proposed standards and extensions. Because of these advances, it is now possible to write high performance parallel code without custom extensions to C++. We provide an overview of modern parallel programming in C++, describing the language and library features, and providing brief examples of how to use them

Asynchronous Execution of Python Code on Task Based Runtime Systems

Despite advancements in the areas of parallel and distributed computing, the complexity of programming on High Performance Computing (HPC) resources has deterred many domain experts, especially in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), from utilizing performance benefits of such systems. Researchers and scientists favor high-productivity languages to avoid the inconvenience of programming in low-level languages and costs of acquiring the necessary skills required for programming at this level. In recent years, Python, with the support of linear algebra libraries like NumPy, has gained popularity despite facing limitations which prevent this code from distributed runs. Here we present a solution which maintains both high level programming abstractions as well as parallel and distributed efficiency. Phylanx, is an asynchronous array processing toolkit which transforms Python and NumPy operations into code which can be executed in parallel on HPC resources by mapping Python and NumPy functions and variables into a dependency tree executed by HPX, a general purpose, parallel, task-based runtime system written in C++. Phylanx additionally provides introspection and visualization capabilities for debugging and performance analysis. We have tested the foundations of our approach by comparing our implementation of widely used machine learning algorithms to accepted NumPy standards

Nucleosynthetic Yields from "Collapsars"

The "collapsar" engine for gamma-ray bursts invokes as its energy source the failure of a normal supernova and the formation of a black hole. Here we present the results of the first three-dimensional simulation of the collapse of a massive star down to a black hole, including the subsequent accretion and explosion. The explosion differs significantly from the axisymmetric scenario obtained in two-dimensional simulations; this has important consequences for the nucleosynthetic yields. We compare the nucleosynthetic yields to those of hypernovae. Calculating yields from three-dimensional explosions requires new strategies in post-process nucleosynthesis; we discuss NuGrid's plan for three-dimensional yields.Comment: To appear in the Conference Proceedings for the "10th Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos (NIC X)", July 27 - August 1 2008, Mackinack Island, Michigan, US