36 research outputs found
A Direct Elliptic Solver Based on Hierarchically Low-rank Schur Complements
A parallel fast direct solver for rank-compressible block tridiagonal linear
systems is presented. Algorithmic synergies between Cyclic Reduction and
Hierarchical matrix arithmetic operations result in a solver with arithmetic complexity and memory footprint. We provide a
baseline for performance and applicability by comparing with well known
implementations of the -LU factorization and algebraic multigrid
with a parallel implementation that leverages the concurrency features of the
method. Numerical experiments reveal that this method is comparable with other
fast direct solvers based on Hierarchical Matrices such as -LU and
that it can tackle problems where algebraic multigrid fails to converge
Bayesian Methods for Exoplanet Science
Exoplanet research is carried out at the limits of the capabilities of
current telescopes and instruments. The studied signals are weak, and often
embedded in complex systematics from instrumental, telluric, and astrophysical
sources. Combining repeated observations of periodic events, simultaneous
observations with multiple telescopes, different observation techniques, and
existing information from theory and prior research can help to disentangle the
systematics from the planetary signals, and offers synergistic advantages over
analysing observations separately. Bayesian inference provides a
self-consistent statistical framework that addresses both the necessity for
complex systematics models, and the need to combine prior information and
heterogeneous observations. This chapter offers a brief introduction to
Bayesian inference in the context of exoplanet research, with focus on time
series analysis, and finishes with an overview of a set of freely available
programming libraries.Comment: Invited revie
A seven-planet resonant chain in TRAPPIST-1
The TRAPPIST-1 system is the first transiting planet system found orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star1. At least seven planets similar to Earth in radius were previously found to transit this host star2. Subsequently, TRAPPIST-1 was observed as part of the K2 mission and, with these new data, we report the measurement of an 18.77 d orbital period for the outermost transiting planet, TRAPPIST-1h, which was unconstrained until now. This value matches our theoretical expectations based on Laplace relations3 and places TRAPPIST-1h as the seventh member of a complex chain, with three-body resonances linking every member. We find that TRAPPIST-1h has a radius of 0.727 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 169 K. We have also measured the rotational period of the star at 3.3 d and detected a number of flares consistent with a low-activity, middle-aged, late M dwarf
Application of Hierarchical Matrices to Linear Inverse Problems in Geostatistics
Characterizing the uncertainty in the subsurface is an important step for exploration and
extraction of natural resources, the storage of nuclear material and gasses such as
natural gas or CO2. Imaging the subsurface can be posed as an inverse problem
and can be solved using the geostatistical approach [Kitanidis P.K. (2007)
Geophys. Monogr. Ser. 171, 19-30, doi:10.1029/171GM0