SAMP, the Simple Application Messaging Protocol: Letting applications talk to each other

SAMP, the Simple Application Messaging Protocol, is a hub-based communication standard for the exchange of data and control between participating client applications. It has been developed within the context of the Virtual Observatory with the aim of enabling specialised data analysis tools to cooperate as a loosely integrated suite, and is now in use by many and varied desktop and web-based applications dealing with astronomical data. This paper reviews the requirements and design principles that led to SAMP's specification, provides a high-level description of the protocol, and discusses some of its common and possible future usage patterns, with particular attention to those factors that have aided its success in practice.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for Virtual Observatory special issue of Astronomy and Computin

Realistic error bounds for a reduced-state model-reference controller

Realistic error bounds for reduced-state model-reference controlle

Wigner crystals of ions as quantum hard drives

Atomic systems in regular lattices are intriguing systems for implementing ideas in quantum simulation and information processing. Focusing on laser cooled ions forming Wigner crystals in Penning traps, we find a robust and simple approach to engineering non-trivial 2-body interactions sufficient for universal quantum computation. We then consider extensions of our approach to the fast generation of large cluster states, and a non-local architecture using an asymmetric entanglement generation procedure between a Penning trap system and well-established linear Paul trap designs.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Cubic structures, equivariant Euler characteristics and lattices of modular forms

We use the theory of cubic structures to give a fixed point Riemann-Roch formula for the equivariant Euler characteristics of coherent sheaves on projective flat schemes over Z with a tame action of a finite abelian group. This formula supports a conjecture concerning the extent to which such equivariant Euler characteristics may be determined from the restriction of the sheaf to an infinitesimal neighborhood of the fixed point locus. Our results are applied to study the module structure of modular forms having Fourier coefficients in a ring of algebraic integers, as well as the action of diamond Hecke operators on the Mordell-Weil groups and Tate-Shafarevich groups of Jacobians of modular curves.Comment: 40pp, Final version, to appear in the Annals of Mathematic

IVOA Recommendation: SAMP - Simple Application Messaging Protocol Version 1.3

SAMP is a messaging protocol that enables astronomy software tools to interoperate and communicate. IVOA members have recognised that building a monolithic tool that attempts to fulfil all the requirements of all users is impractical, and it is a better use of our limited resources to enable individual tools to work together better. One element of this is defining common file formats for the exchange of data between different applications. Another important component is a messaging system that enables the applications to share data and take advantage of each other's functionality. SAMP builds on the success of a prior messaging protocol, PLASTIC, which has been in use since 2006 in over a dozen astronomy applications and has proven popular with users and developers. It is also intended to form a framework for more general messaging requirements