1,287 research outputs found
Detection of faint companions through stochastic speckle discrimination
We propose a new post-processing technique for the detection of faint
companions from a sequence of adaptive optics corrected short exposures. The
algorithm exploits the difference in shape between the on-axis and off-axis
irradiance distributions and it does not require the signal to be above the
noise level. We show that the method is particularly useful in dealing with
static speckles. Its application to real and simulated data gives excellent
results in the low-signal regime where it outperforms the standard approach of
computing signal-to-noise ratio on one long exposure. We also show that
accurate noise estimation in adaptive optics images of close companions is
rendered impossible due to the presence of static speckles. This new method
provides means of reliable estimation of the confidence intervals for the
detection hypothesis.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
Using the D-BEST Reference Model to Compare Italian and Polish Digital Innovation Hubs
In recent years, the increasing importance of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) in supporting manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been widely studied and several works listing lessons learnt and success stories have been published. To further foster the impact of these entities on the SMEsâ environment, The European Commission has recently introduced the Smart Specialisation Platform, which contains a web service returning to its users a geo-distributed list of DIHs, allowing the user also to cluster and visualise them according to some pre-defined filters, such as the types of technologies employed. The data provided by this platform has been downloaded and a secondary data analysis, based on the websites of the DIHs has been carried on to frame the single DIHs according to the axes of the D-BEST methodology. A comparative analysis with respect to the Italian and Poland situation completes the study, to understand eventual differences and affinities among the two countries
Formation of Centauro and Strangelets in Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions at the LHC and their Identification by the ALICE Experiment
We present a phenomenological model which describes the formation of a
Centauro fireball in nucleus-nucleus interactions in the upper atmosphere and
at the LHC, and its decay to non-strange baryons and Strangelets. We describe
the CASTOR detector for the ALICE experiment at the LHC. CASTOR will probe, in
an event-by-event mode, the very forward, baryon-rich phase space 5.6 < \eta <
7.2 in 5.5 A TeV central Pb + Pb collisions. We present results of simulations
for the response of the CASTOR calorimeter, and in particular to the traversal
of Strangelets.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 26th ICR
Performance Studies of Prototype II for the CASTOR forward Calorimeter at the CMS Experiment
We present results of the performance of the second prototype of the CASTOR
quartz-tungsten sampling calorimeter, to be installed in the very forward
region of the CMS experiment at the LHC. The energy linearity and resolution,
as well as the spatial resolution of the prototype to electromagnetic and
hadronic showers are studied with E=20-200 GeV electrons, E=20-350 GeV pions,
and E=50,150 GeV muons from beam tests carried out at CERN/SPS in 2004. The
responses of the calorimeter using two different types of photodetectors
(avalanche photodiodes APDs, and photomultiplier tubes PMTs) are compared.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figs., submitted to EPJ-
CASTOR: Centauro and Strange Object Research in nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC
We describe the CASTOR detector designed to probe the very forward,
baryon-rich rapidity region in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. We
present a phenomenological model describing the formation of a QGP fireball in
a high baryochemical potential environment, and its subsequent decay into
baryons and strangelets. The model explains Centauros and the long-penetrating
component and makes predictions for the LHC.
Simulations of Centauro-type events were done. To study the response of the
apparatus to new effects different exotic species (DCC, Centauros, strangelets
etc.) were passed through the deep calorimeter. The energy deposition pattern
in the calorimeter appears to be a new clear signature of the QGP.Comment: Talk given by E. Gladysz-Dziadus for the CASTOR group, Intern.
Workshop on Nuclear Theory, 10-15 June, 2002, Bulgaria, Rila Mountains, 15
pages, 14 figure
Speckle noise and dynamic range in coronagraphic images
This paper is concerned with the theoretical properties of high contrast
coronagraphic images in the context of exoplanet searches. We derive and
analyze the statistical properties of the residual starlight in coronagraphic
images, and describe the effect of a coronagraph on the speckle and photon
noise. Current observations with coronagraphic instruments have shown that the
main limitations to high contrast imaging are due to residual quasi-static
speckles. We tackle this problem in this paper, and propose a generalization of
our statistical model to include the description of static, quasi-static and
fast residual atmospheric speckles. The results provide insight into the
effects on the dynamic range of wavefront control, coronagraphy, active speckle
reduction, and differential speckle calibration. The study is focused on
ground-based imaging with extreme adaptive optics, but the approach is general
enough to be applicable to space, with different parameters.Comment: 31 pages, 18 figure
Temporal variability and statistics of the Strehl ratio in adaptive-optics images
We have investigated the temporal variability and statistics of the
"instantaneous" Strehl ratio. The observations were carried out with the 3.63-m
AEOS telescope equipped with a high-order adaptive optics system. In this paper
Strehl ratio is defined as the peak intensity of a single short exposure. We
have also studied the behaviour of the phase variance computed on the
reconstructed wavefronts. We tested the Marechal approximation and used it to
explain the observed negative skewness of the Strehl ratio distribution. The
estimate of the phase variance is shown to fit a three-parameter Gamma
distribution model. We show that simple scaling of the reconstructed wavefronts
has a large impact on the shape of the Strehl ratio distribution.Comment: submitted to PAS
Can Centauros or Chirons be the first observations of evaporating mini black holes?
We argue that the signals expected from the evaporation of mini black holes -
predicted in TeV-scale gravity models with large extra dimensions, and possibly
produced in ultra high energy collisions in the atmosphere - are quite similar
to the characteristics of the Centauro events, an old mystery of cosmic-ray
physics.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, one Table, uses rotate.sty and rotcapt.sty.
References added, typos corrected, footnotes moved into the tex
Lucky Imaging Adaptive Optics of the brown dwarf binary GJ569Bab
The potential of combining Adaptive Optics (AO) and Lucky Imaging (LI) to
achieve high precision astrometry and differential photometry in the optical is
investigated by conducting observations of the close 0\farcs1 brown dwarf
binary GJ569Bab. We took 50000 -band images with our LI instrument FastCam
attached to NAOMI, the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) AO facility. In
order to extract the most of the astrometry and photometry of the GJ569Bab
system we have resorted to a PSF fitting technique using the primary star
GJ569A as a suitable PSF reference which exhibits an -band magnitude of
. The AO+LI observations at WHT were able to resolve the binary
system GJ569Bab located at 4\farcs 92 \pm 0\farcs05 from GJ569A. We measure a
separation of mas and -band magnitudes of
and and colors of 2.720.08 and 2.830.08 for
the Ba and Bb components, respectively. Our study rules out the presence of any
other companion to GJ569A down to magnitude I 17 at distances larger than
1\arcsec. The colors measured are consistent with M8.5-M9 spectral types
for the Ba and Bb components. The available dynamical, photometric and
spectroscopic data are consistent with a binary system with Ba being slightly
(10-20%) more massive than Bb. We obtain new orbital parameters which are in
good agreement with those in the literature.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables, in press in MNRA
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