Integrating VOEvent into the ground‐based O/IR system: A case study at NOAO

In this article we describe a case study of how NOAO is considering improving its management of Target‐of‐Opportunity (ToO) observations by integrating VOEvent into the flow of activities. We believe that using VOEvent to help document and track the use of ToO time will improve the user experience of ToOs at NOAO. It will also greatly aid in the management of the process and of the resulting data, allowing us to better track the ownership and provenance of the data and any resulting data products. Finally, it will provide an important method of archival access to the data and data “collections,” which might include not only processed data from a single VOEvent triggered observation but could also include multiple observations traceable to a single (or set of related) VOEvents. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Probing dark energy with steerable wavelets through correlation of WMAP and NVSS local morphological measures

Using local morphological measures on the sphere defined through a steerable wavelet analysis, we examine the three-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe WMAP and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) data for correlation induced by the integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) effect. The steerable wavelet constructed from the second derivative of a Gaussian allows one to define three local morphological measures, namely the signed-intensity, orientation and elongation of local features. Detections of correlation between the WMAP and NVSS data are made with each of these morphological measures. The most significant detection is obtained in the correlation of the signed-intensity of local features at a significance of 99.9 per cent. By inspecting signed-intensity sky maps, it is possible for the first time to see the correlation between the WMAP and NVSS data by eye. Foreground contamination and instrumental systematics in the WMAP data are ruled out as the source of all significant detections of correlation. Our results provide new insight on the ISW effect by probing the morphological nature of the correlation induced between the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure of the Universe. Given the current constraints on the flatness of the Universe, our detection of the ISW effect again provides direct and independent evidence for dark energy. Moreover, this new morphological analysis may be used in future to help us to better understand the nature of dark energy.     

Resource discovery with the VO registry

This article describes the VO registry concept and how it can be used to find resources – data sets, services and infrastructure – to support followup activities. It also discusses how VOEvent infrastructure components can be incorporated. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

修正的极大似然法拟合幂律频数分布

针对包含饱和样本数据的频数幂律分布拟合,提出一个新的幂律分布指数的极大似然估计方法的修正公式.对比研究显示,修正公式适用于剔除异常饱和值的幂律频数拟合.如果不剔除饱和值,幂律指数的估计只能使用修正前的公式,其误差随幂律指数变化,指数较小时误差较大.由此建议,对于包含饱和样本的频数分布拟合,首先剔除异常的饱和值,然后对剩余不含饱和值的子集使用修正公式进行参数估计.     

Precision astrometry with SuperCOSMOS

We describe the new, fast, high-precision microdensitometer SuperCOSMOS. Some aspects of hardware and software design that enable high-precision astrometry from photographic plates are explained. We show that the positioning repeatability of the measuring machine is less than 0.1 μ μ m standard error in either coordinate, and the absolute positional accuracy is about 0.15 μ m standard error. Furthermore, measurements of the same plate in different orientations show that the sampling errors are small (e.g. ∼ 0.2 μ m, rising to ∼ 1.0 μ m at the plate limit, for stellar images in a IIIaJ emulsion), thus allowing the extraction of relative positional information from Schmidt plates at accuracies less than 1 μ m. We demonstrate that SuperCOSMOS is capable of measuring the positions of bright stars (i.e. those more than ∼ 4 mag above the plate limit) to a precision ∼ 0.5 μ m with survey–grade photographic plates employing fine–grained emulsions.     

On measuring low-degree p-mode frequency splitting with full-disc integrated data

The standard method of measuring rotational splitting from solar full-disc oscillation data, based on maximum-likelihood fitting of multi-Lorentzian profiles to oscillation power spectra, systematically overestimates the splitting. One of the reasons is that the maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) become unbiased only asymptotically as the number of data tends to infinity; for a finite data set they are often biased, inducing a systematic error. In this paper we assess by Monte Carlo simulations the amount of systematic error in the splitting measurement, using artificially generated power spectra. The simulations are carried out for multiplets of degree     2 and 3 with various signal-to-noise ratios, linewidths and observing times. We address the possible use of non-MLE estimators that could provide a smaller or negligible systematic error. The implication for asteroseismology is also discussed.     

Observations of interplanetary scintillation with a single-station mode at Urumqi

The Sun affects physical phenomena on Earth in multiple ways.In particular,the material in interplanetary space comes from coronal expansion in the form of inhomogeneous plasma flow (solar wind),which is the primary source of the interplanetary medium.Ground-based Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) observations are an important and effective method for measuring solar wind speed and the structures of small diameter radio sources.We discuss one mode of ground-based single-station observations: Single-Station Single-Frequency (SSSF) mode.To study the SSSF mode,a new system has been established at Urumqi Astronomical Observatory (UAO),China,and a series of experimental observations were successfully carried out from May to December,2008.     

基于卷积神经网络的快速射电暴候选体分类

针对目前从海量的快速射电暴(Fast Radio Burst, FRB)候选体中人工筛选FRB事件难以为继的现状,提出了一种基于卷积神经网络(Convolutional Neural Networks, CNN)的FRB候选体分类方法.首先,通过真实的观测数据和仿真FRB组成训练和测试样本集.其次,建立了二输入的深度卷积神经网络模型,并对其进行训练、测试和优化,获取FRB候选体分类器.最后,利用来自脉冲星的单脉冲数据对该分类器的有效性和性能进行了验证.实验结果表明,该方法可以快速从大量候选体中准确识别出单脉冲事件,极大地提高了FRB候选体的处理速率和效率.     

The entropic prior for distributions with positive and negative values

The maximum entropy method has been used to reconstruct images in a wide range of astronomical fields, but in its traditional form it is restricted to the reconstruction of strictly positive distributions. We present an extension of the standard method to include distributions that can take both positive and negative values. The method may therefore be applied to a much wider range of astronomical reconstruction problems. In particular, we derive the form of the entropy for positive/negative distributions and use direct counting arguments to find the form of the entropic prior. We also derive the measure on the space of positive/negative distributions, which allows the definition of probability integrals and hence the proper quantification of errors.     

Stellar population synthesis with more degrees of freedom than observables

In order to derive the stellar population of a galaxy or a star cluster, it is a common practice to fit its spectrum by a combination of spectra extracted from a data base (e.g. a library of stellar spectra). If the data to be fitted are equivalent widths, the combination is a non-linear one and the problem of finding the 'best' combination of stars that fits the data becomes complex. It is probably because of this complexity that the mathematical aspects of the problem did not receive a satisfying treatment; the question of the uniqueness of the solution , for example, was left in uncertainty. In this paper we complete the solution of the problem by considering the underdetermined case where there are fewer equivalent widths to fit than stars in the data base (the overdetermined case was treated previously). The underdetermined case is interesting to consider because it leaves space for the addition of supplementary astrophysical constraints. In fact, it is shown in this paper that when a solution exists it is generally not unique. There are infinitely many solutions, all of them contained within a convex polyhedron in the solutions vector space. The vertices of this polyhedron are extremal solutions of the stellar population synthesis. If no exact solution exists, an approximate solution can be found using the method described for the overdetermined case. Also provided is an algorithm able to solve the problem numerically; in particular all the vertices of the polyhedron are found.     

Using the minimum spanning tree to trace mass segregation

We present a new method to detect and quantify mass segregation in star clusters. It compares the minimum spanning tree (MST) of massive stars with that of random stars. If mass segregation is present, the MST length of the most massive stars will be shorter than that of random stars. This difference can be quantified (with an associated significance) to measure the degree of mass segregation. We test the method on simulated clusters in both 2D and 3D and show that the method works as expected.
We apply the method to the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) and show that the method is able to detect the mass segregation in the Trapezium with a 'mass segregation ratio (MSR)'  Λ_MSR= 8.0 ± 3.5  (where  Λ_MSR= 1  is no mass segregation) down to  16 M_⊙  , and also that the ONC is mass segregated at a lower level  (∼2.0 ± 0.5)  down to  5 M_⊙  . Below  5 M_⊙  we find no evidence for any further mass segregation in the ONC.     

Data boundary fitting using a generalized least-squares method

In many astronomical problems one often needs to determine the upper and/or lower boundary of a given data set. An automatic and objective approach consists in fitting the data using a generalized least-squares method, where the function to be minimized is defined to handle asymmetrically the data at both sides of the boundary. In order to minimize the cost function, a numerical approach, based on the popular downhill simplex method, is employed. The procedure is valid for any numerically computable function. Simple polynomials provide good boundaries in common situations. For data exhibiting a complex behaviour, the use of adaptive splines gives excellent results. Since the described method is sensitive to extreme data points, the simultaneous introduction of error weighting and the flexibility of allowing some points to fall outside of the fitted frontier, supplies the parameters that help to tune the boundary fitting depending on the nature of the considered problem. Two simple examples are presented, namely the estimation of spectra pseudo-continuum and the segregation of scattered data into ranges. The normalization of the data ranges prior to the fitting computation typically reduces both the numerical errors and the number of iterations required during the iterative minimization procedure.     

Bias properties of logarithmic and asinh magnitudes at very low flux levels

The observation of flux sources near the limit of detection requires a careful evaluation of possible biases in magnitude determination. Both the traditional logarithmic magnitudes and the recently proposed inverse hyperbolic sine (asinh) magnitudes are considered. Formulae are derived for three different biasing mechanisms: the statistical spread of the observed flux values arising from e.g. measurement error; the dependence of these errors on the true flux; and the dependence of the observing probability on the true flux. As an example of the results, it is noted that biases at large signal-to-noise ratios R , at which the two types of magnitude are similar, are of the order of −( p +1)/ R ², where the exponent p parametrizes a power-law dependence of the probability of observation on the true flux.