Browsing by Author "Bassett, Bruce A"
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- ItemOpen AccessBayesian inference for radio observations(Oxford University Press, 25) Lochner, Michelle; Natarajan, Iniyan; Zwart, Jonathan T L; Smirnov, Oleg; Bassett, Bruce A; Oozeer, Nadeem; Kunz, MartinNew telescopes like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will push into a new sensitivity regime and expose systematics, such as direction-dependent effects, that could previously be ignored. Current methods for handling such systematics rely on alternating best estimates of instrumental calibration and models of the underlying sky, which can lead to inadequate uncertainty estimates and biased results because any correlations between parameters are ignored. These deconvolution algorithms produce a single image that is assumed to be a true representation of the sky, when in fact it is just one realization of an infinite ensemble of images compatible with the noise in the data. In contrast, here we report a Bayesian formalism that simultaneously infers both systematics and science. Our technique, Bayesian Inference for Radio Observations (BIRO), determines all parameters directly from the raw data, bypassing image-making entirely, by sampling from the joint posterior probability distribution. This enables it to derive both correlations and accurate uncertainties, making use of the flexible software MEQTREES to model the sky and telescope simultaneously. We demonstrate BIRO with two simulated sets of Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope data sets. In the first, we perform joint estimates of 103 scientific (flux densities of sources) and instrumental (pointing errors, beamwidth and noise) parameters. In the second example, we perform source separation with BIRO. Using the Bayesian evidence, we can accurately select between a single point source, two point sources and an extended Gaussian source, allowing for ‘super-resolution’ on scales much smaller than the synthesized beam.
- ItemOpen AccessBayesian model selection with applications to radio astronomy(2017) Mootoovaloo, Arrykrishna; Bassett, Bruce AThis thesis consists of two main parts, both of which focus on Bayesian methods and the problem of model selection in particular. The first part investigates a new approach to computing the Bayes factor for model selection without needing to compute the Bayesian evidence, while the second part shows, through an analytical calculation of the Bayesian evidence, that Bayesian methods allow two point sources to be distinguished from a single point source at angular separations that are much smaller than the naive beam size at high signal to noise. In the first part, the idea is to create a supermodel by combining two models using a hyperparameter, which we call α. Setting α = 0 or 1 switches each of the models off. Hence, the ratio of the posterior of α at the two end points (0 or 1) gives the Bayes Factor. This effectively converts the problem of model selection into a Bayesian inference problem. One can then use a standard Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to map the posterior distribution of α and compute the Bayes factor. In the second part of this thesis, the Bayesian radio interferometry formalism of Lochner et al. (2015) is extended to take into account the gains of the antennae using the StEFCal algorithm, an important part of the calibration pipeline. Finally we study the case of a pair of sources and show that they can be resolved using an analytical computation of the Bayesian evidence. This demonstrates that Bayesian methods allow super-resolution: the pair of sources can be distinguished from a single source at arbitrarily small scales compared to the naive beam size, as long as the measurements have sufficient signal to noise.
- ItemOpen AccessSALT spectroscopy and classification of supernova spectra using Bayesian techniques(2017) Kasai, Eli Kunwiji; Bassett, Bruce A; Crawford Steven, MIn this thesis, we present the Southern African Large Telescope spectroscopic follow-up programme for supernova candidates discovered by the international Dark Energy Survey, the goals of which are to measure the expansion history of the Universe and shed light on the mysterious nature of dark energy. In total, we took spectra for 36 supernova candidates. These were classified using a new Bayesian Supernova spectra classifier, SuperNovaMC, that we developed to address limitations with existing algorithms. SuperNovaMC simultaneously finds the best fitting supernova and host galaxy using Bayesian model selection, fitting the entire spectrum with Monte Carlo Markov Chain methods which allow estimation of the entire parameter posterior distributions, and hence principled statistical analysis even at low signal-to-noise. After extensive testing of SuperNovaMC against simulations and literature data, we use it to classify 20 of our Dark Energy Survey candidates as Type Ia supernovae. We further performed equivalent width measurements of two Type Ia supernova spectral features: Ca II H&K and Si II 4000, using a sub-sample of the 20 Type Ia supernovae. We compared our results to those of a similar study conducted on a low-redshift (z < 0:1) Type Ia supernova sample and found the two sets of results to be consistent, suggesting no redshift evolution in the equivalent widths of the two spectral features in the redshift range 0:1 < z < 0:3 that we conducted the study in.
- ItemOpen AccessTHE EFFECT OF WEAK LENSING ON DISTANCE ESTIMATES FROM SUPERNOVAE(2014) Smith, Mathew; Bacon, David J; Nichol, Robert C; Campbell, Heather; Clarkson, Chris; Maartens, Roy; D\'Andrea, Chris B; Bassett, Bruce A; Cinabro, David; Finley, David A; Frieman, Joshua A; Galbany, Lluís; Garnavich, Peter M; Olmstead, Matthew D; Schneider, Donald P; Shapiro, Charles; Sollerman, JesperUsing a sample of 608 Type Ia supernovae from the SDSS-II and BOSS surveys, combined with a sample of foreground galaxies from SDSS-II, we estimate the weak lensing convergence for each supernova l ...
- ItemOpen AccessThe seventh data release of the sloan digital sky survey(2009) Abazajian, Kevork N; Adelman‐McCarthy, Jennifer K; AgYeros, Marcel A; Allam, Sahar S; Prieto, Carlos Allende; An, Deokkeun; Anderson, Kurt S J; Anderson, Scott F; Annis, James; Bahcall, Neta A; Bailer‐Jones, C A L; Barentine, J C; Bassett, Bruce A; Becker, Andrew C; Beers, Timothy C; Bell, Eric F; Belokurov, Vasily; Berlind, Andreas A; Berman, Eileen F; Bernardi, Mariangela; Bickerton, Steven J; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Blakeslee, John P; Blanton, Michael R; Bochanski, John J; Boroski, William N; Brewington, Howard J; Brinchmann, Jarle; Brinkmann, J; Brunner, Robert J; Budavári, Tamás; Carey, Larry NThis paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11, 663 deg2 of imaging data, with most of the ~2000 deg2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry on a 120° long, 2fdg5 wide stripe along the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap, with some regions covered by as many as 90 individual imaging runs. We include a co-addition of the best of these data, going roughly 2 mag fainter than the main survey over 250 deg2. The survey has completed spectroscopy over 9380 deg2 the spectroscopy is now complete over a large contiguous area of the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930, 000 galaxies, 120, 000 quasars, and 460, 000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog, reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milliarcseconds per coordinate. We further quantify a systematic error in bright galaxy photometry due to poor sky determination ; this problem is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities.
- ItemOpen AccessThe sixth data release of the Sloan digital sky survey(2008) Adelman‐McCarthy, Jennifer K; AgYeros, Marcel A; Allam, Sahar S; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Anderson, Kurt S J; Anderson, Scott F; Annis, James; Bahcall, Neta A; Bailer‐Jones, C A L; Baldry, Ivan K; Barentine, J C; Bassett, Bruce A; Becker, Andrew C; Beers, Timothy C; Bell, Eric F; Berlind, Andreas A; Bernardi, Mariangela; Blanton, Michael R; Bochanski, John J; Boroski, William N; Brinchmann, Jarle; Brinkmann, J; Brunner, Robert J; Budavári, Tamás; Carliles, Samuel; Carr, Michael A; Castander, Francisco J; Cinabro, David; Cool, R J; Covey, Kevin R; Csabai, István; Cunha, Carlos EThis paper describes the Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With this data release, the imaging of the northern Galactic cap is now complete. The survey contains images and parameters of roughly 287 million objects over 9583 deg2 , including scans over a large range of Galactic latitudes and longitudes. The survey also includes 1.27 million spectra of stars, galaxies, quasars, and blank sky (for sky subtraction) selected over 7425 deg2 . This release includes much more stellar spectroscopy than was available in previous data releases and also includes detailed estimates of stellar temperatures, gravities, and metallicities. The results of improved photometric calibration are now available, with uncertainties of roughly 1% in g, r, i, and z, and 2% in u, substantially better than the uncertainties in previous data releases. The spectra in this data release have improved wavelength and flux calibration, especially in the extreme blue and extreme red, leading to the qualitatively better determination of stellar types and radial velocities. The spectrophotometric fluxes are now tied to point-spread function magnitudes of stars rather than fiber magnitudes. This gives more robust results in the presence of seeing variations, but also implies a change in the spectrophotometric scale, which is now brighter by roughly 0.35 mag. Systematic errors in the velocity dispersions of galaxies have been fixed, and the results of two independent codes for determining spectral classifications and redshifts are made available. Additional spectral outputs are made available, including calibrated spectra from individual 15 minute exposures and the sky spectrum subtracted from each exposure. We also quantify a recently recognized underestimation of the brightnesses of galaxies of large angular extent due to poor sky subtraction; the bias can exceed 0.2 mag for galaxies brighter than r ¼ 14 mag.
- ItemOpen AccessThe type IA supernova rate in intermediate redshift galaxy clusters(2013) Kasai, Eli Kunwiji; Crawford, Steve; Bassett, Bruce AStudies of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in galaxy clusters can tell us about the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium, constrain the star formation history of cluster galaxies, aid us in the investigations of the progenitor systems of SNe Ia, act as tracers of the intra-cluster stellar population and can be used in measuring distances over extragalactic scales, which is relevant to supernova cosmology. However, the value of the cluster Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate at intermediate redshifts has not been well constrained and this hampers our ability to derive accurately the parameters needed in addressing the topics listed above. We have performed a search for supernovae and other transients in six galaxy clusters, located in the redshift range 0:3 < z < 0:9 to derive the cluster Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) rate.
- ItemOpen AccessType Ia supernovae as tools for cosmology(2008) Okouma, Patrice M; Bassett, Bruce AIncludes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-100).