118577389
The Dark Energy Survey data processing and calibration system
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a 5000 deg2 grizY survey reaching characteristic photometric depths of 24th magnitude (10 sigma) and enabling accurate photometry and morphology of objects ten times fainter than in SDSS. Preparations for DES have included building a dedicated 3 deg2 CCD camera (DECam), upgrading the existing CTIO Blanco 4m telescope and developing a new high performance computing (HPC) enabled data management system (DESDM). The DESDM system will be used for processing, calibrating and serving the DES data. The total data volumes are high (~ 2PB), and so considerable effort has gone into designing an automated processing and quality control system. Special purpose image detrending and photometric calibration codes have been developed to meet the data quality requirements, while survey astrometric calibration, coaddition and cataloging rely on new extensions of the AstrOmatic codes which now include tools for PSF modeling, PSF homogenization, PSF corrected model fitting cataloging and joint model fitting across multiple input images. The DESDM system has been deployed on dedicated development clusters and HPC systems in the US and Germany. An extensive program of testing with small rapid turn-around and larger campaign simulated datasets has been carried out. The system has also been tested on large real datasets, including Blanco Cosmology Survey data from the Mosaic2 camera. In Fall 2012 the DESDM system will be used for DECam commissioning, and, thereafter, the system will go into full science operations.
119346336
Search for neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts using Super-Kamiokande
Using the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory, a search was conducted for neutrinos produced in coincidence with gamma-ray bursts observed by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment detector. Super-Kamiokande data in the neutrino energy range of 7 MeV ~ 100 TeV were analyzed. For gamma-ray bursts that occurred between 1996 April and 2000 May, no statistically significant signal in excess of the background levels was detected. Implied upper limits on associated gamma-ray burst neutrino production are presented.
13992842
Proposed method for searches of gravitational waves from PKS 2155-304 and other blazar flares
We propose to search for gravitational waves from PKS 2155-304 as well as other blazars. PKS 2155-304 emitted a long-duration energetic flare in July 2006 with total isotropic equivalent energy released in TeV gamma rays of approximately 1045 ergs. Possible gravitational wave signals associated with this outburst are expected to be seen at the same time as the electromagnetic signal. During this flare, the two LIGO interferometers at Hanford and the GEO detector were in operation and collecting data. For this search we will use the data from multiple gravitational wave detectors. The method we use for this purpose is a coherent network analysis algorithm which is called RIDGE. To estimate the sensitivity of the search, we perform numerical simulations. For a detection probability of 20%, we estimate that this method is sensitive to total isotropic equivalent energy at the source of about 2.5 × 1055 ergs. For this analysis, an end-to-end pipeline has been developed, which takes into account the motion of the source across the sky.
9665346
Measurement of galaxy cluster integrated comptonization and mass scaling relations with the South Pole Telescope
We describe a method for measuring the integrated Comptonization (Y_(SZ)) of clusters of galaxies from measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in multiple frequency bands and use this method to characterize a sample of galaxy clusters detected in the South Pole Telescope (SPT) data. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to fit a β-model source profile and integrate Y_(SZ) within an angular aperture on the sky. In simulated observations of an SPT-like survey that include cosmic microwave background anisotropy, point sources, and atmospheric and instrumental noise at typical SPT-SZ survey levels, we show that we can accurately recover β-model parameters for inputted clusters. We measure Y_(SZ) for simulated semi-analytic clusters and find that Y_(SZ) is most accurately determined in an angular aperture comparable to the SPT beam size. We demonstrate the utility of this method to measure Y_(SZ) and to constrain mass scaling relations using X-ray mass estimates for a sample of 18 galaxy clusters from the SPT-SZ survey. Measuring Y_(SZ) within a 0.'75 radius aperture, we find an intrinsic log-normal scatter of 21% ± 11% in Y_(SZ) at a fixed mass. Measuring Y_(SZ) within a 0.3 Mpc projected radius (equivalent to 0.'75 at the survey median redshift z = 0.6), we find a scatter of 26% ± 9%. Prior to this study, the SPT observable found to have the lowest scatter with mass was cluster detection significance. We demonstrate, from both simulations and SPT observed clusters that Y_(SZ) measured within an aperture comparable to the SPT beam size is equivalent, in terms of scatter with cluster mass, to SPT cluster detection significance.
119180713
Searches for gravitational waves associated with pulsar glitches using a coherent network algorithm
Pulsar glitches are a potential source of gravitational waves for current and future interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Some pulsar glitch events were observed by radio and x-ray telescopes during the fifth LIGO science run. It is expected that glitches from these same pulsars should also be seen in the future. We carried out Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the sensitivity of possible gravitational wave signals associated with a pulsar glitch using a coherent network analysis method. We show the detection efficiency and evaluate the reconstruction accuracy of gravitational waveforms using a matched filter analysis on the estimated gravitational waveforms from the coherent analysis algorithm.
9158947
The Dark Energy Survey Data Management System: The Processing Framework
The Dark Energy Survey Data Management (DESDM) system will process and archive the data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) over the five year period of operation. This paper focuses on a new adaptable processing framework developed to perform highly automated, high performance data parallel processing. The new processing framework has been used to process 45 nights of simulated DECam supernova imaging data, and was extensively used in the DES Data Challenge 4, where it was used to process thousands of square degrees of simulated DES data.
16162456
Production of a Higgs pseudoscalar plus two jets in hadronic collisions
We consider the production of a Higgs pseudoscalar accompanied by two jets in hadronic collisions. We work in the limit that the top quark is much heavier than the Higgs pseudoscalar and use an effective Lagrangian for the interactions of gluons with the pseudoscalar. We compute the amplitudes involving: 1) four gluons and the pseudoscalar, 2) two quarks, two gluons and the pseudoscalar and 3) four quarks and the pseudoscalar. We find that the pseudoscalar amplitudes are nearly identical to those for the scalar case, the only differences being the overall size and the relative signs between terms. We present numerical cross sections for proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy 14 TeV.
118867968
Production of a Higgs Boson Plus Two Jets in Hadronic Collisions
We consider the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson accompanied by two jets in hadronic collisions. We work in the limit that the top quark is much heavier than the Higgs boson and use an e ective Lagrangian for the interactions of gluons with the Higgs boson. In addition to the previously computed four-gluon process, we compute the the amplitudes involving two quarks, two gluons and the Higgs boson and those involving four quarks and the Higgs boson. We exhibit the form of our results in the small-pH and factorization limits. We present numerical results for p S = 14 TeV and p S = 2 TeV. We nd that the dominant processes are gg ! ggH and qg ! qgH with the former (latter) contributing about 60% (40%) of the cross section at p S = 14 TeV and the two processes each contributing about half the cross section at p S = 2 TeV. All other processes are negligible at both energies. September 1996
113469755
Radiation Damage Study of the D0 Silicon Microstrip Tracker
The Run II DØ experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron collider ha s been operating since 2001. At the heart of the DØ tracking system is a silicon microstrip de tector. It is built from four layers of single sided and double sided sensors organized in six bar rels, and two sets of seven disks. An additional, very small radius layer of silicon sensors, c onsisting of eight barrels, was inserted during the spring of 2006. We monitor the silicon sensors for radiation damage. A bulk c arrier-type reversal was observed in the innermost layer of the original detector after 1.5 fb −1 of integrated luminosity. We present the results of aging studies and predictions for lifetime of the detector for the rest of Run II at the Tevatron.