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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

A critical analysis of high-redshift, massive, galaxy clusters. Part I

We critically investigate current statistical tests applied to high redshift clusters of galaxies in order to test the standard cosmological model and describe their range of validity. We carefully compare a sample of high-redshift, massive, galaxy clusters with realistic Poisson sample simulations of the theoretical mass function, which include the effect of Eddington bias. We compare the observations and simulations using the following statistical tests: the distributions of ensemble and individual existence probabilities (in the > M, > z sense), the redshift distributions, and the 2d Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Using seemingly rare clusters from Hoyle et al. (2011), and Jee et al. (2011) and assuming the same survey geometry as in Jee et al. (2011, which is less conservative than Hoyle et al. 2011), we find that the ( > M, > z) existence probabilities of all clusters are fully consistent with ΛCDM. However assuming the same survey geometry, we use the 2d K-S test probability to show that the observed clusters are not consistent with being the least probable clusters from simulations at > 95% confidence, and are also not consistent with being a random selection of clusters, which may be caused by the non-trivial selection function and survey geometry. Tension can be removed if we examine only a X-ray selected sub sample, with simulations performed assuming a modified survey geometry.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

An Exact and Near-Exact Distribution Approach to the Behrens–Fisher Problem

The Behrens–Fisher problem occurs when testing the equality of means of two normal distributions without the assumption that the two variances are equal. This paper presents approaches based on the exact and near-exact distributions for the test statistic of the Behrens–Fisher problem, depending on different combinations of even or odd sample sizes. We present the exact distribution when both sample sizes are odd and the near-exact distribution when one or both sample sizes are even. The near-exact distributions are based on a finite mixture of generalized integer gamma (GIG) distributions, used as an approximation to the exact distribution, which consists of an infinite series. The proposed tests, based on the exact and the near-exact distributions, are compared with Welch’s t-test through Monte Carlo simulations, in particular for small and unbalanced sample sizes. The results show that the proposed approaches are competent solutions to the Behrens–Fisher problem, exhibiting precise sizes and better powers than Welch’s approach for those cases. Numerical studies show that the Welch’s t-test tends to be a bit more conservative than the test statistics based on the exact or near-exact distribution, in particular when sample sizes are small and unbalanced, situations in which the proposed exact or near-exact distributions obtain higher powers than Welch’s t-test.

Hong, Serim↗
DOE OSTI2013

Dynamics of coupled simplest chaotic two-component electronic circuits and its potential application to random bit generation

We numerically investigate the possibility of using a coupling to increase the complexity in simplest chaotic two-component electronic circuits operating at high frequency. We subsequently show that complex behaviors generated in such coupled systems, together with the post-processing are suitable for generating bit-streams which pass all the NIST tests for randomness. The electronic circuit is built up by unidirectionally coupling three two-component (one active and one passive) oscillators in a ring configuration through resistances. It turns out that, with such a coupling, high chaotic signals can be obtained. By extracting points at fixed interval of 10 ns (corresponding to a bit rate of 100 Mb/s) on such chaotic signals, each point being simultaneously converted in 16-bits (or 8-bits), we find that the binary sequence constructed by including the 10(or 2) least significant bits pass statistical tests of randomness, meaning that bit-streams with random properties can be achieved with an overall bit rate up to 10×100 Mb/s =1Gbit/s (or 2×100 Mb/s =200 Megabit/s). Moreover, by varying the bias voltages, we also investigate the parameter range for which more complex signals can be obtained. Besides being simple to implement, the two-component electronic circuit setup is very cheap as compared to optical and electro-optical systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Diffuse γ-ray emission from misaligned active galactic nuclei

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with jets seen at small viewing angles are the most luminous and abundant objects in the γ-ray sky. AGNs with jets misaligned along the line of sight appear fainter in the sky but are more numerous than the brighter blazars. We calculate the diffuse γ-ray emission due to the population of misaligned AGNs (MAGNs) unresolved by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). A correlation between the γ-ray luminosity and the radio-core luminosity is established and demonstrated to be physical by statistical tests, as well as compatible with upper limits based on Fermi-LAT data for a large sample of radio-loud MAGNs. We constrain the derived γ-ray luminosity function by means of the source-count distribution of the radio galaxies detected by the Fermi-LAT. We finally calculate the diffuse γ-ray flux due to the whole MAGN population. Our results demonstrate that MAGNs can contribute from 10% up to nearly the entire measured isotropic gamma-ray background. We evaluate a theoretical uncertainty on the flux of almost an order of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Assessing compatibility of direct detection data: halo-independent global likelihood analyses

We present two different halo-independent methods to assess the compatibility of several direct dark matter detection data sets for a given dark matter model using a global likelihood consisting of at least one extended likelihood and an arbitrary number of Gaussian or Poisson likelihoods. In the first method we find the global best fit halo function (we prove that it is a unique piecewise constant function with a number of down steps smaller than or equal to a maximum number that we compute) and construct a two-sided pointwise confidence band at any desired confidence level, which can then be compared with those derived from the extended likelihood alone to assess the joint compatibility of the data. In the second method we define a “constrained parameter goodness-of-fit” test statistic, whose p-value we then use to define a “plausibility region” (e.g. where p≥10%). For any halo function not entirely contained within the plausibility region, the level of compatibility of the data is very low (e.g. p<10%). We illustrate these methods by applying them to CDMS-II-Si and SuperCDMS data, assuming dark matter particles with elastic spin-independent isospin-conserving interactions or exothermic spin-independent isospin-violating interactions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Semi-empirical catalog of early-type galaxy-halo systems: dark matter density profiles, halo contraction and dark matter annihilation strength

With Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxy data and halo data from up-to-date N-body simulations within the ΛCDM framework we construct a semi-empirical catalog (SEC) of early-type galaxy-halo systems by making a self-consistent bivariate statistical match of stellar mass (M{sub *}) and velocity dispersion (σ) with halo virial mass (M{sub vir}) as demonstrated here for the first time. We then assign stellar mass profile and velocity dispersion profile parameters to each system in the SEC using their observed correlations with M{sub *} and σ. Simultaneously, we solve for dark matter density profile of each halo using the spherical Jeans equation. The resulting dark matter density profiles deviate in general from the dissipationless profile of Navarro-Frenk-White or Einasto and their mean inner density slope and concentration vary systematically with M{sub vir}. Statistical tests of the distribution of profiles at fixed M{sub vir} rule out the null hypothesis that it follows the distribution predicted by dissipationless N-body simulations for M{sub vir}∼<10{sup 13.5} {sup –} {sup 14.5} M{sub s}un. These dark matter profiles imply that dark matter density is, on average, enhanced significantly in the inner region of halos with M{sub vir}∼<10{sup 13.5} {sup –} {sup 14.5} M{sub s}un supporting halo contraction. The main characteristics of halo contraction are: (1) the mean dark matter density within the effective radius has increased by a factor varying systematically up to ≈ 3–4 at M{sub vir} = 10{sup 12} M{sub s}un, and (2) the inner density slope has a mean of (α) ≈ 1.3 with ρ{sub dm}(r)∝r{sup −α} and a halo-to-halo rms scatter of rms(α) ∼ 0.4–0.5 for 10{sup 12} M{sub s}un∼<M{sub vir}∼<10{sup 13} {sup –} {sup 14} M{sub s}un steeper than the NFW profile (α = 1). Based on our results we predict that halos of nearby elliptical and lenticular galaxies can, in principle, be promising targets for γ-ray emission from dark matter annihilation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The third catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the FERMI Large Area Telescope

The third catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by the Fermi-LAT (3LAC) is presented. It is based on the third Fermi-LAT catalog (3FGL) of sources detected between 100 MeV and 300 GeV with a Test Statistic greater than 25, between 2008 August 4 and 2012 July 31. The 3LAC includes 1591 AGNs located at high Galactic latitudes (|b|>10{sup ∘}), a 71% increase over the second catalog based on 2 years of data. There are 28 duplicate associations, thus 1563 of the 2192 high-latitude gamma-ray sources of the 3FGL catalog are AGNs. Most of them (98%) are blazars. About half of the newly detected blazars are of unknown type, i.e., they lack spectroscopic information of sufficient quality to determine the strength of their emission lines. Based on their gamma-ray spectral properties, these sources are evenly split between flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lacs. The most abundant detected BL Lacs are of the high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) type. About 50% of the BL Lacs have no measured redshifts. A few new rare outliers (HSP-FSRQs and high-luminosity HSP BL Lacs) are reported. The general properties of the 3LAC sample confirm previous findings from earlier catalogs. The fraction of 3LAC blazars in the total population of blazars listed in BZCAT remains non-negligible even at the faint ends of the BZCAT-blazar radio, optical, and X-ray flux distributions, which hints that even the faintest known blazars could eventually shine in gamma-rays at LAT-detection levels. The energy-flux distributions of the different blazar populations are in good agreement with extrapolation from earlier catalogs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM PSR J0007+7303 USING SEVEN YEARS OF FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS

Based on more than seven years of Fermi Large Area Telescope Pass 8 data, we report on a detailed analysis of the bright gamma-ray pulsar (PSR) J0007+7303. We confirm that PSR J0007+7303 is significantly detected as a point source also during the off-peak phases with a test statistic value of 262 (∼16 σ ). In the description of the off-peak spectrum of PSR J0007+7303, a power law with an exponential cutoff at 2.7 ± 1.2 ± 1.3 GeV (the first/second uncertainties correspond to statistical/systematic errors) is preferred over a single power law at a level of 3.5 σ . The possible existence of a cutoff hints at a magnetospheric origin of the emission. In addition, no extended gamma-ray emission is detected that is compatible with either the supernova remnant (CTA 1) or the very high-energy (>100 GeV) pulsar wind nebula. A flux upper limit of 6.5 × 10{sup −12} erg cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} in the energy range 10–300 GeV is reported, for an extended source assuming the morphology of the VERITAS detection. During on-peak phases, a sub-exponential cutoff is significantly preferred (∼11 σ ) for representing the spectral energy distribution, in both the phase-averaged and phase-resolved spectra. Three glitches are detected during the observation period and we found no flux variability at the time of the glitches or in the long-term behavior. We also report the discovery of a previously unknown gamma-ray source in the vicinity of PSR J0007+7303, Fermi J0020+7328, which we associate with the z = 1.781 quasar S5 0016+73. A concurrent analysis of this source is needed to correctly characterize the behavior of CTA 1 and it is also presented in the paper.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

MO-FG-BRA-07: Theranostic Gadolinium-Based AGuIX Nanoparticles for MRI-Guided Radiation Therapy

Purpose: AGuIX are gadolinium-based nanoparticles, initially developed for MRI, that have a potential role in radiation therapy as a radiosensitizer. Our goal is to demonstrate that these nanoparticles can both be used as an MRI contrast agent, as well as to obtain local dose enhancement in a pancreatic tumor when delivered in combination with an external beam irradiation. Methods: We performed in vitro cell uptake and radiosensitization studies of a pancreatic cancer cell line in a low energy (220kVp) beam, a standard clinical 6MV beam (STD) and a flattening filter free clinical 6MV beam (FFF). After injection of 40mM of nanoparticles, a biodistribution study was performed in vivo on mice with subcutaneous xenograft pancreatic tumors. In vivo radiation therapy studies were performed at the time point of maximum tumor uptake. Results: The concentration of AGuIX nanoparticles in Panc-1 pancreatic cancer cells, determined in vitro by MRI and ICPMS, peaks after 30 minutes with 0.3% of the initial concentration (5mg/g). Clonogenic assays show a significant effect (p<0.05) when the AGuIX are coupled with MV photon irradiation (DEF20%=1.31). Similar AGuIX tumor uptake is found in vivo by both MRI and ICPMS 30 minutes after intravenous injection. For long term survival studies, the choice of the radiation dose is determined with 5 control groups (3mice/group) irradiated with 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20Gy. Afterwards, 4 groups (8mice/group) are used to evaluate the effect of the nanoparticles. A Logrank test is performed as a statistical test to evaluate the effect of the nanoparticles. Conclusion: The combination of the MRI contrast and radiosensitization properties of gadolinium nanoparticles reveals a strong potential for usage with MRI-guided radiation therapy.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Automated convergence detection in Monte Carlo criticality calculations using student's bridge statistics based on K{sub eff} or Shannon entropy

Monte Carlo (MC) criticality calculations are based on an iterative method. It requires a converged fission source distribution before beginning tallying the effective multiplication factor (K{sub eff}) or other quantities of interest. However, it is pretty difficult to locate on the run, the end of the source convergence and scores may be biased by an initial transient. This paper deals with a method that locates and suppresses the transient due to the initialization in an output series, applied here to K{sub eff} and Shannon entropy. It relies on modeling stationary series by an order 1 auto regressive process and applying statistical tests based on a Student Bridge statistics. It should be noticed that the initial transient suppression only aims at obtaining stationary output series and cannot guarantee any kind of convergence. The truncation method is applied on both K{sub eff} and Shannon entropy on three test cases. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Short-term effects of electronic and tobacco cigarettes on exhaled nitric oxide

The objective of this study was to compare the short-term respiratory effects due to the inhalation of electronic and conventional tobacco cigarette-generated mainstream aerosols through the measurement of the exhaled nitric oxide (eNO). To this purpose, twenty-five smokers were asked to smoke a conventional cigarette and to vape an electronic cigarette (with and without nicotine), and an electronic cigarette without liquid (control session). Electronic and tobacco cigarette mainstream aerosols were characterized in terms of total particle number concentrations and size distributions. On the basis of the measured total particle number concentrations and size distributions, the average particle doses deposited in alveolar and tracheobronchial regions of the lungs for a single 2-s puff were also estimated considering a subject performing resting (sitting) activity. Total particle number concentrations in the mainstream resulted equal to 3.5 ± 0.4 × 10{sup 9}, 5.1 ± 0.1 × 10{sup 9}, and 3.1 ± 0.6 × 10{sup 9} part. cm{sup −3} for electronic cigarettes without nicotine, with nicotine, and for conventional cigarettes, respectively. The corresponding alveolar doses for a resting subject were estimated equal to 3.8 × 10{sup 10}, 5.2 × 10{sup 10} and 2.3 × 10{sup 10} particles. The mean eNO variations measured after each smoking/vaping session were equal to 3.2 ppb, 2.7 ppb and 2.8 ppb for electronic cigarettes without nicotine, with nicotine, and for conventional cigarettes, respectively; whereas, negligible eNO changes were measured in the control session. Statistical tests performed on eNO data showed statistically significant differences between smoking/vaping sessions and the control session, thus confirming a similar effect on human airways whatever the cigarette smoked/vaped, the nicotine content, and the particle dose received. - Highlights: • Electronic cigarettes (with and without nicotine) mainstream aerosols were analyzed; • Particle number concentrations and size distributions were measured; • Nitric oxide exhaled by smokers before and after smoking/vaping was evaluated; • Alveolar and tracheobronchial doses of particle for a single puff were estimated; • Comparisons with conventional cigarette were made.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Power Curve Working Group's assessment of wind turbine power performance prediction methods

Wind turbine power production deviates from the reference power curve in real-world atmospheric conditions. Correctly predicting turbine power performance requires models to be validated for a wide range of wind turbines using inflow in different locations. The Share-3 exercise is the most recent intelligence-sharing exercise of the Power Curve Working Group, which aims to advance the modeling of turbine performance. The goal of the exercise is to search for modeling methods that reduce error and uncertainty in power prediction when wind shear and turbulence digress from design conditions. Herein, we analyze data from 55 wind turbine power performance tests from nine contributing organizations with statistical tests to quantify the skills of the prediction-correction methods. We assess the accuracy and precision of four proposed trial methods against the baseline method, which uses the conventional definition of a power curve with wind speed and air density at hub height. The trial methods reduce power-production prediction errors compared to the baseline method at high wind speeds, which contribute heavily to power production; however, the trial methods fail to significantly reduce prediction uncertainty in most meteorological conditions. For the meteorological conditions when a wind turbine produces less than the power its reference power curve suggests, using power deviation matrices leads to more accurate power prediction. We also determine that for more than half of the submissions, the data set has a large influence on the effectiveness of a trial method. Overall, this work affirms the value of data-sharing efforts in advancing power curve modeling and establishes the groundwork for future collaborations.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Statistical searches for microlensing events in large, non-uniformly sampled time-domain surveys: A test using palomar transient factory data

Many photometric time-domain surveys are driven by specific goals, such as searches for supernovae or transiting exoplanets, which set the cadence with which fields are re-imaged. In the case of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), several sub-surveys are conducted in parallel, leading to non-uniform sampling over its ∼20,000 deg{sup 2} footprint. While the median 7.26 deg{sup 2} PTF field has been imaged ∼40 times in the R band, ∼2300 deg{sup 2} have been observed >100 times. We use PTF data to study the trade off between searching for microlensing events in a survey whose footprint is much larger than that of typical microlensing searches, but with far-from-optimal time sampling. To examine the probability that microlensing events can be recovered in these data, we test statistics used on uniformly sampled data to identify variables and transients. We find that the von Neumann ratio performs best for identifying simulated microlensing events in our data. We develop a selection method using this statistic and apply it to data from fields with >10 R-band observations, 1.1 × 10{sup 9} light curves, uncovering three candidate microlensing events. We lack simultaneous, multi-color photometry to confirm these as microlensing events. However, their number is consistent with predictions for the event rate in the PTF footprint over the survey's three years of operations, as estimated from near-field microlensing models. This work can help constrain all-sky event rate predictions and tests microlensing signal recovery in large data sets, which will be useful to future time-domain surveys, such as that planned with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

The Gaussian CL s method for searches of new physics

Here we describe a method based on the CL s approach to present results in searches of new physics, under the condition that the relevant parameter space is continuous. Our method relies on a class of test statistics developed for non-nested hypotheses testing problems, denoted by ΔT, which has a Gaussian approximation to its parent distribution when the sample size is large. This leads to a simple procedure of forming exclusion sets for the parameters of interest, which we call the Gaussian CL s method. Our work provides a self-contained mathematical proof for the Gaussian CL s method, that explicitly outlines the required conditions. These conditions are milder than that required by the Wilks' theorem to set confidence intervals (CIs). We illustrate the Gaussian CL s method in an example of searching for a sterile neutrino, where the CL s approach was rarely used before. We also compare data analysis results produced by the Gaussian CL s method and various CI methods to showcase their differences.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Realistic simulation of reduced-dose CT with noise modeling and sinogram synthesis using DICOM CT images

Purpose: Reducing the patient dose while maintaining the diagnostic image quality during CT exams is the subject of a growing number of studies, in which simulations of reduced-dose CT with patient data have been used as an effective technique when exploring the potential of various dose reduction techniques. Difficulties in accessing raw sinogram data, however, have restricted the use of this technique to a limited number of institutions. Here, we present a novel reduced-dose CT simulation technique which provides realistic low-dose images without the requirement of raw sinogram data. Methods: Two key characteristics of CT systems, the noise equivalent quanta (NEQ) and the algorithmic modulation transfer function (MTF), were measured for various combinations of object attenuation and tube currents by analyzing the noise power spectrum (NPS) of CT images obtained with a set of phantoms. Those measurements were used to develop a comprehensive CT noise model covering the reduced x-ray photon flux, object attenuation, system noise, and bow-tie filter, which was then employed to generate a simulated noise sinogram for the reduced-dose condition with the use of a synthetic sinogram generated from a reference CT image. The simulated noise sinogram was filtered with the algorithmic MTF and back-projected to create a noise CT image, which was then added to the reference CT image, finally providing a simulated reduced-dose CT image. The simulation performance was evaluated in terms of the degree of NPS similarity, the noise magnitude, the bow-tie filter effect, and the streak noise pattern at photon starvation sites with the set of phantom images. Results: The simulation results showed good agreement with actual low-dose CT images in terms of their visual appearance and in a quantitative evaluation test. The magnitude and shape of the NPS curves of the simulated low-dose images agreed well with those of real low-dose images, showing discrepancies of less than +/−3.2% in terms of the noise power at the peak height and +/−1.2% in terms of the spatial frequency at the peak height. The magnitudes of the noise measured for 12 different combinations the phantom size, tube current, and reconstruction kernel for the simulated and real low-dose images were very similar, with differences of 0.1 to 4.7%. Thep value for a statistical testing of the difference in the noise magnitude ranged from 0.99 to 0.11, showing that there was no difference statistically between the noise magnitudes of the real and simulated low-dose images using our method. The strength and pattern of the streak noise in an anthropomorphic phantom was also consistent with expectations. Conclusions: A novel reduced-dose CT simulation technique was developed which uses only CT images while not requiring raw sinogram data. Our method can provide realistic simulation results under reduced-dose conditions both in terms of the noise magnitude and the textual appearance. This technique has the potential to promote clinical research for patient dose reductions.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2013

A METHOD TO SEARCH FOR CORRELATIONS OF ULTRA-HIGH ENERGY COSMIC-RAY MASSES WITH THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURES IN THE LOCAL GALAXY DENSITY FIELD

One of the main goals of investigations using present and future giant extensive air shower (EAS) arrays is the mass composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). A new approach to the problem is presented, combining the analysis of arrival directions with the statistical test of the paired EAS samples. One of the ideas of the method is to search for possible correlations between UHECR masses and their separate sources; for instance, if there are two sources in different areas of the celestial sphere injecting different nuclei, but the fluxes are comparable so that arrival directions are isotropic, then the aim is to reveal a difference in the mass composition of cosmic-ray fluxes. The method is based on a non-parametric statistical test-the Wilcoxon signed-rank routine-which does not depend on the populations fitting any parameterized distributions. Two particular algorithms are proposed: first, using measurements of the depth of the EAS maximum position in the atmosphere; and second, relying on the age variance of air showers initiated by different primary particles. The formulated method is applied to the Yakutsk array data, in order to demonstrate the possibility of searching for a difference in average mass composition between the two UHECR sets, arriving particularly from the supergalactic plane and a complementary region.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Model validation and error attribution for a drifting qubit

Qubit performance is often reported in terms of a variety of single-value metrics, each providing a facet of the underlying noise mechanism limiting performance. However, the value of these metrics may drift over long timescales, and reporting a single number for qubit performance fails to account for the low-frequency noise processes that give rise to this drift. Here, in this work, we demonstrate how we can use the distribution of these values to validate or invalidate candidate noise models. We focus on the case of randomized benchmarking (RB), where typically a single error rate is reported but this error rate can drift over time when multiple passes of RB are performed. We show that using a statistical test as simple as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic on the distribution of RB error rates can be used to rule out noise models, assuming the experiment is performed over a long enough time interval to capture relevant low frequency noise. With confidence in a noise model, we show how care must be exercised when performing error attribution using the distribution of drifting RB error rate.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

TESTING MICROVARIABILITY IN QUASAR DIFFERENTIAL LIGHT CURVES USING SEVERAL FIELD STARS

Microvariability consists of small timescale variations of low amplitude in the photometric light curves of quasars and represents an important tool to investigate their inner core. Detection of quasar microvariations is challenging because of their non-periodicity, as well as the need for high monitoring frequency and a high signal-to-noise ratio. Statistical tests developed for the analysis of quasar differential light curves usually show either low power or low reliability, or both. In this paper we compare two statistical procedures to perform tests on several stars with enhanced power and high reliability. We perform light curve simulations of variable quasars and non-variable stars and analyze them with statistical procedures developed from the F-test and the analysis of variance. The results show a large improvement in the power of both statistical probes and a larger reliability when several stars are included in the analysis. The results from the simulations agree with those obtained from observations of real quasars. The high power and high reliability of the tests discussed in this paper improve the results that can be obtained from short and long timescale variability studies. These techniques are not limited to quasar variability; on the contrary, they can be easily implemented for other sources, such as variable stars. Their applications to future research and to the analysis of large-field photometric monitoring archives could reveal new variable sources.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗