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At least 757 records · Page 42

A DETAILED STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MASS PROFILES OF GALAXY CLUSTERS

The distribution of mass in the halos of galaxies and galaxy clusters has been probed observationally, theoretically, and in numerical simulations, yet there is still confusion about which of several suggested parameterized models is the better representation, and whether these models are universal. We use the temperature and density profiles of the intracluster medium as measured by X-ray observations of 11 relaxed galaxy clusters to investigate mass models for the halo using a thorough Bayesian statistical analysis. We make careful comparisons between two- and three-parameter models, including the issue of a universal third parameter. We find that, of the two-parameter models, the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) is the best representation, but we also find moderate statistical evidence that a generalized three-parameter NFW model with a freely varying inner slope is preferred, despite penalizing against the extra degree of freedom. There is a strong indication that this inner slope needs to be determined for each cluster individually, i.e., some clusters have central cores and others have steep cusps. The mass-concentration relation of our sample is in reasonable agreement with predictions based on numerical simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

LOCAL ANISOTROPY, HIGHER ORDER STATISTICS, AND TURBULENCE SPECTRA

Correlation anisotropy emerges dynamically in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), producing stronger gradients across the large-scale mean magnetic field than along it. This occurs both globally and locally, and has significant implications in space and astrophysical plasmas, including particle scattering and transport, and theories of turbulence. Properties of local correlation anisotropy are further documented here by showing through numerical experiments that the effect is intensified in more localized estimates of the mean field. The mathematical formulation of this property shows that local anisotropy mixes second-order with higher order correlations. Sensitivity of local statistical estimates to higher order correlations can be understood in connection with the stochastic coordinate system inherent in such formulations. We demonstrate this in specific cases, and illustrate the connection to higher order statistics by showing the sensitivity of local anisotropy to phase randomization, after which the global measure of anisotropy is recovered at all scales of averaging. This establishes that anisotropy of the local structure function is not a measure of anisotropy of the energy spectrum. Evidently, the local enhancement of correlation anisotropy is of substantial fundamental interest and must be understood in terms of higher order correlations, specifically fourth-order and above.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

CONSTRAINING THE VELA PULSAR'S RADIO EMISSION REGION USING NYQUIST-LIMITED SCINTILLATION STATISTICS

Using a novel technique, we achieve {approx}100 picoarcsec resolution and set an upper bound of less than 4 km for the characteristic size of the Vela pulsar's emission region. Specifically, we analyze flux-density statistics of the Vela pulsar at 760 MHz. Because the pulsar exhibits strong diffractive scintillation, these statistics convey information about the spatial extent of the radio emission region. We measure both a characteristic size of the emission region and the emission sizes for individual pulses. Our results imply that the radio emission altitude for the Vela pulsar at this frequency is less than 340 km.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

HerMES: CANDIDATE GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED GALAXIES AND LENSING STATISTICS AT SUBMILLIMETER WAVELENGTHS

We present a list of 13 candidate gravitationally lensed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) from 95 deg{sup 2} of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey, a surface density of 0.14 {+-} 0.04 deg{sup -2}. The selected sources have 500 {mu}m flux densities (S {sub 500}) greater than 100 mJy. Gravitational lensing is confirmed by follow-up observations in 9 of the 13 systems (70%), and the lensing status of the four remaining sources is undetermined. We also present a supplementary sample of 29 (0.31 {+-} 0.06 deg{sup -2}) gravitationally lensed SMG candidates with S {sub 500} = 80-100 mJy, which are expected to contain a higher fraction of interlopers than the primary candidates. The number counts of the candidate lensed galaxies are consistent with a simple statistical model of the lensing rate, which uses a foreground matter distribution, the intrinsic SMG number counts, and an assumed SMG redshift distribution. The model predicts that 32%-74% of our S {sub 500} {>=} 100 mJy candidates are strongly gravitationally lensed ({mu} {>=} 2), with the brightest sources being the most robust; this is consistent with the observational data. Our statistical model also predicts that, on average, lensed galaxies with S {sub 500} = 100 mJy are magnified by factors of {approx}9, with apparently brighter galaxies having progressively higher average magnification, due to the shape of the intrinsic number counts. 65% of the sources are expected to have intrinsic 500 {mu}m flux densities less than 30 mJy. Thus, samples of strongly gravitationally lensed SMGs, such as those presented here, probe below the nominal Herschel detection limit at 500 {mu}m. They are good targets for the detailed study of the physical conditions in distant dusty, star-forming galaxies, due to the lensing magnification, which can lead to spatial resolutions of {approx}0.''01 in the source plane.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

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↗

Statistics of X-ray flares of Sagittarius A{sup ⋆}: Evidence for solar-like self-organized criticality phenomena

X-ray flares have routinely been observed from the supermassive black hole at our Galactic center, Sagittarius A{sup ⋆} (Sgr A{sup ⋆}). The nature of these flares remains largely unclear, despite many theoretical models. In this paper, we study the statistical properties of the Sgr A{sup ⋆} X-ray flares by fitting the count rate (CR) distribution and the structure function of the light curve with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. With the 3-million-second Chandra observations accumulated in the Sgr A{sup ⋆} X-ray Visionary Project, we construct the theoretical light curves through Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the 2–8 keV X-ray light curve can be decomposed into a quiescent component with a constant CR of 6×10{sup −3} count s{sup −1} and a flare component with a power-law fluence distribution dN/dE∝E{sup −α{sub E}} with α{sub E}=1.65±0.17. The duration–fluence correlation can also be modeled as a power law T∝E{sup α{sub E}{sub T}} with α{sub ET}<0.55 (95% confidence). These statistical properties are consistent with the theoretical prediction of the self-organized criticality system with the spatial dimension S = 3. We suggest that the X-ray flares represent plasmoid ejections driven by magnetic reconnection (similar to solar flares) in the accretion flow onto the black hole.

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STATISTICS OF THE VELOCITY GRADIENT TENSOR IN SPACE PLASMA TURBULENT FLOWS

In the last decade, significant advances have been presented for the theoretical characterization and experimental techniques used to measure and model all of the components of the velocity gradient tensor in the framework of fluid turbulence. Here, we attempt the evaluation of the small-scale velocity gradient tensor for a case study of space plasma turbulence, observed in the Earth's magnetosheath region by the CLUSTER mission. In detail, we investigate the joint statistics P(R, Q) of the velocity gradient geometric invariants R and Q, and find that this P(R, Q) is similar to that of the low end of the inertial range for fluid turbulence, with a pronounced increase in the statistics along the so-called Vieillefosse tail. In the context of hydrodynamics, this result is referred to as the dissipation/dissipation-production due to vortex stretching.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Statistical model of exotic rotational correlations in emergent space-time

A statistical model is formulated to compute exotic rotational correlations that arise as inertial frames and causal structure emerge on large scales from entangled Planck scale quantum systems. Noncommutative quantum dynamics are represented by random transverse displacements that respect causal symmetry. Entanglement is represented by covariance of these displacements in Planck scale intervals defined by future null cones of events on an observer's world line. Light that propagates in a nonradial direction inherits a projected component of the exotic rotational correlation that accumulates as a random walk in phase. A calculation of the projection and accumulation leads to exact predictions for statistical properties of exotic Planck scale correlations in an interferometer of any configuration. The cross-covariance for two nearly co-located interferometers is shown to depart only slightly from the autocovariance. Specific examples are computed for configurations that approximate realistic experiments, and show that the model can be rigorously tested.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Quantitative Predictive Theories through Integrating Quantum, Statistical, Equilibrium, and Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics

Today's thermodynamics is largely based on the combined law for equilibrium systems and statistical mechanics derived by Gibbs in 1873 and 1901, respectively, while irreversible thermodynamics for nonequilibrium systems resides essentially on the Onsager Theorem as a separate branch of thermodynamics developed in 1930s. Between them, quantum mechanics was invented and was quantitatively solved in terms of density functional theory (DFT) in 1960s. Furthermore, these three scientific domains operate based on different principles and are very much separated from each other. In analogy to the parable of the blind men and the elephant articulated by Perdew, they individually represent different portions of a complex system and thus are incomplete by themselves alone, resulting in the lack of quantitative agreement between their predictions and experimental observations. Over the last two decades, the author's group has developed a multiscale entropy approach (recently termed as zentropy theory) that integrates DFT-based quantum mechanics and Gibbs statistical mechanics and is capable of accurately predicting entropy and free energy of complex systems. Furthermore, in combination with the combined law for nonequilibrium systems developed by Hillert, the author developed the theory of cross phenomena beyond the phenomenological Onsager Theorem. The zentropy theory and theory of cross phenomena jointly provide quantitative predictive theories for systems from electronic to any observable scales as reviewed in the present work.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Infinite statistics condensate as a model of dark matter

In some models, dark matter is considered as a condensate bosonic system. In this paper, we prove that condensation is also possible for particles that obey infinite statistics and derive the critical condensation temperature. We argue that a condensed state of a gas of very weakly interacting particles obeying infinite statistics could be considered as a consistent model of dark matter.

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Statistics of anisotropies in inflation with spectator vector fields

We study the statistics of the primordial power spectrum in models where massless gauge vectors are coupled to the inflaton, paying special attention to observational implications of having fundamental or effective horizons embedded in a bath of infrared fluctuations. As quantum infrared modes cross the horizon, they classicalize and build a background vector field. We find that the vector experiences a statistical precession phenomenon. Implications for primordial correlators and the interpretation thereof are considered. Firstly, we show how in general two, not only one, additional observables, a quadrupole amplitude and an intrinsic shape parameter, are necessary to fully describe the correction to the curvature power spectrum, and develop a unique parametrization for them. Secondly, we show that the observed anisotropic amplitude and the associated preferred direction depend on the volume of the patch being probed. We calculate non-zero priors for the expected deviations between detections based on microwave background data (which probes the entire Hubble patch) and large scale structure (which only probes a fraction of it)

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Bayesian inference on the sphere beyond statistical isotropy

We present a general method for Bayesian inference of the underlying covariance structure of random fields on a sphere. We employ the Bipolar Spherical Harmonic (BipoSH) representation of general covariance structure on the sphere. We illustrate the efficacy of the method as a principled approach to assess violation of statistical isotropy (SI) in the sky maps of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) fluctuations. SI violation in observed CMB maps arise due to known physical effects such as Doppler boost and weak lensing; yet unknown theoretical possibilities like cosmic topology and subtle violations of the cosmological principle, as well as, expected observational artefacts of scanning the sky with a non-circular beam, masking, foreground residuals, anisotropic noise, etc. We explicitly demonstrate the recovery of the input SI violation signals with their full statistics in simulated CMB maps. Our formalism easily adapts to exploring parametric physical models with non-SI covariance, as we illustrate for the inference of the parameters of a Doppler boosted sky map. Our approach promises to provide a robust quantitative evaluation of the evidence for SI violation related anomalies in the CMB sky by estimating the BipoSH spectra along with their complete posterior.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Statistical imprints of CMB B -type polarization leakage in an incomplete sky survey analysis

One of the main goals of modern cosmology is to search for primordial gravitational waves by looking on their imprints in the B -type polarization in the cosmic microwave background radiation. However, this signal is contaminated by various sources, including cosmic weak lensing, foreground radiations, instrumental noises, as well as the E -to- B leakage caused by the partial sky surveys, which should be well understood to avoid the misinterpretation of the observed data. In this paper, we adopt the E / B decomposition method suggested by Smith in 2006, and study the imprints of E -to- B leakage residuals in the constructed B -type polarization maps, B( n-circumflex ), by employing various statistical tools. We find that the effects of E -to- B leakage are negligible for the B-mode power spectrum, as well as the skewness and kurtosis analyses of B-maps. However, if employing the morphological statistical tools, including Minkowski functionals and/or Betti numbers, we find the effect of leakage can be detected at very high confidence level, which shows that in the morphological analysis, the leakage can play a significant role as a contaminant for measuring the primordial B -mode signal and must be taken into account for a correct explanation of the data.

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Evidence of galaxy assembly bias in SDSS DR7 galaxy samples from count statistics

We present observational constraints on the galaxy–halo connection, focusing particularly on galaxy assembly bias from a novel combination of counts-in-cylinders statistics, P(N CIC ), with the standard measurements of the projected two-point correlation function w p (r p ), and number density n gal of galaxies. We measure n gal , w p (r p ), and P(N CIC ) for volume-limited, luminosity-threshold samples of galaxies selected from SDSS DR7, and use them to constrain halo occupation distribution (HOD) models, including a model in which galaxy occupation depends upon a secondary halo property, namely halo concentration. We detect significant positive central assembly bias for the M r < -20.0 and M r <-19.5 samples. Central galaxies preferentially reside within haloes of high concentration at fixed mass. Positive central assembly bias is also favoured in the M r < -20.5 and M r < -19.0 samples. We find no evidence of central assembly bias in the M r < -21.0 sample. We observe only a marginal preference for negative satellite assembly bias in the M r < -20.0 and M r < -19.0 samples, and non-zero satellite assembly bias is not indicated in other samples. Our findings underscore the necessity of accounting for galaxy assembly bias when interpreting galaxy survey data, and demonstrate the potential of count statistics in extracting information from the spatial distribution of galaxies, which could be applied to both galaxy–halo connection studies and cosmological analyses.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Robust cosmological inference from non-linear scales with k -th nearest neighbour statistics

ABSTRACT We present the methodology for deriving accurate and reliable cosmological constraints from non-linear scales ($\lt 50\, h^{-1}$ Mpc) with k-th nearest neighbour (kNN) statistics. We detail our methods for choosing robust minimum scale cuts and validating galaxy–halo connection models. Using cross-validation, we identify the galaxy–halo model that ensures both good fits and unbiased predictions across diverse summary statistics. We demonstrate that we can model kNNs effectively down to transverse scales of $r_{\rm p}\sim 3\, h^{-1}$ Mpc and achieve precise and unbiased constraints on the matter density and clustering amplitude, leading to a 2 per cent constraint on σ8. Our simulation-based model pipeline is resilient to varied model systematics, spanning simulation codes, halo finding, and cosmology priors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach through an application to the Beyond-2p mock challenge. We propose further explorations to test more complex galaxy–halo connection models and tackle potential observational systematics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Calibration of single-photon detectors using quantum statistics

I show that calibration of the single-photon detector can be performed without knowledge of the signal parameters. Only partial information about the state statistics is sufficient for that. If one knows that the state is the squeezed one or the squeezed one mixed with the incoherent radiation, one can infer both the parameters of the state and the efficiency of the detector. For that one needs only to measure on/off statistics of detector clicks for the number of known absorbers placed before the detector. Thus, I suggest a scheme that performs a tomography of the signal and the measuring apparatus simultaneously.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Minimum unit for the fractional statistics of anyons and its application

Although Han et al.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 150404 (2007)] proposed a quantum circuit with six qubits to demonstrate the basic braiding statistics of anyons, we have found that a four-qubit system is enough for realizing such a process. We call it the minimum unit for the fractional statistics of anyons. With some special order, the minimum unit can be used to construct two kinds of fractional charge excitation n/(n+1)[or (n+1)/n] and (n{sup 2}-kn+6n+2)/(n{sup 2}-kn+5n+4)[or (n{sup 2}-kn+2n+k+1)/3(n{sup 2}-kn+5n+4)], where n,k are positive integers and k{<=}n. This minimum unit can be realized by a photonic quantum simulator or by electrons in an optical lattice or quantum dot array. Its use will have some advantages in metrology.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Distinct universality classes of diffusive transport from full counting statistics

The hydrodynamic transport of local conserved densities furnishes an effective coarse-grained description of the dynamics of a many-body quantum system. However, the full quantum dynamics contains much more structure beyond the simplified hydrodynamic description. Here we show that systems with the same hydrodynamics can nevertheless belong to distinct dynamical universality classes, as revealed by new classes of experimental observables accessible in synthetic quantum systems, which can, for instance, measure simultaneous site-resolved snapshots of all of the particles in a system. Specifically, we study the full counting statistics of spin transport, whose first moment is related to linear-response transport, but the higher moments go beyond. We present an analytic theory of the full counting statistics of spin transport in various integrable and nonintegrable anisotropic one-dimensional spin models, including the XXZ spin chain. We find that spin transport, while diffusive on average, is governed by a distinct non-Gaussian dynamical universality class in the models considered. We consider a setup in which the left and right half of the chain are initially created at different magnetization densities, and consider the probability distribution of the magnetization transferred between the two half-chains. We derive a closed-form expression for the probability distribution of the magnetization transfer, in terms of random walks on the half-line. We show that this distribution strongly violates the large-deviation form expected for diffusive chaotic systems, and explain the physical origin of this violation. Here, we discuss the crossovers that occur as the initial state is brought closer to global equilibrium. Our predictions can directly be tested in experiments using quantum gas microscopes or superconducting qubit arrays.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗