Science Tools Working Group
Did not meet this week. We won't meet until after the collaboration meeting.
The current version of ScienceTools is v8.
Data products: No news
Databases and related utilities
No news
Likelihood analysis
- Handling of comparisons with DSS keyword values and values in binary tables of FITS files has been fixed; see LK-31. (Likelihood v11r14p2)
- Added Damien Parent's PowerLawSuperExpCutoff as a spectral model available in gtlikelihood and pyLikelihood. This spectral model is needed for modeling pulsar spectra (in the Polar cap scenario). (Likelihood v11r15; pyLikelihood v0r6)
GRB tools
- gtrspgen: problems with integrals of energy dispersion over large energy ranges for handoff_response and dc2Response have been addressed in irfInterface::IEdisp. (irfs/irfInterface v2r1; irfs/dc2Response v3r1)
Pulsar tools
- Masa and James have finished coding the blind search tool gtspec. Testing on DC2 data is underway.
Observation simulation
- From Max Razzano:
- "EGRET phase-dependent sources, fixes and extended down to 10 MeV. The lightcurve have been smoothed for the 3 faintest (no phase-dependence) and for Vela, Crab and Geminga we have phase dependent spetcrum and also some very narrow features that we can use for testing timing resolution;
- "Timing noise on 5 pulsars, based on Cordes algorithm of Random Walk(in phase) and of Arzoumanian (f2 based on Delta8 parameter);
- "3 MSP in binary orbits, we have this last problem but I solved and it is ok;"
User interface and infrastructure (& utilities)
- Pat and Jim added a new C++ implementation of dgaus8 (translated from Java, which was translated from the original spaghetti Fortran) to replace the f2c'd version. (st_facilities v0r10p1)
Source Catalog
Did not meet this week.
Science Tools Working Group
Did not meet this week. We won't meet until after the collaboration meeting.
The current version of ScienceTools remains v7r6p1.
Data products: No news
Databases and related utilities
No news
Likelihood analysis
From Jim:
- Fixed a bug in pyLikelihood wherein the model was not updated when a source was deleted. (pyLikelihood v0r5p1)
- Fixed a couple bugs in the error circle estimation in gtfindsrc. (Likelihood v11r13p3)
- Modified gtfindsrc so that it uses an absolute convergence tolerance for the fitted position. (Likelihood v11r14)
- Modified the internal handling of FITS file names so that environment variables are preserved when writing out model xml files, e.g.,
(Likelihood v11r14)
<spatialModel file="$(EXTFILESSYS)/galdiffuse/GP_gamma.fits" type="MapCubeFunction">
- Modified gtmaketime to use the CFITSIO extended filename syntax when reading in the FT2 data to select only those intervals relevant for the given FT1 file. The execution time for event files at the end of a long FT2 file is now about the same as for a comparable one at the beginning. (dataSubselector v4r6p4)
The following, also from Jim, regards IRFs. I'm not sure where it belongs in this report, but it is important:
- Added Pass 4 IRF files to CALDB. This is now where all ST applications will access these data. (irfs/caldb v0r2, irfs/handoff_response v3r4p1)
- Fixed a bug in dc2Response where the class 3 & 4 IRFs were not being loaded. This bug was introduced in dc2Response v3 Jan 29, 2007; had anybody tried to use these v3 irfs, an exception would have been thrown. (irfs/dc2Response v3r0p1)
GRB tools
James reports that he and Dave Davis have tagged v1r2p4 of rspgen to fix the normalization problem that Jim reported to them last week. They are still tracking down some integrals over energy dispersion functions that for some true energies and inclination angles are evaluated as 0. Probably related to this work, the current LATEST build of rspgen is not passing its unit test
Pulsar tools
Masa and James are continuing to work on gtpspec. Masa reports that they are debugging it.
Observation simulation
Max has tagged even newer versions of PulsarSpectrum (now v2r2p11). The problem with running the SC1 pulsars on recent versions of PulsarSpectrum has not gone away but remains latent if the pointing history file starts earlier than the simulation - how much is required is TBD.
User interface and infrastructure (& utilities)
From Toby: I've written an application that creates layered FITS images of the layers in exposure cubes.
It is built with the Science tools now and has a brief user guide .
This tool relates to the question of the format of the livetime 'cubes' written by gtlivetimecube.
Source Catalog
Met this week. Jean presented some results on tracking some more 'spurious' sources - extended (SNR) sources in the SC1 sky model. He also made the case for dividing the highest energy range for the fluxes into two: 3-10 GeV and >10 GeV. This will get discussed more at the collaboration meeting at the end of the month. Dario Gasparrini presented a Minimal Spanning Tree method for finding point sources; the algorithm was presented by Campana et al. as a poster at the Symposium.
Science Tools Working Group
Met this week. Eric Winter was introduced as a new programmer at the GSSC; he will be working on Science Tools and sounds like he knows what he is doing. James is introducing him to whatever he doesn't already know.
I'm not sure when we'll meet next - possibly not until after the collaboration meeting. Most likely, some GSSC people will visit SLAC on April 18-20 to discuss, and work on, Science Tools issues with Science Tools people at SLAC. Before you start trying to count the latter, please include Toby, who will be coming down from UW for the meeting.
The current version of ScienceTools remains v7r6p1.
Data products: No news
Databases and related utilities
No news.
Likelihood analysis
Jim reported fixing a bug in pyLikelihood related to TS calculations for binned likelihood analysis. The problem has existed for a while - related to a scheme to improve the approximate calculation of the TS values - but apparently Jim was the first to trip over it; the bug was a crash.
I mentioned the interest interest of the Diffuse group in large-area binned likelihood analyses. As Andy Strong has emphasized, for small pixels sizes and large areas of the sky, HEALPix is a superior binning scheme for convolutions with PSFs. Toby and Pat have done the most work that I'm aware of with HEALPix and LAT studies. We're far from having a binned HEALPix likelihood tool for general models, but this would be worth pursuing this year if skilled labor were available.
GRB tools
Eric W. will be starting on cleaning up things related to binning in gtbin. The topic that got mentioned specifically was implementing (or possibly fixing the implementation of) Bayesian Block binning for GRB time series.
Pulsar tools
Masa and James are continuing to work on gtpspec. The 'central engine' is working and they are focused on making the output plots and information useful, keeping in mind that FFTs for this kind of analysis will have A LOT of channels.
Observation simulation
Max has tagged even newer versions of PulsarSpectrum (now v2r2p5). The problem with running the SC1 pulsars on recent versions of PulsarSpectrum did not in fact go away as reported last week. Max is working on it.
Richard gave us an introduction to his MicroQuasar source, which has a number of knobs and can be used to represent a wide range of transient and/or periodic sources.
Toby and Nicola have tracked down a problem that we apparent only with GRBobsmanager, which generated very large time intervals to the next photon when a GRB 'turned off'.
Toby has got the Sun-centered reference frame (for MapSource sources - like the solar IC emission) and Moon-centered frames working. At first glance they produce reasonable output - on the right place on the sky. Detailed looks are in progress.
User interface and infrastructure (& utilities)
No news about Marco/Riccardo's proposed GUI for Science Tools.
Source Catalog
Did not meet this week.