Likelihood Transform: Making Optimization and Parameter Estimation Easier
Parameterized optimization and parameter estimation is of great importance in almost every branch of modern science, technology and engineering. A practical issue in the problem is that when the parameter space is large and the available data is noisy, the geometry of the likelihood surface in the parameter space is complicated. This makes searching and optimization algorithms computationally expensive, sometimes even beyond reach. In this chapter, we define a likelihood transform (LT) which can make the structure of the likelihood surface much simpler, hence reducing the intrinsic complexity and easing optimization significantly. We demonstrate the properties of LT by applying it to a toy model in gravitational wave data analysis. For the signal with a signal-to-noise ratio 20, LT has made a deterministic template-based search possible for the first time, which turns out to be much more efficient than an exhaustive grid-based search. The method can also be directly applied to similar matched-filtering-based optimization and parameter estimation problems in other fields.

title: The Mock LISA data challenges: from challenge 1B to challenge 3
abstract: The Mock LISA Data Challenges are a programme to demonstrate and encourage the development of LISA data-analysis capabilities, tools and techniques. At the time of this workshop, three rounds of challenges had been completed, and the next was about to start. In this paper we provide a critical analysis of the entries to the latest completed round, Challenge 1B. The entries confirm the consolidation of a range of data-analysis techniques for galactic and massive-black-hole binaries, and they include the first convincing examples of detection and parameter estimation of extreme-mass-ratio inspiral sources. In this paper we also introduce the next round, Challenge 3. Its data sets feature more realistic waveform models (e.g., galactic binaries may now chirp, and massive-black-hole binaries may precess due to spin interactions), as well as new source classes (bursts from cosmic strings, isotropic stochastic backgrounds) and more complicated nonsymmetric instrument noise.

title: DUSTY DISKS AROUND WHITE DWARFS. I. ORIGIN OF DEBRIS DISKS
abstract: A significant fraction of the mature FGK stars have cool dusty disks at least an order of magnitude brighter than the solar system's outer zodiacal light. Since such dusts must be continually replenished, they are generally assumed to be the collisional fragments of residual planetesimals analogous to the Kuiper-Belt objects. At least 10% of solar-type stars also bear gas giant planets. The fraction of stars with known gas giants or detectable debris disks (or both) appears to increase with the stellar mass. Here, we examine the dynamical evolution of systems of long-period gas giant planets and residual planetesimals as their host stars evolve off the main sequence, lose mass, and form planetary nebula around remnant white dwarf cores. The orbits of distant gas giant planets and super-km-size planetesimals expand adiabatically. During the most intense asymptotic giant branch mass-loss phase, sub-meter-size particles migrate toward their host stars due to the strong hydrodynamical drag by the intense stellar wind. Along their migration paths, gas giant planets capture and sweep up sub-km-size planetesimals onto their mean-motion resonances. These planetesimals also acquire modest eccentricities which are determined by the mass of the perturbing planets, and the rate and speed of stellar mass loss. The swept-up planetesimals undergo disruptive collisions which lead to the production of grains with an extended size range. The radiation drag on these particles is ineffective against the planets' resonant barrier and they form 30-50 AU size rings which can effectively reprocess the stellar irradiation in the form of FIR continuum. We identify the recently discovered dust ring around the white dwarf WD 2226-210 at the center of the Helix nebula as a prototype of such disks and suggest such rings may be common.

title: First stage of LISA data processing: Clock synchronization and arm-length determination via a hybrid-extended Kalman filter
abstract: In this paper, we describe a hybrid-extended Kalman filter algorithm to synchronize the clocks and to precisely determine the inter-spacecraft distances for space-based gravitational wave detectors, such as (e)LISA. According to the simulation, the algorithm has significantly improved the ranging accuracy and synchronized the clocks, making the phase-meter raw measurements qualified for time- delay interferometry algorithms.

title: A scientific case study of an advanced LISA mission
abstract: A brief status report of an ongoing scientific case study of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Antenna (ALIA) mission is presented. Key technology requirements and primary science objectives of the mission are covered in the study. Possible descope options for the mission and the corresponding compromise in science are also considered and compared. Our preliminary study indicates that ALIA holds promise in mapping out the mass and spin distribution of intermediate mass black holes possibly present in dense star clusters at low redshift as well as in shedding important light on the structure formation in the early Universe.

title: Quantum Wave Equation of Photon
abstract: In this paper, we give the quantum wave equations of single photon when it is in the vacuum and medium. With these wave equations, we can study light interference and diffraction with the approach of quantum theory, and also can study the quantum property of photon when it is in a general crystal and photonic crystal. Otherwise, it can be applied in quantum optics and condensed matter feld.

title: Multi-Stream Inflation: Bifurcations and Recombinations in the Multiverse
abstract: In this Letter, we briefly review the multi-stream inflation scenario, and discuss its implications in the string theory landscape and the inflationary multiverse. In multi-stream inflation, the inflation trajectory encounters bifurcations. If these bifurcations are in the observable stage of inflation, then interesting observational effects can take place, such as domain fences, non-Gaussianities, features and asymmetries in the CMB. On the other hand, if the bifurcation takes place in the eternal stage of inflation, it provides an alternative creation mechanism of bubbles universes in eternal inflation, as well as a mechanism to locally terminate eternal inflation, which reduces the measure of eternal inflation.

title: $\mathscr{O}(100 GeV)$ Deci-weak $W^\prime/Z^\prime$ at Tevatron and LHC
abstract: Recently Tevatron released their measurements on invariant mass spectrum of electron/positron, as well as the di-jet arising from WW+WZ production with one W leptonically decay. Though the statistics is not significant, there are two bumps around 240 GeV and 120-160 GeV respectively. We proposed that the two bumps correspond to the extra light gauge bosons $Z^\prime$ and $W^\prime$, which couple with quarks with the deci-weak strength. In this brief report, we also simulated di-jet invariant mass distribution at the current running LHC.

title: A coherent method for the detection and parameter estimation of continuous gravitational wave signals using a pulsar timing array
abstract: The use of a high precision pulsar timing array is a promising approach to detecting gravitational waves in the very low frequency regime (10{sup –6}-10{sup –9} Hz) that is complementary to ground-based efforts (e.g., LIGO, Virgo) at high frequencies (∼10-10{sup 3} Hz) and space-based ones (e.g., LISA) at low frequencies (10{sup –4}-10{sup –1} Hz). One of the target sources for pulsar timing arrays is individual supermassive black hole binaries which are expected to form in galactic mergers. In this paper, a likelihood-based method for detection and parameter estimation is presented for a monochromatic continuous gravitational wave signal emitted by such a source. The so-called pulsar terms in the signal that arise due to the breakdown of the long-wavelength approximation are explicitly taken into account in this method. In addition, the method accounts for equality and inequality constraints involved in the semi-analytical maximization of the likelihood over a subset of the parameters. The remaining parameters are maximized over numerically using Particle Swarm Optimization. Thus, the method presented here solves the monochromatic continuous wave detection and parameter estimation problem without invoking some of the approximations that have been used in earlier studies.

title: EXPLORATION OF PARALLEL OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR ACCELERATOR DESIGN
abstract: Optimization through simulation is one of the most timeconsuming tasks in accelerator design, especially for highdimensional problems. We explored several parallel optimization techniques, including parallel genetic algorithm (PGA), parallel hybrid simplex (PHS), and parallel particle swarm optimization (PPSO), to solve some real-world optimization problems. The serial version of the simplex method in elegant [1] is used as a benchmark to compare with the newly developed parallel optimization algorithms in Pelegant . Our experimental results show almost all of the tested parallel optimization methods converge to an equal or better optimization result compared with the serial simplex method, which indicates the serial version of the simplex method could be easily trapped to a local optimum for some applications. The PPSO method is reliable for global optimization and is well suited for parallel computing. The optimization time for a coupling minimization problem was reduced significantly from more than six hours with serial simplex to about twenty minutes on a BlueGene/P supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computer Facility (ALCF). The HPS method requires much less time than other optimization algorithms for an experiment where the optimal solution is very close to the initial point for the optimization. These parallel optimization methods not only make the optimization result more reliable but also provide a feasible approach to on-demand accelerator optimization.

title: Effects of galaxy mergers on the faint IRAS source counts and the background
abstract: Binary merging constitutes a complementary mode of galaxy evolution to the canonical hierarchical clustering theory. This merger-driven evolution not only influences the galaxy mass distribution function, but may drive the main galactic activity cycles, such as starbursts and the activity in the nuclei (AGNs). In this paper, we use galaxy aggregation dynamics together with a possible merger-driven starburst and AGN phenomena, to study the effects of evolution of these consequential activities for the faint IRAS source counts and the infra-red background. We find that the strong evolution of IRAS 60 mu m source count at flux range of 10 mJy similar to 1 Jy is difficult to be explained only by the merger rate decrease with cosmic time. We need to assume a redshift dependent infrared burst phase of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) from the gas rich mergers at high redshift and the gas poor mergers at low redshift. The background intensity at 60 mu m which we get from this aggregation evolution is a lower Limit of only 1.9 nW m(-2) sr(-1), about half of those estimated by some previous models, but close to the lower end of the range derived by Malkan & Stecker (1998).