arXiv subjects

William

Publications and source records attributed to William.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Broad-band High-Energy Resolution Hard X-ray Spectroscopy using Transition Edge Sensors at SPring-8

We have succeeded in operating a transition-edge sensor (TES) spectrometer and evaluating its performance at the SPring-8 synchrotron X-ray light source. The TES spectrometer consists of a 240 pixel National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) TES system, and 220 pixels are operated simultaneously with an energy resolution of $4$~eV at 6~keV at a rate of about 1~c/s/pixel. The tolerance for high count rates is evaluated in terms of energy resolution and live time fraction, leading to an empirical compromise of about 2 x 10^3 c/s/all pixels with an energy resolution of 5 eV at 6 keV. By utilizing the TES's wide-band spectroscopic capability, simultaneous multi-element analysis is demonstrated for a standard sample. We conducted X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis in fluorescence mode using the TES spectrometer. The excellent energy resolution of the TES enabled us to detect weak fluorescence lines from dilute samples and trace elements that have previously been difficult to resolve due to the nearly overlapping emission lines of other dominant elements. The neighboring lines of As K alpha and Pb L alpha2 of the standard sample were clearly resolved and the XANES of Pb L alpha2 was obtained. Moreover, the X-ray spectrum from the small amount of Fe in aerosols was distinguished from the spectrum of a blank target, which helps us to understand the targets and the environment. These results are the first important step for the application of high resolution TES-based spectroscopy at hard X-ray synchrotron facilities.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2022

Energy transfer and third-order law in forced anisotropic MHD turbulence with hyperviscosity

The Kolmogorov-Yaglom (third-order) law, links energy transfer rates in the inertial range of magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence with third-order structure functions. Anisotropy, a typical property in the solar wind, largely challenges the applicability of the third-order law with isotropic assumption. To shed light on the energy transfer process in the presence of anisotropy, the present study conducted direct numerical simulations (DNSs) on forced MHD turbulence with normal and hyper-viscosity under various strengths of the external magnetic field ($B_0$), and calculated three forms of third-order structure function with or without averaging azimuthal or polar angles to $B_0$ direction. Correspondingly, three forms of estimated energy transfer rates were studied systematically with various $B_0$. The result shows that the peak of the estimated longitudinal transfer rate occurs at larger scales as closer to the $B_0$ direction, and its maximum shifts away from the $B_0$ direction at larger $B_0$. Compared with normal viscous cases, hyper-viscous cases can attain better separation of the inertial range from the dissipation range, thus facilitating the analyses of the inertial range properties and the estimation of the energy cascade rates. The direction-averaged third-order structure function over a spherical surface proposed in literature predicts the energy transfer rates and inertial range accurately, even at very high $B_0$. With limited statistics, the calculation of the third-order structure function shows a stronger dependence on averaging of azimuthal angles than the time, especially at high $B_0$ cases. These findings provide insights into the anisotropic effect on the estimation of energy transfer rates.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

A Review of Brown 1971 (in)admissibility results under scale mixtures of Gaussian priors

Brown's 1971 paper "Admissible estimators, recurrent diffusions and insoluble boundary value problems" is a landmark in the admissibility literature. It nearly completely settles the issue of admissibility/inadmissibility for estimating the mean of a multivariate normal distribution with identity covariance under sum of squared error loss. We revisit this wonderful tour de force on its 50th anniversary and present an alternative and more direct proof of the result for generalized Bayes estimators corresponding to priors which are a subclass of scale mixtures of spherical normals.

math.ST↗

arXiv2020

Nonparametric Tests of Tail Behavior in Stochastic Frontier Models

This article studies tail behavior for the error components in the stochastic frontier model, where one component has bounded support on one side, and the other has unbounded support on both sides. Under weak assumptions on the error components, we derive nonparametric tests that the unbounded component distribution has thin tails and that the component tails are equivalent. The tests are useful diagnostic tools for stochastic frontier analysis. A simulation study and an application to a stochastic cost frontier for 6,100 US banks from 1998 to 2005 are provided. The new tests reject the normal or Laplace distributional assumptions, which are commonly imposed in the existing literature.

econ.EM↗