Re: "Error floor"

From: Don Groom (deg@panisse.lbl.gov)
Date: Fri Mar 14 2003 - 13:10:05 PST

  • Next message: Lifan Wang: "Re: "Error floor""

    I'll go with Rob on this one. Magnitude is a concept not without its
    charms, but when we're thinking about errors and statistics and stuff, we
    stick with intensities.

    D

    On Fri, 14 Mar 2003, Robert A. Knop Jr. wrote:

    > On Fri, Mar 14, 2003 at 11:15:15AM -0800, Lifan Wang wrote:
    > > Would not this error floor introduce unreasonably large errors at the
    > > late time light curves ? At day 40, the supernova is about 3 magnitude
    > > fainter, i.e. the flux is about 0.063 times that of the peak. The error
    > > floor then implies late time errors are around above 0.1 mag and increases
    > > at later epoch. I don't think this is the correct way of treating the
    > > data, as the measurement can definitely be better than the error floor.
    >
    > I disagree.
    >
    > Unless you integrate a WHOLE Lot longer, the late time data *is* going
    > to have larger *magnitude* error bars than the early time data!
    > Measurements are really flux, and comparable *flux* error bars is what
    > I'd expect... unless you really do integrate an awful lot longer for the
    > late time points.
    >
    > -Rob
    >
    > --
    > --Prof. Robert Knop
    > Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
    > robert.a.knop@vanderbilt.edu
    >

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    Don Groom (Particle Data Group, Supernova Cosmology Project)
    DEGroom(at)lbl.gov www-ccd.lbl.gov Voice: 510/486-6788 FAX: 510/486-4799
    Analog: 50-308//Berkeley Lab//Berkeley, CA 94720



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