Re: Evolution reply to comments

From: Gabriele Garavini (garavini@in2p3.fr)
Date: Tue Mar 08 2005 - 00:13:03 PST

  • Next message: Chris Lidman: "Evolution paper"

    Hi Chris,

    I'm sorry, I put the wrong link. Now the latest version (2.4) is
    available.

    Cheers
    Gabriele

    On Mar 8, 2005, at 12:38 AM, Chris Lidman wrote:

    > Hi Gabrielle,
    > Could you check that the version that is on the web is the
    > latest one. The latest version that I could find is
    > version 2.0 from Feb 21st.
    >
    > Cheers, Chirs.
    >
    > On Fri, 2005-03-04 at 14:09, Gabriele Garavini wrote:
    >> Dear Chris, Dear All,
    >>
    >> I've implemented the latest comments from Chris, Andy and Rob into a
    >> new draft of the paper and made some more modifications
    >> (supernovae.in2p3.fr/~garavini/papers)
    >>
    >>
    >> The most relevant news are:
    >>
    >> Section 3.3
    >>
    >> I've completely redone the statistics. I've included in the chi^2
    >> test
    >> also the error on the x axis into. It was not there before. This was
    >> done propagating it into an y axis error according to the ew model of
    >> the low redshift SNe. This needed to be done for correctness, and has
    >> some nice consequences especially for MgII. Since the ew evolution of
    >> this feature has a big derivative wrt time the difference in the
    >> probability in table 5 is significant. Now the hypothesis that low and
    >> high redshift SN have the same ew trend is true for both Fe and Mg.
    >> Also, I've included in table 5 the same chi^2 test considering in the
    >> uncertainties also the systematic due to the misidentification of the
    >> fitting regions.
    >>
    >>
    >> Section 3.2.2
    >>
    >> The last paragraph about the systematic due to host galaxy removal was
    >> not exhaustive. I've expanded it explaining in some more details where
    >> the 10% of uncertainty comes from.
    >>
    >>
    >> Section 3.2.3
    >>
    >> In the second last paragraph of page 8 we commented on the higher
    >> than average values of ew for Mg before max light (a 2-sigma effect).
    >> The previous version of the paper included an explanation that did not
    >> convince neither me nor Chris. So I've done some thinking and some
    >> checks. Looking at the spectra and trying to identify the feature I
    >> noticed that in the early epochs since this feature is shallow it is
    >> easy to misidentify the maxima perhaps including some of the neighbor
    >> absorptions. This would bias the ew measurements toward higher values.
    >> This effect is taken into account by the misidentification systematic
    >> uncertainties. In the current version of this paragraph I explain that
    >> this could be the origin of the problem but that anyway it is not
    >> statistical significant.
    >>
    >>
    >> Section 3.2.1
    >>
    >> I included the latest comments from Rob. We now agreed on a
    >> description
    >> that hopefully will allow the reader to measure ew as was done for
    >> this
    >> paper.
    >>
    >>
    >> This should cover all the comment and worries raised so far.
    >>
    >> Please let me know what you think and how we proceed from here?
    >> I think now the paper can safely state that we do not see evolution.
    >> The new version includes all the authors that were included into the
    >> VLT paper. I know some of the affiliation are wrong. I'll check them
    >> out.
    >>
    >>
    >> Thank you very much
    >> Cheers
    >> Gabriele
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> On Feb 23, 2005, at 4:48 PM, Chris Lidman wrote:
    >>
    >>> Hi Gabriele,
    >>> I've given some more thought about the possibility of doing a 2D KS
    >>> test with the data in figure 5. It seems to me that we cannot do
    >>> this test because one is not sampling the nearby and
    >>> distant samples randomly.
    >>>
    >>> The alternative is the chi-sq test, as you have done. The
    >>> resulting probability (0.15) is low. The question we must now ask
    >>> ourselves is do we believe this result. If we do, then we cannot
    >>> say that there is no evidence for evolution, as we do in the
    >>> abstract.
    >>>
    >>> There could be reasons for the difference. The example you give
    >>> is systematic errors in host galaxy subtraction. If this is the case,
    >>> why would if affect the the Mg II index but not the FeII index.
    >>>
    >>> Regards, Chris.
    >>>
    >>> On Tue, 2005-02-22 at 20:56, Chris Lidman wrote:
    >>>> Hi Gabriele,
    >>>> Thanks for the reply. I forwarded your paper to Andy and he has
    >>>> provided some additional comments. Andy's comments consist of
    >>>> grammatical corrections, which I reproduce below, and an important
    >>>> question regarding host galaxy subtraction.
    >>>>
    >>>> Before I list Andy's comments, I'd like to add to my point
    >>>> concerning
    >>>> the significance of the difference seen in figure 5.
    >>>>
    >>>> The test you have done is to test whether high redshift SNe are
    >>>> more
    >>>> similar to low redshift normal SNe or to low redshift underluminous
    >>>> SNe.
    >>>> You have found the former to be true. However, this does not mean
    >>>> that
    >>>> they are the same as low redshift normal supernova. Hence, you
    >>>> cannot
    >>>> conclude that there is no evolution. For this, you need to conduct a
    >>>> more sophisticated test.
    >>>>
    >>>> It may not be easy to do this in 2 dimensions. In 1D, the
    >>>> obvious tests would be the KS test and Student's t-test.
    >>>> However, using a web search, I found the following web page
    >>>> which describes a 2D KS test.
    >>>>
    >>>> http://beowulf.lcs.mit.edu/18.337-2002/projects-2002/ianchan/KS2D/
    >>>> Project%20Page.html
    >>>>
    >>>> Have a look and let me know what you think.
    >>>>
    >>>> In addition to Andy's comment regarding host galaxy subtraction,
    >>>> one
    >>>> should note that the bias could go either way. In some cases, you
    >>>> might
    >>>> subtract too much host and in other cases you might subtract too
    >>>> little.
    >>>> Currently, the paper assumes that the error in the subtraction is
    >>>> 10%.
    >>>> Where does this percentage come from? I think that this needs more
    >>>> justification.
    >>>>
    >>>> Cheers, Chris.
    >>>>
    >>>> Start of Andy's comments
    >>>> ========================
    >>>>
    >>>> Comment #1
    >>>>
    >>>> The largest source of uncertainty is the host galaxy subtraction.
    >>>> Yet
    >>>> this is swept under the rug. If this was done using the
    >>>> determination
    >>>> from my program, for example, you can't trust any of the conclusions
    >>>> from the paper. My program simultaneously fits host galaxy and SN
    >>>> templates. In other words, it *assumes* that the high-z spectra is
    >>>> similar to a low-z one and subtracts an amount of host light such
    >>>> that
    >>>> the high-z and low-z spectra will look similar. The proper thing to
    >>>> do
    >>>> would be to use the photometry (e.g. percent increase) to constrain
    >>>> the
    >>>> amount of host galaxy light, and to use imaging and spectral
    >>>> features
    >>>> to
    >>>> constrain the host characteristics. You might be able to say some
    >>>> spectrum has 30% host +/- 10%, and is either an E, SO, or Sa. Then
    >>>> you
    >>>> could do different subtractions in that parameter space and test the
    >>>> results. Defining a technique like this would be a great addition
    >>>> to
    >>>> this paper because any time people use high-z spectra they are going
    >>>> to
    >>>> have to do something like this.
    >>>>
    >>>> Comment #2
    >>>> ==========
    >>>>
    >>>> One other point -- in the SNLS we have many 91T/99aa SNe at high
    >>>> redshift. So there is no need to make a big deal out of having one
    >>>> in
    >>>> the sample, as this paper does.
    >>>>
    >>>> Minor comments
    >>>> ==============
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 1
    >>>> Intro, par. 1 -- plural of supernova is supernovae
    >>>> tidly ????
    >>>> par. 4 it should be pointed out that the effect metallicity has
    >>>> on the spectrum pointed out by Hoeflich and Lentz are only for
    >>>> early-time
    >>>> spectra, of which there aren't many here.
    >>>>
    >>>> par. 6 -- I have submitted a paper on SNLS gemini spectra -- Howell
    >>>> et
    >>>> al.
    >>>> 2005, ApJ, submitted
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 2, section 2.1 last sentence, One SNe -> One supernova
    >>>>
    >>>> last paragraph of section -- two days is no longer the uncertainty
    >>>> for
    >>>> the
    >>>> spectroscopic epoch determination in Hook et al.
    >>>>
    >>>> section 2.3, par 1 -- you say EWS but it is not defined yet.
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 4
    >>>> table 2 'Si' should be 'Si 4000' since you say it is absent in
    >>>> underluminous SNe.
    >>>>
    >>>> first paragraph on page - there is a period missing before SN 2002fd
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 5
    >>>> 3.1, 3rd par. "uncertainty in the redshifts is taken to be 300 km/s
    >>>> if
    >>>> the
    >>>> redshift was estimated from galaxy lines..."
    >>>> shouldn't this be proportional to the redshift?
    >>>>
    >>>> 3.2 first sentence -- delete ", they" and second comma.
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 6
    >>>> "possible involved" delete involved
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 7 last par in 3.2.1 delete space in "spectra ,"
    >>>>
    >>>> 3.2.3, 4th par -- delete space: "( with"
    >>>>
    >>>> p. 8 3.3 miss-identification -> misidentification
    >>>> this whole parenthetical expression should be made into a new
    >>>> sentence
    >>>> because it is confusing with "uncertainties" written twice in a row.
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>> On Tue, 2005-02-22 at 05:24, Gabriele Garavini wrote:
    >>>>> I'm very sorry chris I sent by mistake the wrong file.
    >>>>> Here is the one I meant to send.
    >>>>> Thanks
    >>>>> Gabriele
    >>>>>
    >>>>> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005, Chris Lidman wrote:
    >>>>>
    >>>>>> Hi Gabriele,
    >>>>>> Could you resend the attachment. The one I received seems to be
    >>>>>> chopped at the end.
    >>>>>>
    >>>>>> Regards,
    >>>>>>
    >>>>>> Chris.
    >>>>>>
    >>>>>> On Mon, 2005-02-21 at 13:29, Gabriele Garavini wrote:
    >>>>>>> Dear Chris
    >>>>>>>
    >>>>>>> thanks you very much for the careful reading of the paper. I've
    >>>>>>> implements most of you comments. Please find all my answers in
    >>>>>>> the
    >>>>>>> attached file. I also changed extensively the section about EW
    >>>>>>> (3.2) I
    >>>>>>> hope this will allow us to go to submission shortly.
    >>>>>>>
    >>>>>>> Thanks again
    >>>>>>> Hasta la vista.
    >>>>>>> Cheers
    >>>>>>> Gabriele
    >>>>>>
    >>>>>>
    >>>>>>
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>
    >>>
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