comments on pages 16-30 on pre-final HST paper

From: Greg Aldering (aldering@panisse.lbl.gov)
Date: Sun Jul 13 2003 - 14:18:21 PDT

  • Next message: Robert A. Knop Jr.: "Re: comments on pages 16-30 on pre-final HST paper"

    Hi Rob,

    I examined pages 16-30 of the pre-final HST paper, as you requested. I
    found more little things than I expected, but I think most of those
    have been there all along and we never spotted or corrected. As part of
    the process, I looked at Saul's last round of PDF-based comments to see
    whether those specific changes worked. Here is the result:

    page 16:

     "... luminosity distance equation ..." --->
     "... luminosity-distance equation ..."

    page 17:

     "... a dispersion of 300 km s^-1);" --->
     "... a dispersion of 300 km s^-1 along the line of sight);"

     "... applied, use the ..." --->
     "... applied use the ..."

     "... uncertainty in magnitude corresponding to 0.04 magnitudes ..." --->
     "... uncertainty corresponding to 0.04 magnitudes ..."

    page 20:

     "... survey where extincted ..." --->
     "... survey, where extincted ..."

     "... Diagram which effective ..." --->
     "... Diagram with effective ..."

    page 21:

     "Figure 6 is shows ... " --->
     "Figure 6 shows ... "

     Note that we don't say why we are including Figure 6. How about:

     "For the sake of clarity, Figure~6 shows ..."

     You might also want to borrow from the Figure 6 caption text I sent, e.g.,
     the line about showing the size of the dark-energy effect and the
     significance of the supernova data in supporting the case for dark energy
     for the lower panel of Figure 6.

     "... variance-weighted sum ..." --->
     "... variance-weighted average ... "

    page 22:

     Is the following an old problem that we discussed before?

     "... color measurements ... data allows ..." --->
     "... color measurements ... data allow ..."

    page 23:

      "... including the eleven new HST supernovae ..."
      Technically the fit doesn't include all 11, rather it includes either
      8 or 10. So, I suggest that "eleven" simply be removed from this
      sentance.

      "By itself, the supernova data set at 99% ..." --->
      "By themselves, the supernova data set at 99% ..."

      Saul had suggested "... because for this fit w is not ..." rather than
      "... because w is not ...". I agree that Saul's suggestion clarifies
      the issue.

    page 24:

      "... calculating a $\chi^2 = $ ... " --->
      "... calculating a probability using $\chi^2 = $ ... "

    page 24:

      "When the probabilities distribution is ..." --->
      "When the probability distribution is ..."

    page 25:

      "... when the supernova data is combined ..." --->
      "... when the supernova data are combined ..."

    In the Malmquist bias section 5.3, "SN Ia" and "SNe Ia" are used extensively,
    whereas in the rest of the paper Rob chose to say "supernova" or "supernovae".
    So, there is a bit of a style inconsistancy in this section.

    Now, stepping outside my proscribed area, let me make some comments on
    Saul's comments:

    Abstract:

     The last sentance is still awkward and in the newest version has a
     *structure* which suggests that the conclusion changes (or would be
     expected to change) when extinction is accounted for. At a
     minimum, "full" should be "fully", and "with using" should be
     "using". Better yet, how about this to replace the last two sentances:

     "Our cosmological fits using such [[or "full"]] extinction corrections
      confirm that that dark energy is required with P(L>0) > 0.99, a result
      consistent with previous and current supernova analyses which rely
      upon the identification of a low-extinction subset or prior assumptions
      concerning the instrinsic extinction distribution."

    page 33:

      "... that prefer a non-zero ..." I think this is too weak and invites
      a challenge to the existance of the stretch luminosity relation. The
      original "require" rather than "prefer" does not seem like an overstatement
      given our evidence and that from other groups for the existence of such
      a relation. Saul and I discussed this on Friday, and I thought that he
      accepted this.

    page 35:

      bottom of page, there should be a space after "mass density"

    page 36:

      I agree with Saul that "most basic" is better than "zeroth-order", which
      was there before, or "crudest" which is there now.

    One other comment I'd like on the record - and which maybe we can do something
    with - is that the HST coadded images are now good enough to classify the
    host types. This is something we had asked Mark Sullivan to do, but which
    he never did. I then tried to make coadded images, but did not have the
    correct spatial transformations (which of course Rob has from his SN fits
    and the "starter" transformations from Alex Conley). So, I think we should
    classify the hosts, provide the classification on the Sullivan/Ellis system,
    and then note whether we can see any obvious correlation between the SN
    location in the galaxy and the measure E(B-V). I suggest that this is amounts
    to one more column in Table 3, and a few lines when we discuss extinction.
    Since this will be need to be done eventually, I will start working on it.

    Also, in your version of Figure 6, on the Hubble diagram the points seem to
    be mush together. In Saul's version then seem better separated. Can you try
    fixing this by using smaller symbols. Also, I still think that red for the
    symbols standards out better, and that 80% of the people will first see
    the figure on-line rather than from a B/W printer.

    Finally, the usage of "cull", from www.dictionary.com

        1.To pick out from others; select.
        2.To gather; collect.
        3.To remove rejected members or parts from (a herd, for
          example).
     n.
          Something picked out from others, especially something
          rejected because of inferior quality.

    So, "cull out" is about somewhat redundant, but perhaps slightly more clear
    (although in our paper the context makes it quite clear).



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