Likelihood Accepted!

It's been a long process, but the likelihood paper was accepted by the Astrophysical Journal this week. I submitted my final draft to them today, as well as resubmitting the accepted version to the arXiv! So happy to be done with that chapter of my research and able to focus on new work!

Here is a link to the paper!

Likelihood Paper (Final version)

Likelihood Paper

SDSS-III Publication 33: A Simple Likelihood Estimator for Quasar Target Selection

Authors: Jessica A. Kirkpatrick (corresponding author)
David J. Schlegel, Nicholas P. Ross, Adam D. Myers, Joseph F. Hennawi

Abstract:
We present a new method for quasar target selection using a likelihood estimator. For our purposes we target quasars using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry to a magnitude limit of g=22. The efficiency and completeness of this technique is measured using Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Commissioning Data, taken in late 2009. This technique was used as the CORE method for target selection for BOSS Year 1 spectroscopy to be realized in the 9th SDSS data release (DR9). When targeting at a density of 40 objects/deg² we find the efficiency of this technique to be 41% and the completeness compared to all quasars identified in BOSS Commissioning Data to be 62%. This paper also describes possible extensions and improvements for this technique.

Comments:
SDSS-III participants have three weeks to send comments and to request changes. Participants comments should be sent to the Jessica Kirkpatrick.
The deadline to submit comments is Wednesday, April 6th 2011.

This is a BOSS science paper intended for submission to the Astrophysical Journal.

Downloads:
The most up to date .pdf of the paper can be found here:
likelihood paper (current) this version will be updated as I receive comments during the next three weeks.

The version of the paper submitted to the collaboration (3/16) is here:
likelihood collaboration submission

There is also a single column, double spaced version here (for easier editing):
likelihood paper one column

The .tex files and all associated figures, can be checked-out from the SVN at this location:
svn co svn+ssh://sdss3svn@sdss3.org/repo/boss/bosstarget/trunk/tex/likelihood/

Or downloaded here on the SDSS3 wiki.

Random LaTeX Information

I've spent most of this week incorporating co-author comments into my Likelihood Paper. Am I the only person in academia that finds LaTeX annoying? When I went from the "onecolumn" emulateapj document class, to just emulateapj, a lot of things got screwy. Anyway, here are some tricks of the LaTeX trade that I will probably forget between now and the next time I write a paper, so I thought I'd put them here.

I found this short-math-guide to LaTex very helpful. (also downloaded onto my mac under jessica/documents/reseearch/)

How to list an author with multiple affiliations (for myself):

Code:
Jessica A. Kirkpatrick\altaffilmark{1}$^{,}$\altaffilmark{2}


Output:
How to force a figure to span the entire page even when you have 2-columns:
Code:
include an * in \begin{figure*}

Output:
How to make a sum in a fraction in an equation be big
Code:
Put a "\displaystyle" before each \sum








Output:

Bad Blogger

To the 3 people that actually read my blog (Alexia, mom and dad), I know I have been a really bad blogger lately. I've been writing a paper, and didn't have much to post about that... and then I was in Paris for a SDSS Collaboration meeting.

Anyway, the Fall 2010 semester has started (how did that happen?!?) and I plan to get back to regular posting. I also am hoping to work exclusively on the reconstruction project now that the likelihood paper is (almost) done.

Apologies again. Here are some plots from the paper for your entertainment (the colors look a little less weird in black on white, but I inverted the images to keep with the blog color scheme):