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Szalay, Alexander

Publications and source records attributed to Szalay, Alexander.

The Organization and Management of the Virtual Astronomical Observatory

The U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO; http://www.us-vao.org/) has been in operation since May 2010. Its goal is to enable new science through efficient integration of distributed multi-wavelength data. This paper describes the management and organization of the VAO, and emphasizes the techniques used to ensure efficiency in a distributed organization. Management methods include using an annual program plan as the basis for establishing contracts with member organizations, regular communication, and monitoring of processes.

management↗

The Clustering of Galaxies and Dark Matter at Intermediate Redshifts

Theoretical work in the study of weak lensing was begun while the Scientific PI (Jain) was at the Johns Hopkins University. A new postdoctoral fellow, Rita Kim, was hired to work for 0.5 years on the proposed research. She was unable to join JHU until March 2001 owing to delays in her PhD work. Meanwhile PI Jain moved to the University of Pennsylvania in January 2001. Owing to the above circumstances, the work for the proposed research was delayed and was expected to be carried out in the remainder of 2001. New measures of lensing based on the magnification effect were to be investigated by Drs. Jain and Kim. The simulations needed to test the analytical computations were already in place; hence the work was expected to proceed fairly rapidly. Owing to the close proximity of JHU and UPenn, the collaborative work was expected to proceed smoothly. It was requested therefore that the funds for the first grant year (2000-2001) be transferred to the second year. Part of the funding was spent at JHU on the salary for the Postdoctoral Fellow, Rita Kim, and the remainder at the University of Pennsylvania. The work from this grant is incomplete and will be continued under another grant.

Jain, Bhuvnesh↗

Higher order correlations of IRAS galaxies

The higher order irreducible angular correlation functions are derived up to the eight-point function, for a sample of 4654 IRAS galaxies, flux-limited at 1.2 Jy in the 60 microns band. The correlations are generally found to be somewhat weaker than those for the optically selected galaxies, consistent with the visual impression of looser clusters in the IRAS sample. It is found that the N-point correlation functions can be expressed as the symmetric sum of products of N - 1 two-point functions, although the correlations above the four-point function are consistent with zero. The coefficients are consistent with the hierarchical clustering scenario as modeled by Hamilton and by Schaeffer.

Meiksin, Avery↗