The Morphologies and Kinematics of Supernova Remnants

We review the major advances in understanding the morphologies and kinematics of supernova remnants (SNRs). Simulations of SN explosions have improved dramatically over the last few years, and SNRs can be used to test models through comparison of predictions with SNRs’ observed large-scale compositional and morphological properties as well as the three-dimensional kinematics of ejecta material. In particular, Cassiopeia A—the youngest known core-collapse SNR in the Milky Way—offers an up-close view of the complexity of these explosive events that cannot be resolved in distant, extragalactic sources. We summarize the progress in tying SNRs to their progenitors’ explosions through imaging and spectroscopic observations, and we discuss exciting future prospects for SNR studies, such as X-ray microcalorimeters.     

Time delay estimation at high signal-to-noise ratio

The estimation of the delay between two signals is examined in the limit of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is shown that for the case of white noise, cross correlation with no prefiltering approaches the optimal maximum-likelihood (ML) estimator as the SNR grows to infinity. In simulation experiments with SNRs greater than 1, it outperforms the approximate ML estimator, which is based on estimated spectra. Other algorithms, such as generalized cross correlation or parameter estimation algorithms, are shown to be suboptimal at high SNRs     

Kinematics of Supernova Remnants: Status of X-Ray Observations

A supernova (SN) explosion drives stellar debris into the circumstellar material (CSM) filling a region on a scale of parsecs with X-ray emitting plasma. The velocities involved in supernova remnants (SNRs), thousands of km?s^?1, can be directly measured with medium and high-resolution X-ray spectrometers and add an important dimension to our understanding of the last stages of the progenitor, the explosion mechanism, and the physics of strong shocks. After touching on the ingredients of SNR kinematics, I present a summary of the still-growing measurement results from SNR X-ray observations. Given the advances in 2D/3D hydrodynamics, data analysis techniques, and especially X-ray instrumentation, it is clear that our view of SNRs will continue to deepen in the decades ahead.     

Synchrotron Radiation from Galactic Sources: What We Can Learn About Particle Acceleration

I review the observations of galactic synchrotron sources, focusing on shell supernova remnants (SNRs), with particular attention to attributes that constrain the properties of electron acceleration. Radio observations provide information on source fluxes, spectral index, morphology, and polarization. Recent observations give us strong reason to believe that several young SNRs show synchrotron X-ray emission. Even if X-rays are thermal, however, limits can be set on the maximum energy to which electrons can be accelerated without a spectral break, since no galactic SNR is observed to have X-ray emission (due to any source) as bright as the extrapolation from radio frequencies of radio synchrotron emission. If synchrotron X-rays are detected or inferred, their morphology and spectrum provide important information on mechanisms governing acceleration to the highest energies. I describe models of synchrotron emission from SNRs and their comparison with observations. Finally, I describe the tasks ahead for both observers and theoreticians, to make better use of what SNR synchrotron emission tells us about particle acceleration.     

Carrier Tracking by Smoothing Filter Improves Symbol SNR

The potential benefit of using a smoothing filter to estimate a carrier phase over use of phase-locked loops (PLL) is determined. Numerical results are presented for the performance of three possible configurations of an all-digital coherent demodulation receiver. These are residual carrier PLL, sideband-aided residual carrier PLL, and finally sideband aided with Kalman smoother. The average symbol SNR after losses due to carrier phase estimation is computed for different total power SNRs, symbol rates, and symbol SNRs. It is found that smoothing is most beneficial for low symbol SNRs and low symbol rates. Smoothing gains up to 0.7 dB over sideband-aided residual carrier PLL, and the combined benefit of smoothing and sideband aiding relative to residual carrier loop is often in excess of 1 dB.     

Diffuse galactic gamma-ray continuum emission

Some of the most important questions about the diffuse gamma-ray continuum emission from the Galaxy are reviewed, based on Compton Observatory (CGRO) results, especially COMPTEL and EGRET, and also earlier COS-B analyses. The key issues include the rôle of emission from cosmic-ray interactions with molecular hydrogen and its energy dependence, emissivity gradients and their interpretation, the cosmic-ray electron spectrum and the effect of discrete sources. The relative contribution of the various emission processes at low and high latitudes is estimated and a plausible synthesis of the observed spectrum over 5 decades of energy is presented. In the energy range above 30 MeV, models based either on explicit cosmic-ray gradients or cosmic-ray/gas coupling can give acceptable fits to the data, and a clear distinction has yet to be made. The quality of the EGRET data may make this possible in the future. The value of the CO-to-H₂ conversion factor from -rays is still uncertain and there is considerable evidence for cloud-to-cloud variations. The existence of a small emissivity gradient is well established, but is difficult to explain in a diffusive cosmic-ray propagation picture with sources distributed like SNR or pulsars unless there is a larger halo than suggested by cosmic-ray composition studies. In the energy range 1–30 MeV covered by COMPTEL the spectrum of the diffuse emission has been measured and is consistent with a combination of bremsstrahlung and inverse-Compton emission; spatial analysis shows strong evidence for a component with a wide latitude extent which is plausibly identified with the inverse-Compton component. The molecular hydrogen appears to be only a weak -ray emitter at low energies, which can be interpreted in terms of reduced MeV cosmic-ray electron density in molecular clouds. New data on the hard X-ray diffuse galactic emission is becoming available and indicates the need for a low-energy upturn in the electron spectrum or some other additional component. The contribution of unresolved sources to the diffuse emission is unknown but-probably lies in the range 10–20%. At high latitudes the galactic emission is intense enough to significantly complicate the identification of the extragalactic component; in particular the inverse-Compton emission from a halo a few kpc in extent can account for much of the high-latitude galactic emission. The detection of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the non-detection of the Small Magellanic Cloud provide constraints on extragalactic cosmic-rays, and provide an interesting comparison with the properties of the galactic system. On account of the large amount of data from CGRO now available, this is a subject in rapid development, and this paper provides a snapshot of the situation around mid-1995.     

Detection of stochastic signals in the frequency domain

The optimum detector for a random signal, the estimator-correlator, is difficult to implement. If the power spectral density (PSD) of a continuous time signal is known, a locally optimum detector is available. It maximizes the deflection ratio (DR), a measure of the detector output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A discrete version of this detector is developed here, called the discrete-MDRD, which takes a weighted sum of the spectral components of the signal data as the detection statistic. Its derivation is applicable to nonwhite noise samples as well. A comparison of this new detector against three other common types, through their DR values and simulation results, reveals that the discrete-MDRD is near optimal at low SNRs. When the PSD of a signal is not known, a common test statistic is the peak of the PSD of the data. To reduce spectral variations, the PSD estimator first divides the data sequence into several segments and then forms the averaged PSD estimate. The segment length affects the DR values; the length that maximizes the DR is approximately the reciprocal of the signal bandwidth. Thus for unknown signal PSD, a detector that approaches the maximum DR is realizable from just the knowledge of the signal bandwidth, which is normally available. Examples and simulation results are provided to illustrate the properties and performance of the new detector     

单脉冲跟踪雷达多目标检测算法性能分析

对2种检测单脉冲雷达主波束内是否存在2个不可区分目标的算法进行了推广,将其应用到波束内可能存在N个不可区分的目标,并仿真了波束内存在3个目标时的检测性能。仿真表明,在总信噪比相同时,3个目标的检测概率不一定大于2个目标的检测概率,处于方位向上间距最大的2个目标的信噪比对整个检测概率影响较大。     

Olbers an interplanetary probe to study visible and infrared diffuse backgrounds

The visible extragalactic background (though as yet undetected) is insufficient to explain the abundance of heavy elements in galaxies: either there should be some diffuse extragalactic light in the near infrared (from 1 to 10 m) and/or in the far infrared (100 m) if dust has reprocessed the star light. We propose a new space mission to be dedicated to the search and mapping of primordial stellar light from the visible to the mid-infrared (20 m). In this spectrum range, detectors have reached such a sensitivity that the mission should aim at being (source) photon noise limited, and not any longer background photon noise limited. For that purpose, a small passively cooled telescope with large format CCDs and CIDs could be sent beyond the zodiacal dust cloud (which is absent beyond a solar distance of about 3 AU). In that case, the only remaining foregrounds before reaching the extragalactic background, is due to the Milky Way integrated emission from stars and the diffuse galactic light due to scattering and emission by interstellar dust, which are all unavoidable. Maps of the extragalactic light could be obtained at the arcminute resolution with high signal to noise ratio. This mission is the next logical step after IRAS, COBE and ISO for the study of extragalactic IR backgrounds. It has been proposed as a possible medium-sized mission for the post-horizon 2000 ESA program that could be a piggy back of a planetary mission.     

Nonlinear Kinetic Theory of Cosmic-ray Acceleration in Supernova Remnants

A review of kinetic nonlinear theory for cosmic-ray (CR) acceleration and subsequent -ray production due to CR nuclear component in supernova remnants (SNRs) is presented. The correspondence of the expected spectrum and composition of CRs produced inside SNRs in the Galaxy with the experimental data is discussed. Possible explanations of negative results in searching high energy -ray emission from nearby SNRs are analyzed.     

Peformance of dynamic programming techniques forTrack-Before-Detect

“Track-Before-Detect” (TBD) is a target tracking technique where no threshold is applied at each measurement frame. Instead, data are processed over a number of frames before decisions on target existence are made. The track is returned simultaneously with the detection. A simple algorithm is presented and demonstrated via simulations. A detailed analysis enables detection and tracking performance to be predicted for particular algorithm parameters. Good performance is observed at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), with rapid degradation as SNR is reduced further. For some cases the detection performance does not improve regardless of how many frames of data are processed. Tracking performance may also be poor even though detection performance is good     

Electron-Ion Temperature Equilibration in Collisionless Shocks: The Supernova Remnant-Solar Wind Connection

Collisionless shocks are loosely defined as shocks where the transition between pre-and post-shock states happens on a length scale much shorter than the collisional mean free path. In the absence of collision to enforce thermal equilibrium post-shock, electrons and ions need not have the same temperatures. While the acceleration of electrons for injection into shock acceleration processes to produce cosmic rays has received considerable attention, the related problem of the shock heating of quasi-thermal electrons has been relatively neglected. In this paper we review the state of our knowledge of electron heating in astrophysical shocks, mainly associated with supernova remnants (SNRs), shocks in the solar wind associated with the terrestrial and Saturnian bowshocks, and galaxy cluster shocks. The solar wind and SNR samples indicate that the ratio of electron temperature, (T _e ) to ion temperature (T _p ) declining with increasing shock speed or Alfvén Mach number. We discuss the extent to which such behavior can be understood on the basis of waves generated by cosmic rays in a shock precursor, which then subsequently damp by heating electrons, and speculate that a similar explanation may work for both solar wind and SNR shocks.     

Reconnective release of magnetic energy in astrophysical plasmas

Two particular examples are considered of astrophysical objects containing a highly conducting tenuous plasma with an excess magnetic energy supplied by an external source. The first example is the solar corona, whose magnetic field is continuously distorted by footpoint shuffling due to photospheric motions. The second case it an extragalactic jet extending from a galactic nucleus with an immersed magnetic field, and which is perturbed by variations in the pressure of the external medium. In both cases it is assumed that the system tends towards its lowest magnetic energy equilibrium via magnetic reconnection, thus providing a fast release of injected magnetic energy. Explicit relations between the characteristics of the external driver and the magnetic energy dissipation rate in these objects have been obtained. The relevance of this mechanism for heating the solar corona and maintaining radio emission from extragalactic jets is then. discussed by comparing these results with observational data.     

Effect of Sampling Time Jitter on Array Performance

The effect on array SNR of errors in sampling times (jitter) isan analyzed for the "Bryn processor." Jitter is modeled as a discrete-paramter er random process, and expressions for array SNR are determined as a function of signal and noise spectra and jitter characteristics. For a plane wave signal, it is found that jitter in the data used to design the processor has no effect on output SNR if the noise is independent between channels. However, jitter in the input (evaluation) n) data can cause a substantial loss in peak array SNR and in the array's frequency selectivity. These losses can be expected to increase as the high-frequency content of the data increases. The Bryn processor also loses its interpretation as a likelihood ratio processor in the presence of jitter. The effect of jitter can be reduced in many cases by increasing the sampling rate.     

Is the Vela pulsar associated with the Vela SNR?

Optical data taken in January 1987 from La Silla, when compared with the discovery plate of 1975.2 show no proper motion for PSR 0833-45, while a very significant one was expected if the pulsar originated in the center of the Vela SNR, which has so far been associated with it. If such an association is to be retained, either an extreme asymmetry of the SNR is required, or both objects are much older than has so far been thought. Both alternatives have their difficulties, thus possibly casting doubts on the reality of this classic SNR/pulsar association.Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile.     

激光多普勒流速仪系统参数优化实验研究

为获取激光多普勒流速仪光电倍增管电压、脉冲信号阈值和信噪比等级等系统参数对测量结果的影响,在自循环环形水槽中,采用对比实验,测量了相关系统参数对采样数据率、时均流速和脉动流速的影响程度。实验结果表明：光电倍增管电压在570-630V时脉动流速测量结果相对稳定;较低的脉冲信号阈值能提高采样数据率,实验时应根据采样数据率进行调节;信噪比等级对时均流速和脉动流速无影响,等级为Very Low时能满足水流实验需要。优化激光多普勒流速仪系统参数设置,将提高采样数据率和测量精度。     

Maximun Posterion Probability Demodulation of Angle-Modulated Signals

An algorithm is presented for maximum posterior probability (MPP) demodulation of angle-modulated signals. A sampled data version of the problem is considered, in which additive Gaussian noise and Gaussian modulating signal are assumed. The algorithm is a numerical method for solving the nonlinear equations which are necessary conditions for MPP estimation. Results of a simulation of the algorithm are presented and discussed. Improvements in performance with respect to a phaselocked loop appear to stem from use of data before and after the time position of a phase estimate and from optimization of performance at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as well as at high SNR.     

Coarse quantization for data compression in coherent location systems

When emitter location systems measure time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) and differential Doppler (DD) by coherently cross-correlating the signal pairs, data compression techniques are needed to facilitate data transfer of one of the signals to the receiving site of the other signal. Two block-adaptive quantization schemes are analyzed here to determine their impact on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the quantized signal as well as on the post-correlation SNR. Comparisons are made between two approaches: quantization of the real/imaginary (R/I) components or the magnitude/phase (M/P) components. For the M/P approach, a rule is derived for optimally allocating the bits between the magnitude and phase. The M/P approach provides better post-quantization/precorrelation SNR for most signals; however, when the SNR of the signal not being quantized is small, the post-correlation SNR can be largely unaffected by the quantization. In that case, there is little difference between R/I and M/P, even under the most favorable scenario for M/P.     

Carrier-Tracking Loop Performance for Quaternary and Binary PSK Signals

By expressing the open-loop response voltage as a Fourier series in terms of the phase-tracking error and then utilizing a very useful mean-value expression, we assess the performance of loops suited to recovering the carrier of four-phase (quaternary) and two-phase (binary) phase-shift-keyed (QPSK and BPSK) signals. At high signal to noise ratios (SNRs) they perform comparably, but at low SNRs the former's performance deteriorates much more rapidly. The loop's ability to maintain the carrier frequency despite the noise accompanying the PSK signal is measured by the mean and the variance of the oscillator's control voltage. In particular, Spilker's loop for QPSK and the Costas loop for BPSK signals are discussed.     

Directed Subspace Search ML-PDA with Application to Active Sonar Tracking

The maximum likelihood probabilistic data association (ML-PDA) tracking algorithm is effective in tracking Very Low Observable targets (i.e., very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) targets in a high false alarm environment). However, the computational complexity associated with obtaining the track estimate in many cases has precluded its use in real-time scenarios. Previous ML-PDA implementations used a multi-pass grid (MPG) search to find the track estimate. Two alternate methods for finding the track estimate are presented-a genetic search and a newly developed directed subspace (DSS) search algorithm. Each algorithm is tested using active sonar scenarios in which an autonomous underwater vehicle searches for and tracks a target. Within each scenario, the problem parameters are varied to illustrate the relative performance of each search technique. Both the DSS search and the genetic algorithm are shown to be an order of magnitude more computationally efficient than the MPG search, making possible real-time implementation. In addition, the DSS search is shown to be the most effective technique at tracking a target at the lowest SNR levels-reliable tracking down to 5 dB (postprocessing SNR in a resolution cell) using a 5-frame sliding window is demonstrated, this being 6 dB better than the MPG search.