DR7

1. We need redshift, magnitude, absolute magnitude, and the confidence on redshift
2. We need to cross-correlate the template to recalculate the redshift (Maybe, unnecessary).
3. I need DR7 fits file on Canis to test the program output and to estimate the runtime.

Postdoctoral Project Proposal

Summery:

Step 1:

1) Using the SDSS DR7 quasar spectra

• waiting for Pat to give me the address to DR7 fits file on Canis

2) Using PCA technique

• I have copied the 50 eigenspectra files from ara to canis (I took the the "ES" directory from ara/work/phall) (I hope you don't mind pat that I get to your directory! I got the information from "qev.sm")

3) Reconstruct the entire DR7 with PCA

• I am in the middle of adjusting my program to record the weight factor of each eigenspectra as well as reduced_chi2
• there is only one problem: the ES directory includes only 50 eigenspectra. I was thinking of using 100, and the reasons are (1)  100 eigenspectra is recommended by Yip et al. (2) we want to create a ... catalogue.

4) Create a publicly available catalogue of reconstructed spectra

• we need to decide where is the best place to post the catalogue

5) Publish the results

Step 2:

1) Using reconstructed spectra

• I need to keep the reconstructed spectra in canis

2) Using line dispersion of MgII black hole mass technique to estimate the BH mass of DR7 quasars

• I need to adjust my program to work with the entire sample at once

3) Publish the results

Discussion:

Rafiee & Hall 2010a, 2010b have shown that using principal component analysis (PCA technique) to reconstruct the SDSS quasar spectra in order to increases the signal-to-noise ratio of quasar spectra, will improve the black hole mass measurements. We use the first 100 most significant eigenspectra generated by Yip et al. (2004) to reconstruct the quasar spectra. The weight-factor and corresponding eigenspectra index number will be recorded into a catalogue. The catalogue will be publicly available along with the eigenspectra though researcher can reproduce the quasar spectra with any number and order of the eigenspectra later.

References:

Rafiee, A., & Hall, P. 2010a, ApJS, Submitted

Rafiee, A., & Hall, P. 2010b, MNRAS, submitted