Summarizing X-ray Stellar Spectra
Abstract
XAtlas is a spectrum database made with the High Resolution Transmission Grating on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, after painstaking detailed emission measure analysis to extract quantified information. Here, we explore the possibility of summarizing this spectral information into relatively convenient measurable quantities via dimension reduction methods. Principal component analysis, simple component analysis, projection pursuit, independent component analysis, and parallel coordinates are employed to enhance any patterned structures embedded in the high dimensional space. We discuss pros and cons of each dimension reduction method as a part of developing clustering algorithms for XAtlas. The biggest challenge from analyzing XAtlas was handling missing values that pertain astrophysical importance. This research was supported by NASA/AISRP grant NNG06GF17G and NASA contract NAS8-39073.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #212
- Pub Date:
- May 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AAS...212.1703L