Re: [Cosmo-media] Matched circles

-- Paul Parsons Consultant Editor BBC Focus - PPA Consumer Specialist Magazine of the Year 2007 +44 (0)117 933 8040 BBC Magazines Bristol Tower House, Fairfax Street Bristol BS1 3BN www.bbcfocusmagazine.com www.skyatnightmagazine.com > From: Boud Roukema boud@astro.uni.torun.pl > Reply-To: PUBLICLY archived cosmology-media interface > cosmo-media@cosmo.torun.pl > Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 02:54:57 +0100 (CET) > To: Paul Parsons paulp01@yahoo.co.uk > Cc: Paul Parsons paulparsons@bbcmagazinesbristol.com, PUBLICLY archived > cosmology-media interface cosmo-media@cosmo.torun.pl > Subject: Re: Matched circles > > Hi Paul, > > SERIOUS COMMENTS: > > (1) "Six pairs of matched annuli crystalised out of the microwave hiss > - their orientation on the sky corresponding to the 12 faces of a > dodecahedron." > > It certainly sounds nice and reads well. :)) However... > > The first sentence here is misleading: we searched for the best > orientation of a PDS model, while this sentence suggests that the > dodecahedral configuration was a *result* rather than an *assumption* of > our method. i would suggest something like: > > "Their search method for the best orientation on the sky for the 12 > faces of a dodecahedron homed in onto one particular, > self-consistent set of directions." > > i haven't tried to put any "spice" back into the sentence - that's > your (difficult!) task of trying to do it while retaining scientific > accuracy. > > > (2) "Roukema's team admit..." > > We quite overtly (including in the abstract) state the chance of our > twist angle occurring by chance in a non-PDS model and the method by > which we calculate it. So it's not an admission - it's part of our > research results. > > How about "Roukema's team themselves stated/said that..." ? > > [The New Scientist also used the word "admit" - that's their > inaccuracy, not ours.] > > > (3) "a team ... claimed to have found 12 matched circles in the CMB" > > This is misleading. > > The paragraph i gave you previously was: > http://cosmo.torun.pl/pipermail/cosmo-media/2008-February/000073.html > >> In our new paper we use a different (though related) method, which we >> think is more robust than the matched circles method - in some sense >> you could say that it uses thickened matched circles, i.e. annuli, >> even though this is an *interpretation* of the method, not the >> calculation method itself. Since we did find a best solution, and that >> solution has the correct twist angle within the uncertainty estimate, >> and since the cross-correlations for that solution are strong, you >> could loosely say that yes, there really are matched annuli in the >> WMAP data. > > This is not the same thing as "claimed to have found 12 matched > circles in the CMB". > > If you want to be accurate, i suggest something like: > > "a team ... claimed to have found what could be loosely said to be > 12 thickened matched circles" > > i don't think readers need to have the existence of subtlety hidden > from them - we can avoid giving them the details, but we can't > pretend that something is very simple if it's not so simple. > > > > (4) "team find new evidence that the fundamental shape of the universe > is a dodecahedron" > > Wrong. You could put: > > "team find new evidence that the fundamental domain of the universe > is a dodecahedron" > or > > "team find new evidence that the shape of the universe > is a Poincare dodecahedral space" > > or > > "team find new evidence that the shape of the universe > is a dodecahedron that wraps around on itself" > > > > (5) Regarding the "map with matched circles" > > Since our method was not to search for matched circles, we don't have > a map ready with matched circles shown on it. Of course, what we did > is *related* to matched circles, but the relation is not one-to-one. > > What i suggest instead is the "best orientation" all-sky map on this page: > http://cosmo.torun.pl/Cosmo/PressReleaseRBSG08 > > [ The image was created by me, at home, independently of the corresponding > figure in our Astronomy & Astrophysics article, so you shouldn't > have copyright problems. If formality is needed, then choose one > of the GPL/GFDL/CC-BY-SA licences - probably you would want CC-BY-SA: > http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ] > > If you want to use this, then a replacement for the text: > > "team ... claimed to have found 12 matched circles in the CMB - shown here - > corresponding to dodecahedral topology." > > could be something like: > > "team ... claimed to have found that the best orientation of a > dodecahedron in the sky - shown here - gives the required twist > surprisingly well." > > > > OTHER COMMENTS: > > (*) "Torun Centre for Astronomy in Poland" > > It would be nice to put the university name as well, in at least one > of the three places: > > "Torun Centre for Astronomy of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland" > > > > MINOR COMMENTS: > > > (*) "their theory says the topology of space amounts to" > > This is a matter of taste whether to use the popular usage of "theory" > to mean "hypothesis", or rather scientists' use of the word, which > is quite different. Is gravity a theory? Yes, it's a theory. It's a > very well established theory. Try to ignore it and you'll soon end up in > hospital or worse. It's much more than just a hypothesis. > > i would put: "their evidence supports the hypothesis that the topology > of space may amount to" > > > (*) "would look like a cosmic hall of mirrors" > > i would put: > "would look something like a cosmic hall of mirrors" > > > (*) "was pioneered astrophysicists" > > missing "by" > > > cheers > boud -- Think before you print . . . If you really need to print this, print double sided -- BBC Magazines Bristol is a trading style of Bristol Magazines Limited Registered in England No. 5715415 Registered Office: Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London, W12 0TT A BBC Worldwide Company