The radio/X‐ray correlation in Swift J1753.5–0127

Astronomische Nachrichten Wiley 337:4‐5 (2016) 485-489

Authors:

M Kolehmainen, R Fender, PG Jonker, JCA Miller‐Jones, J Homan, GE Anderson, TD Staley, C Rumsey, DJ Titterington, JW Broderick, GR Sivakoff, A Deller

The type Iax supernova, SN 2015H

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 589 (2016) a89

Authors:

MR Magee, R Kotak, SA Sim, M Kromer, D Rabinowitz, SJ Smartt, C Baltay, HC Campbell, T-W Chen, M Fink, A Gal-Yam, L Galbany, W Hillebrandt, C Inserra, E Kankare, L Le Guillou, JD Lyman, K Maguire, R Pakmor, FK Röpke, AJ Ruiter, IR Seitenzahl, M Sullivan, S Valenti, DR Young

A new method to distinguish hadronically decaying boosted Z bosons from W bosons using the ATLAS detector

European Physical Journal C Springer Verlag 76:5 (2016)

Authors:

AJ Barr, K Becker, JK Behr, L Beresford, AM Cooper-Sarkar, M Crispin Ortuzar, A Dafinca, E Davies, JA Frost, EJ Gallas, S Gupta, C Gwenlan, D Hall, CP Hays, J Henderson, J Howard, TB Huffman, C Issever, CW Kalderon, LA Kogan, A Lewis, K Nagai, RB Nickerson, MA Pickering, NC Ryder, JC-L Tseng, GHA Viehhauser, AR Weidberg, J Zhong

Abstract:

The distribution of particles inside hadronic jets produced in the decay of boosted W and Z bosons can be used to discriminate such jets from the continuum background. Given that a jet has been identified as likely resulting from the hadronic decay of a boosted W or Z boson, this paper presents a technique for further differentiating Z bosons from W bosons. The variables used are jet mass, jet charge, and a b-tagging discriminant. A likelihood tagger is constructed from these variables and tested in the simulation of W′→ WZ for bosons in the transverse momentum range 200 GeV < pT< 400 GeV in s= 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. For Z-boson tagging efficiencies of ϵZ= 90 , 50, and 10 % , one can achieve W+-boson tagging rejection factors (1 / ϵW+ ) of 1.7, 8.3 and 1000, respectively. It is not possible to measure these efficiencies in the data due to the lack of a pure sample of high pT, hadronically decaying Z bosons. However, the modelling of the tagger inputs for boosted W bosons is studied in data using a tt¯ -enriched sample of events in 20.3 fb- 1 of data at s= 8 TeV. The inputs are well modelled within uncertainties, which builds confidence in the expected tagger performance.

Supplement: Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914

(2016)

Authors:

BP Abbott, R Abbott, TD Abbott, MR Abernathy, F Acernese, K Ackley, C Adams, T Adams, P Addesso, RX Adhikari, VB Adya, C Affeldt, M Agathos, K Agatsuma, N Aggarwal, OD Aguiar, L Aiello, A Ain, P Ajith, B Allen, A Allocca, PA Altin, SB Anderson, WG Anderson, K Arai, MC Araya, CC Arceneaux, JS Areeda, N Arnaud, KG Arun, S Ascenzi, G Ashton, M Ast, SM Aston, P Astone, P Aufmuth, C Aulbert, S Babak, P Bacon, MKM Bader, PT Baker, F Baldaccini, G Ballardin, SW Ballmer, JC Barayoga, SE Barclay, BC Barish, D Barker, F Barone, B Barr, L Barsotti, M Barsuglia, D Barta, S Barthelmy, J Bartlett, I Bartos, R Bassiri, A Basti, JC Batch, C Baune, V Bavigadda, M Bazzan, B Behnke, M Bejger, AS Bell, CJ Bell, BK Berger, J Bergman, G Bergmann, CPL Berry, D Bersanetti, A Bertolini, J Betzwieser, S Bhagwat, R Bhandare, IA Bilenko, G Billingsley, J Birch, R Birney, S Biscans, A Bisht, M Bitossi, C Biwer, MA Bizouard, JK Blackburn, CD Blair, DG Blair, RM Blair, S Bloemen, O Bock, TP Bodiya, M Boer, G Bogaert, C Bogan, A Bohe, P Bojtos, C Bond, F Bondu, R Bonnand, BA Boom, R Bork, V Boschi, S Bose, Y Bouffanais, A Bozzi, C Bradaschia, PR Brady, VB Braginsky, M Branchesi, JE Brau, T Briant, A Brillet, M Brinkmann, V Brisson, P Brockill, AF Brooks, DA Brown, DD Brown, NM Brown, CC Buchanan, A Buikema, T Bulik, HJ Bulten, A Buonanno, D Buskulic, C Buy, RL Byer, L Cadonati, G Cagnoli, C Cahillane, JC Bustillo, T Callister, E Calloni, JB Camp, KC Cannon, J Cao, CD Capano, E Capocasa, F Carbognani, S Caride, JC Diaz, C Casentini, S Caudill, M Cavaglià, F Cavalier, R Cavalieri, G Cella, CB Cepeda, LC Baiardi, G Cerretani, E Cesarini, R Chakraborty, T Chalermsongsak, SJ Chamberlin, M Chan, S Chao, P Charlton, E Chassande-Mottin, HY Chen, Y Chen, C Cheng, A Chincarini, A Chiummo, HS Cho, M Cho, JH Chow, N Christensen, Q Chu, S Chua, S Chung, G Ciani, F Clara, JA Clark, F Cleva, E Coccia, P-F Cohadon, A Colla, CG Collette, L Cominsky, M Constancio, A Conte, L Conti, D Cook, TR Corbitt, N Cornish, A Corsi, S Cortese, CA Costa, MW Coughlin, SB Coughlin, J-P Coulon, ST Countryman, P Couvares, EE Cowan, DM Coward, MJ Cowart, DC Coyne, R Coyne, K Craig, JDE Creighton, J Cripe, SG Crowder, A Cumming, L Cunningham, E Cuoco, T Dal Canton, SL Danilishin, S D'Antonio, K Danzmann, NS Darman, V Dattilo, I Dave, HP Daveloza, M Davier, GS Davies, EJ Daw, R Day, D DeBra, G Debreczeni, J Degallaix, M De Laurentis, S Deléglise, W Del Pozzo, T Denker, T Dent, H Dereli, V Dergachev, RT DeRosa, R De Rosa, R DeSalvo, S Dhurandhar, MC Díaz, L Di Fiore, M Di Giovanni, A Di Lieto, S Di Pace, I Di Palma, A Di Virgilio, G Dojcinoski, V Dolique, F Donovan, KL Dooley, S Doravari, R Douglas, TP Downes, M Drago, RWP Drever, JC Driggers, Z Du, M Ducrot, SE Dwyer, TB Edo, MC Edwards, A Effler, H-B Eggenstein, P Ehrens, J Eichholz, SS Eikenberry, W Engels, RC Essick, T Etzel, M Evans, TM Evans, R Everett, M Factourovich, V Fafone, H Fair, S Fairhurst, X Fan, Q Fang, S Farinon, B Farr, WM Farr, M Favata, M Fays, H Fehrmann, MM Fejer, I Ferrante, EC Ferreira, F Ferrini, F Fidecaro, I Fiori, D Fiorucci, RP Fisher, R Flaminio, M Fletcher, J-D Fournier, S Franco, S Frasca, F Frasconi, Z Frei, A Freise, R Frey, V Frey, TT Fricke, P Fritschel, VV Frolov, P Fulda, M Fyffe, HAG Gabbard, JR Gair, L Gammaitoni, SG Gaonkar, F Garufi, A Gatto, G Gaur, N Gehrels, G Gemme, B Gendre, E Genin, A Gennai, J George, L Gergely, V Germain, A Ghosh, S Ghosh, JA Giaime, KD Giardina, A Giazotto, K Gill, A Glaefke, E Goetz, R Goetz, L Gondan, G González, JMG Castro, A Gopakumar, NA Gordon, ML Gorodetsky, SE Gossan, M Gosselin, R Gouaty, C Graef, PB Graff, M Granata, A Grant, S Gras, C Gray, G Greco, AC Green, P Groot, H Grote, S Grunewald, GM Guidi, X Guo, A Gupta, MK Gupta, KE Gushwa, EK Gustafson, R Gustafson, JJ Hacker, BR Hall, ED Hall, G Hammond, M Haney, MM Hanke, J Hanks, C Hanna, MD Hannam, J Hanson, T Hardwick, K Haris, J Harms, GM Harry, IW Harry, MJ Hart, MT Hartman, C-J Haster, K Haughian, A Heidmann, MC Heintze, H Heitmann, P Hello, G Hemming, M Hendry, IS Heng, J Hennig, AW Heptonstall, M Heurs, S Hild, D Hoak, KA Hodge, D Hofman, SE Hollitt, K Holt, DE Holz, P Hopkins, DJ Hosken, J Hough, EA Houston, EJ Howell, YM Hu, S Huang, EA Huerta, D Huet, B Hughey, S Husa, SH Huttner, T Huynh-Dinh, A Idrisy, N Indik, DR Ingram, R Inta, HN Isa, J-M Isac, M Isi, G Islas, T Isogai, BR Iyer, K Izumi, T Jacqmin, H Jang, K Jani, P Jaranowski, S Jawahar, F Jiménez-Forteza, WW Johnson, DI Jones, R Jones, RJG Jonker, L Ju, CV Kalaghatgi, V Kalogera, S Kandhasamy, G Kang, JB Kanner, S Karki, M Kasprzack, E Katsavounidis, W Katzman, S Kaufer, T Kaur, K Kawabe, F Kawazoe, F Kéfélian, MS Kehl, D Keitel, DB Kelley, W Kells, R Kennedy, JS Key, A Khalaidovski, FY Khalili, I Khan, S Khan, Z Khan, EA Khazanov, N Kijbunchoo, C Kim, J Kim, K Kim, N Kim, N Kim, Y-M Kim, EJ King, PJ King, DL Kinzel, JS Kissel, L Kleybolte, S Klimenko, SM Koehlenbeck, K Kokeyama, S Koley, V Kondrashov, A Kontos, M Korobko, WZ Korth, I Kowalska, DB Kozak, V Kringel, A Królak, C Krueger, G Kuehn, P Kumar, L Kuo, A Kutynia, BD Lackey, M Landry, J Lange, B Lantz, PD Lasky, A Lazzarini, C Lazzaro, P Leaci, S Leavey, EO Lebigot, CH Lee, HK Lee, HM Lee, K Lee, A Lenon, M Leonardi, JR Leong, N Leroy, N Letendre, Y Levin, BM Levine, TGF Li, A Libson, TB Littenberg, NA Lockerbie, J Logue, AL Lombardi, JE Lord, M Lorenzini, V Loriette, M Lormand, G Losurdo, JD Lough, H Lück, AP Lundgren, J Luo, R Lynch, Y Ma, T MacDonald, B Machenschalk, M MacInnis, DM Macleod, F Magaña-Sandoval, RM Magee, M Mageswaran, E Majorana, I Maksimovic, V Malvezzi, N Man, I Mandel, V Mandic, V Mangano, GL Mansell, M Manske, M Mantovani, F Marchesoni, F Marion, S Márka, Z Márka, AS Markosyan, E Maros, F Martelli, L Martellini, IW Martin, RM Martin, DV Martynov, JN Marx, K Mason, A Masserot, TJ Massinger, M Masso-Reid, F Matichard, L Matone, N Mavalvala, N Mazumder, G Mazzolo, R McCarthy, DE McClelland, S McCormick, SC McGuire, G McIntyre, J McIver, DJ McManus, ST McWilliams, D Meacher, GD Meadors, J Meidam, A Melatos, G Mendell, D Mendoza-Gandara, RA Mercer, E Merilh, M Merzougui, S Meshkov, C Messenger, C Messick, PM Meyers, F Mezzani, H Miao, C Michel, H Middleton, EE Mikhailov, L Milano, J Miller, M Millhouse, Y Minenkov, J Ming, S Mirshekari, C Mishra, S Mitra, VP Mitrofanov, G Mitselmakher, R Mittleman, A Moggi, M Mohan, SRP Mohapatra, M Montani, BC Moore, CJ Moore, D Moraru, G Moreno, SR Morriss, K Mossavi, B Mours, CM Mow-Lowry, CL Mueller, G Mueller, AW Muir, A Mukherjee, D Mukherjee, S Mukherjee, N Mukund, A Mullavey, J Munch, DJ Murphy, PG Murray, A Mytidis, I Nardecchia, L Naticchioni, RK Nayak, V Necula, K Nedkova, G Nelemans, M Neri, A Neunzert, G Newton, TT Nguyen, AB Nielsen, S Nissanke, A Nitz, F Nocera, D Nolting, MEN Normandin, LK Nuttall, J Oberling, E Ochsner, J O'Dell, E Oelker, GH Ogin, JJ Oh, SH Oh, F Ohme, M Oliver, P Oppermann, RJ Oram, B O'Reilly, R O'Shaughnessy, DJ Ottaway, RS Ottens, H Overmier, BJ Owen, A Pai, SA Pai, JR Palamos, O Palashov, N Palliyaguru, C Palomba, A Pal-Singh, H Pan, C Pankow, F Pannarale, BC Pant, F Paoletti, A Paoli, MA Papa, HR Paris, W Parker, D Pascucci, A Pasqualetti, R Passaquieti, D Passuello, B Patricelli, Z Patrick, BL Pearlstone, M Pedraza, R Pedurand, L Pekowsky, A Pele, S Penn, A Perreca, M Phelps, O Piccinni, M Pichot, F Piergiovanni, V Pierro, G Pillant, L Pinard, IM Pinto, M Pitkin, R Poggiani, P Popolizio, A Post, J Powell, J Prasad, V Predoi, SS Premachandra, T Prestegard, LR Price, M Prijatelj, M Principe, S Privitera, GA Prodi, L Prokhorov, O Puncken, M Punturo, P Puppo, M Pürrer, H Qi, J Qin, V Quetschke, EA Quintero, R Quitzow-James, FJ Raab, DS Rabeling, H Radkins, P Raffai, S Raja, M Rakhmanov, P Rapagnani, V Raymond, M Razzano, V Re, J Read, CM Reed, T Regimbau, L Rei, S Reid, DH Reitze, H Rew, SD Reyes, F Ricci, K Riles, NA Robertson, R Robie, F Robinet, A Rocchi, L Rolland, JG Rollins, VJ Roma, R Romano, G Romanov, JH Romie, D Rosińska, S Rowan, A Rüdiger, P Ruggi, K Ryan, S Sachdev, T Sadecki, L Sadeghian, L Salconi, M Saleem, F Salemi, A Samajdar, L Sammut, EJ Sanchez, V Sandberg, B Sandeen, JR Sanders, B Sassolas, BS Sathyaprakash, PR Saulson, O Sauter, RL Savage, A Sawadsky, P Schale, R Schilling, J Schmidt, P Schmidt, R Schnabel, RMS Schofield, A Schönbeck, E Schreiber, D Schuette, BF Schutz, J Scott, SM Scott, D Sellers, D Sentenac, V Sequino, A Sergeev, G Serna, Y Setyawati, A Sevigny, DA Shaddock, S Shah, MS Shahriar, M Shaltev, Z Shao, B Shapiro, P Shawhan, A Sheperd, DH Shoemaker, DM Shoemaker, K Siellez, X Siemens, D Sigg, AD Silva, D Simakov, A Singer, A Singh, R Singh, A Singhal, AM Sintes, BJJ Slagmolen, JR Smith, ND Smith, RJE Smith, EJ Son, B Sorazu, F Sorrentino, T Souradeep, AK Srivastava, A Staley, M Steinke, J Steinlechner, S Steinlechner, D Steinmeyer, BC Stephens, R Stone, KA Strain, N Straniero, G Stratta, NA Strauss, S Strigin, R Sturani, AL Stuver, TZ Summerscales, L Sun, PJ Sutton, BL Swinkels, MJ Szczepańczyk, M Tacca, D Talukder, DB Tanner, M Tápai, SP Tarabrin, A Taracchini, R Taylor, T Theeg, MP Thirugnanasambandam, EG Thomas, M Thomas, P Thomas, KA Thorne, KS Thorne, E Thrane, S Tiwari, V Tiwari, KV Tokmakov, C Tomlinson, M Tonelli, CV Torres, CI Torrie, D Töyrä, F Travasso, G Traylor, D Trifirò, MC Tringali, L Trozzo, M Tse, M Turconi, D Tuyenbayev, D Ugolini, CS Unnikrishnan, AL Urban, SA Usman, H Vahlbruch, G Vajente, G Valdes, N van Bakel, M van Beuzekom, JFJ van den Brand, C Van Den Broeck, DC Vander-Hyde, L van der Schaaf, JV van Heijningen, AA van Veggel, M Vardaro, S Vass, M Vasúth, R Vaulin, A Vecchio, G Vedovato, J Veitch, PJ Veitch, K Venkateswara, D Verkindt, F Vetrano, A Viceré, S Vinciguerra, DJ Vine, J-Y Vinet, S Vitale, T Vo, H Vocca, C Vorvick, D Voss, WD Vousden, SP Vyatchanin, AR Wade, LE Wade, M Wade, M Walker, L Wallace, S Walsh, G Wang, H Wang, M Wang, X Wang, Y Wang, RL Ward, J Warner, M Was, B Weaver, L-W Wei, M Weinert, AJ Weinstein, R Weiss, T Welborn, L Wen, P Weßels, T Westphal, K Wette, JT Whelan, DJ White, BF Whiting, RD Williams, AR Williamson, JL Willis, B Willke, MH Wimmer, W Winkler, CC Wipf, H Wittel, G Woan, J Worden, JL Wright, G Wu, J Yablon, W Yam, H Yamamoto, CC Yancey, MJ Yap, H Yu, M Yvert, A Zadrożny, L Zangrando, M Zanolin, J-P Zendri, M Zevin, F Zhang, L Zhang, M Zhang, Y Zhang, C Zhao, M Zhou, Z Zhou, XJ Zhu, ME Zucker, SE Zuraw, J Zweizig, J Allison, K Bannister, ME Bell, S Chatterjee, AP Chippendale, PG Edwards, L Harvey-Smith, Ian Heywood, A Hotan, B Indermuehle, J Marvil, D McConnell, T Murphy, A Popping, J Reynolds, RJ Sault, MA Voronkov, MT Whiting, AJ Castro-Tirado, R Cunniffe, M Jelínek, JC Tello, SR Oates, Y-D Hu, P Kubánek, S Guziy, A Castellón, A García-Cerezo, VF Muñoz, C Pérez del Pulgar, S Castillo-Carrión, JM Castro Cerón, R Hudec, MD Caballero-García, P Páta, S Vitek, JA Adame, S Konig, F Rendón, T de J Mateo Sanguino, R Fernández-Muñoz, PC Yock, N Rattenbury, WH Allen, R Querel, S Jeong, IH Park, J Bai, Ch Cui, Y Fan, Ch Wang, D Hiriart, WH Lee, A Claret, R Sánchez-Ramírez, SB Pandey, T Mediavilla, L Sabau-Graziati, TMC Abbott, FB Abdalla, S Allam, J Annis, R Armstrong, A Benoit-Lévy, E Berger, RA Bernstein, E Bertin, D Brout, E Buckley-Geer, DL Burke, D Capozzi, J Carretero, FJ Castander, R Chornock, PS Cowperthwaite, M Crocce, CE Cunha, CB D'Andrea, LN da Costa, S Desai, HT Diehl, JP Dietrich, Z Doctor, A Drlica-Wagner, MR Drout, TF Eifler, J Estrada, AE Evrard, E Fernandez, DA Finley, B Flaugher, RJ Foley, W-F Fong, P Fosalba, DB Fox, J Frieman, CL Fryer, E Gaztanaga, DW Gerdes, DA Goldstein, D Gruen, RA Gruendl, G Gutierrez, K Herner, K Honscheid, DJ James, MD Johnson, MWG Johnson, I Karliner, D Kasen, S Kent, R Kessler, AG Kim, MC Kind, K Kuehn, N Kuropatkin, O Lahav, TS Li, M Lima, H Lin, MAG Maia, R Margutti, J Marriner, P Martini, T Matheson, P Melchior, BD Metzger, CJ Miller, R Miquel, E Neilsen, RC Nichol, B Nord, P Nugent, R Ogando, D Petravick, AA Plazas, E Quataert, N Roe, AK Romer, A Roodman, AC Rosell, ES Rykoff, M Sako, E Sanchez, V Scarpine, R Schindler, M Schubnell, D Scolnic, I Sevilla-Noarbe, E Sheldon, N Smith, RC Smith, M Soares-Santos, F Sobreira, A Stebbins, E Suchyta, MEC Swanson, G Tarle, J Thaler, D Thomas, RC Thomas, DL Tucker, V Vikram, AR Walker, RH Wechsler, W Wester, B Yanny, Y Zhang, J Zuntz, V Connaughton, E Burns, A Goldstein, MS Briggs, B-B Zhang, CM Hui, P Jenke, CA Wilson-Hodge, PN Bhat, E Bissaldi, W Cleveland, G Fitzpatrick, MM Giles, MH Gibby, J Greiner, A von Kienlin, RM Kippen, S McBreen, B Mailyan, CA Meegan, WS Paciesas, RD Preece, O Roberts, L Sparke, M Stanbro, K Toelge, P Veres, H-F Yu, L Blackburn, M Ackermann, M Ajello, A Albert, B Anderson, WB Atwood, M Axelsson, L Baldini, G Barbiellini, D Bastieri, R Bellazzini, E Bissaldi, RD Blandford, ED Bloom, R Bonino, E Bottacini, TJ Brandt, P Bruel, S Buson, GA Caliandro, RA Cameron, M Caragiulo, PA Caraveo, E Cavazzuti, E Charles, A Chekhtman, J Chiang, G Chiaro, S Ciprini, J Cohen-Tanugi, LR Cominsky, F Costanza, A Cuoco, F D'Ammando, F de Palma, R Desiante, SW Digel, N Di Lalla, M Di Mauro, L Di Venere, A Domínguez, PS Drell, R Dubois, C Favuzzi, EC Ferrara, A Franckowiak, Y Fukazawa, S Funk, P Fusco, F Gargano, D Gasparrini, N Giglietto, P Giommi, F Giordano, M Giroletti, T Glanzman, G Godfrey, GA Gomez-Vargas, D Green, IA Grenier, JE Grove, S Guiriec, D Hadasch, AK Harding, E Hays, JW Hewitt, AB Hill, D Horan, T Jogler, G Jóhannesson, AS Johnson, S Kensei, D Kocevski, M Kuss, G La Mura, S Larsson, L Latronico, J Li, L Li, F Longo, F Loparco, MN Lovellette, P Lubrano, J Magill, S Maldera, A Manfreda, M Marelli, M Mayer, MN Mazziotta, JE McEnery, M Meyer, PF Michelson, N Mirabal, T Mizuno, AA Moiseev, ME Monzani, E Moretti, A Morselli, IV Moskalenko, M Negro, E Nuss, T Ohsugi, N Omodei, M Orienti, E Orlando, JF Ormes, D Paneque, JS Perkins, M Pesce-Rollins, F Piron, G Pivato, TA Porter, JL Racusin, S Rainò, R Rando, S Razzaque, A Reimer, O Reimer, D Salvetti, PM Saz Parkinson, C Sgrò, D Simone, EJ Siskind, F Spada, G Spandre, P Spinelli, DJ Suson, H Tajima, JB Thayer, DJ Thompson, L Tibaldo, DF Torres, E Troja, Y Uchiyama, TM Venters, G Vianello, KS Wood, M Wood, S Zhu, S Zimmer, E Brocato, E Cappellaro, S Covino, A Grado, L Nicastro, E Palazzi, E Pian, L Amati, LA Antonelli, M Capaccioli, P D'Avanzo, V D'Elia, F Getman, G Giuffrida, G Iannicola, L Limatola, M Lisi, S Marinoni, P Marrese, A Melandri, S Piranomonte, A Possenti, L Pulone, A Rossi, A Stamerra, L Stella, V Testa, L Tomasella, S Yang, A Bazzano, E Bozzo, S Brandt, TJ-L Courvoisier, C Ferrigno, L Hanlon, E Kuulkers, P Laurent, S Mereghetti, JP Roques, V Savchenko, P Ubertini, MM Kasliwal, LP Singer, Y Cao, G Duggan, SR Kulkarni, V Bhalerao, AA Miller, T Barlow, E Bellm, I Manulis, J Rana, R Laher, F Masci, J Surace, U Rebbapragada, D Cook, A Van Sistine, B Sesar, D Perley, R Ferreti, T Prince, R Kendrick, A Horesh, K Hurley, SV Golenetskii, RL Aptekar, DD Frederiks, DS Svinkin, A Rau, A von Kienlin, X Zhang, DM Smith, T Cline, H Krimm, F Abe, M Doi, K Fujisawa, KS Kawabata, T Morokuma, K Motohara, M Tanaka, K Ohta, K Yanagisawa, M Yoshida, C Baltay, D Rabinowitz, N Ellman, S Rostami, DF Bersier, MF Bode, CA Collins, CM Copperwheat, MJ Darnley, DK Galloway, A Gomboc, S Kobayashi, P Mazzali, CG Mundell, AS Piascik, Don Pollacco, IA Steele, K Ulaczyk, JW Broderick, RP Fender, PG Jonker, A Rowlinson, BW Stappers, RAMJ Wijers, V Lipunov, E Gorbovskoy, N Tyurina, V Kornilov, P Balanutsa, A Kuznetsov, D Buckley, R Rebolo, M Serra-Ricart, G Israelian, NM Budnev, O Gress, K Ivanov, V Poleshuk, A Tlatov, V Yurkov, N Kawai, M Serino, H Negoro, S Nakahira, T Mihara, H Tomida, S Ueno, H Tsunemi, M Matsuoka, S Croft, L Feng, TMO Franzen, BM Gaensler, M Johnston-Hollitt, DL Kaplan, MF Morales, SJ Tingay, RB Wayth, A Williams, SJ Smartt, KC Chambers, KW Smith, ME Huber, DR Young, DE Wright, A Schultz, L Denneau, H Flewelling, EA Magnier, N Primak, A Rest, A Sherstyuk, B Stalder, CW Stubbs, J Tonry, C Waters, M Willman, F Olivares E., H Campbell, R Kotak, J Sollerman, M Smith, M Dennefeld, JP Anderson, MT Botticella, T-W Chen, MD Valle, N Elias-Rosa, M Fraser, C Inserra, E Kankare, T Kupfer, J Harmanen, L Galbany, L Le Guillou, JD Lyman, K Maguire, A Mitra, M Nicholl, A Razza, G Terreran, S Valenti, A Gal-Yam, A Ćwiek, M Ćwiok, L Mankiewicz, R Opiela, M Zaremba, AF Żarnecki, CA Onken, RA Scalzo, BP Schmidt, C Wolf, F Yuan, PA Evans, JA Kennea, DN Burrows, S Campana, SB Cenko, P Giommi, FE Marshall, J Nousek, P O'Brien, JP Osborne, D Palmer, M Perri, M Siegel, G Tagliaferri, A Klotz, D Turpin, R Laugier, M Beroiz, T Peñuela, LM Macri, RJ Oelkers, DG Lambas, R Vrech, J Cabral, C Colazo, M Dominguez, B Sanchez, S Gurovich, M Lares, JL Marshall, DL DePoy, N Padilla, NA Pereyra, M Benacquista, NR Tanvir, K Wiersema, AJ Levan, D Steeghs, J Hjorth, JPU Fynbo, D Malesani, B Milvang-Jensen, D Watson, M Irwin, CG Fernandez, RG McMahon, M Banerji, E Gonzalez-Solares, S Schulze, A de U Postigo, CC Thoene, Z Cano, S Rosswog

A generalized approach for producing, quantifying, and validating citizen science data from wildlife images

Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology Wiley 30:3 (2016) 520-531

Authors:

Alexandra Swanson, Margaret Kosmala, Chris Lintott, Craig Packer

Abstract:

Citizen science has the potential to expand the scope and scale of research in ecology and conservation, but many professional researchers remain skeptical of data produced by nonexperts. We devised an approach for producing accurate, reliable data from untrained, nonexpert volunteers. On the citizen science website www.snapshotserengeti.org, more than 28,000 volunteers classified 1.51 million images taken in a large-scale camera-trap survey in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Each image was circulated to, on average, 27 volunteers, and their classifications were aggregated using a simple plurality algorithm. We validated the aggregated answers against a data set of 3829 images verified by experts and calculated 3 certainty metrics—level of agreement among classifications (evenness), fraction of classifications supporting the aggregated answer (fraction support), and fraction of classifiers who reported “nothing here” for an image that was ultimately classified as containing an animal (fraction blank)—to measure confidence that an aggregated answer was correct. Overall, aggregated volunteer answers agreed with the expert-verified data on 98% of images, but accuracy differed by species commonness such that rare species had higher rates of false positives and false negatives. Easily calculated analysis of variance and post-hoc Tukey tests indicated that the certainty metrics were significant indicators of whether each image was correctly classified or classifiable. Thus, the certainty metrics can be used to identify images for expert review. Bootstrapping analyses further indicated that 90% of images were correctly classified with just 5 volunteers per image. Species classifications based on the plurality vote of multiple citizen scientists can provide a reliable foundation for large-scale monitoring of African wildlife.