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  1. The availability of quantitative text analysis methods has provided new waysof analyzing literature in a manner that was not available in thepre-information era. Here we apply comprehensive machine learning analysis tothe work of William Shakespeare. The analysis shows clear changes in the styleof writing over time, with the most significant changes in the sentence length,frequency of adjectives and adverbs, and the sentiments expressed in the text.Applying machine learning to make a stylometric prediction of the year of theplay shows a Pearson correlation of 0.71 between the actual and predicted year,indicating that Shakespeare's writing style as reflected by the quantitativemeasurements changed over time. Additionally, it shows that the stylometrics ofsome of the plays is more similar to plays written either before or after theyear they were written. For instance, Romeo and Juliet is dated 1596, but ismore similar in stylometrics to plays written by Shakespeare after 1600. Thesource code for the analysis is available for free download.

     
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available July 13, 2024
  2. Gaite, Jose (Ed.)
    The distribution of the spin directions of spiral galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has been a topic of debate in the past two decades, with conflicting conclusions reported even in cases where the same data were used. Here, we follow one of the previous experiments by applying the SpArcFiRe algorithm to annotate the spin directions in an original dataset of Galaxy Zoo 1. The annotation of the galaxy spin directions is carried out after the first step of selecting the spiral galaxies in three different manners: manual analysis by Galaxy Zoo classifications, by a model-driven computer analysis, and with no selection of spiral galaxies. The results show that when spiral galaxies are selected by Galaxy Zoo volunteers, the distribution of their spin directions as determined by SpArcFiRe is not random, which agrees with previous reports. When selecting the spiral galaxies using a model-driven computer analysis or without selecting the spiral galaxies at all, the distribution is also not random. Simple binomial distribution analysis shows that the probability of the parity violation to occur by chance is lower than 0.01. Fitting the spin directions as observed from the Earth to cosine dependence exhibits a dipole axis with statistical strength of 2.33 σ to 3.97 σ . These experiments show that regardless of the selection mechanism and the analysis method, all experiments show similar conclusions. These results are aligned with previous reports using other methods and telescopes, suggesting that the spin directions of spiral galaxies as observed from the Earth exhibit a dipole axis formed by their spin directions. Possible explanations can be related to the large-scale structure of the universe or to the internal structure of galaxies. The catalogs of annotated galaxies generated as part of this study are available. 
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  3. ABSTRACT

    The DESI Legacy Survey is a digital sky survey with a large footprint compared to other Earth-based surveys, covering both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. This paper shows the distribution of the spin directions of spiral galaxies imaged by DESI Legacy Survey. A

    simple analysis of dividing nearly 1.3 × 106 spiral galaxies into two hemispheres shows a higher number of galaxies spinning counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere, and a higher number of galaxies spinning clockwise in the Southern hemisphere. That distribution is consistent with previous observations, but uses a far larger number of galaxies and a larger footprint. The larger footprint allows a comprehensive analysis without the need to fit the distribution into an a priori model, making this study different from all previous analyses of this kind. Fitting the spin directions of the galaxies to cosine dependence shows a dipole axis alignment with probability of P < 10−5. The analysis is done with a trivial selection of the galaxies, as well as simple explainable annotation algorithm that does not make use of any form of machine learning, deep learning, or pattern recognition. While further work will be required, these results are aligned with previous studies suggesting the possibility of a large-scale alignment of galaxy angular momentum.

     
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  4. Abstract

    The nature of galaxy spin is still not fully known. Iye, Yagi, and Fukumoto (2021, AJ, 907, 123) applied a 3D analysis to a dataset of bright SDSS galaxies that was used in the past for photometric analysis. They showed that the distribution of spin directions of spiral galaxies is random, providing a dipole axis with low statistical significance of 0.29σ. However, to show random distribution, two decisions were made, each of which can lead to random distribution regardless of the real distribution of the spin direction of galaxies. The first decision was to limit the dataset arbitrarily to z < 0.1, which is a redshift range in which previous literature already showed that random distribution is expected. More importantly, while the 3D analysis requires the redshift of each galaxy, the analysis was done with the photometric redshift. If the asymmetry existed, its signal is expected to be an order of magnitude weaker than the error of the photometric redshift, and therefore a low statistical signal under these conditions is expected. When using the exact same data without limiting to zphot < 0.1 and without using the photometric redshift, the distribution of the spin directions in that dataset shows a statistical signal of >2σ. Code and data for reproducing the analysis are publicly available. These results are in agreement with other experiments with SDSS, Pan-STARRS, HST, and the DESI Legacy Survey. The paper also examines other previous studies that showed random distribution in galaxy spin directions. While further research will be required, the current evidence suggests that large-scale asymmetry between the number of clockwise and counterclockwise galaxies cannot be ruled out.

     
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  5. Frey, Sandor (Ed.)
    The ability to collect unprecedented amounts of astronomical data has enabled the nomical data has enabled the stu scientific questions that were impractical to study in the pre-information era. This study uses large datasets collected by four different robotic telescopes to profile the large-scale distribution of the spin directions of spiral galaxies. These datasets cover the Northern and Southern hemispheres, in addition to data acquired from space by the Hubble Space Telescope. The data were annotated automatically by a fully symmetric algorithm, as well as manually through a long labor-intensive process, leading to a dataset of nearly 10^6 galaxies. The data show possible patterns of asymmetric distribution of the spin directions, and the patterns agree between the different telescopes. The profiles also agree when using automatic or manual annotation of the galaxies, showing very similar large-scale patterns. Combining all data from all telescopes allows the most comprehensive analysis of its kind to date in terms of both the number of galaxies and the footprint size. The results show a statistically significant profile that is consistent across all telescopes. The instruments used in this study are DECam, HST, SDSS, and Pan-STARRS. The paper also discusses possible sources of bias and analyzes the design of previous work that showed different results. Further research will be required to understand and validate these preliminary observations. 
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  6. Spiral galaxies can spin clockwise or counterclockwise, and the spin direction of a spiral galaxy is a clear visual characteristic. Since in a sufficiently large universe the Universe is expected to be symmetric, the spin direction of a galaxy is merely the perception of the observer, and therefore, galaxies that spin clockwise are expected to have the same characteristics of galaxies spinning counterclockwise. Here, machine learning is applied to study the possible morphological differences between galaxies that spin in opposite directions. The dataset used in this study is a dataset of 77,840 spiral galaxies classified by their spin direction, as well as a smaller dataset of galaxies classified manually. A machine learning algorithm was applied to classify between images of clockwise galaxies and counterclockwise galaxies. The results show that the classifier was able to predict the spin direction of the galaxy by its image in accuracy higher than mere chance, even when the images in one of the classes were mirrored to create a dataset with consistent spin directions. That suggests that galaxies that seem to spin clockwise to an Earth-based observer are not necessarily fully symmetric to galaxies that spin counterclockwise; while further research is required, these results are aligned with previous observations of differences between galaxies based on their spin directions. 
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  7. In the past several decades, multiple cosmological theories that are based on the contention that the Universe has a major axis have been proposed. Such theories can be based on the geometry of the Universe, or multiverse theories such as black hole cosmology. The contention of a cosmological-scale axis is supported by certain evidence such as the dipole axis formed by the CMB distribution. Here I study another form of the cosmological-scale axis, based on the distribution of the spin direction of spiral galaxies. Data from four different telescopes are analyzed, showing nearly identical axis profiles when the distribution of the redshifts of the galaxies is similar. 
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  8. Abstract

    Multiple previous studies using several different probes have shown considerable evidence for the existence of cosmological‐scale anisotropy and a Hubble‐scale axis. One of the probes that show such evidence is the distribution of the directions toward which galaxies spin. The advantage of the analysis of the distribution of galaxy spin directions compared to the cosmic microwave background anisotropy is that the ratio of galaxy spin directions is a relative measurement, and therefore less sensitive to background contamination such as Milky Way obstruction. Another advantage is that many spiral galaxies have spectra, and therefore allow to analyze the location of such axis relative to Earth. This paper shows an analysis of the distribution of the spin directions of over 90K galaxies with spectra. That analysis is also compared to previous analyses using the Earth‐based Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Survey, as well as space‐based data collected by Hubble Space Telescope. The results show very good agreement between the distribution patterns observed with the different telescopes. The dipole or quadrupole axes formed by the spin directions of the galaxies with spectra do not necessarily go directly through Earth.

     
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