CIRADA-Tools/RM-Tools

QU-fitting Stokes I model failing for many double-component RM models (m11 and m4)

arieljedimaster opened this issue · 4 comments

Quick Summary:

  • I’m using qufit to run a bunch of models on ~60 polarized spectra.
  • For the majority of my sources, the Stokes I model generated by qufit seems to be failing, with the model coefficients being defined as the following in the output files:
    • Imodel=0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,1.0
  • For the exact same sources, this doesn’t occur when running any of the single-component models.
  • The result of this is we have a fractional polarization fit that is extremely low and doesn’t represent the source well, but the shape seems reasonable, and the fit polarization angle modelling the data seems to describe the data pretty well.

More details:

  • I double-checked that I was inputting the exact same text file to RM tools for the single component models, and the component models and I still get this weird issue with the Stokes I model.
  • For these models where the Stokes I model seems to fail, we get something reasonable for a reduced chi^2, indicating a good fit.
  • I re-ran the double component models, and the same error occurred the second time around.
  • I’m attaching here plots of a source where we modelled m1 and m11, and their output model files, where we are seeing this issue (but note that we are seeing this for most sources). I can provide other examples if necessary.
  • I see this issue with m11 and m4, whereas m1 and m2 both look okay, but I'm attaching the simpler m11 and m1 models here since it might be easier to figure out what's going on with the simpler case.

0345-5036 m1 model lobe 1
0345-5036 m1 model w data lobe 1
0345-5036 m11 model lobe 1
0345-5036 m11 model w data lobe 1
0345-5036.m11.nestle.txt
0345-5036.m1.nestle.txt

Hey @arieljedimaster - would you be able to provide a minimal reproducible example for us to investigate? If you'd be willing to share, it'd be great to have a spectrum that produces this behaviour, along with either the command-line arguments or the python script you used to get the issue. Thanks!

Closing this, since Ariel told me she discovered this was user error rather than a program problem, and I haven't heard anything since.

Hi Ariel,

Yes, during the POSSUM week this year January 2023, Yik Ki (Jackie) Ma encountered this issue. I believe it is still under investigation.