2008 March 12
Didn’t get a whole lot done today, but I got in a couple of hours doing some very simple simulations aiming to gauge whether the ATA could detect the spectral breaks that we might decide to look for. If I don’t assume anything terribly optimistic, it looks like it can, though the detection isn’t terribly robust. And I think there are reasons to assume that I’ll get better performance in a new observing campaign than I did last time. So that’s good. On the other hand, this was really just a quick, intellectually shallow test, and I’m sure there are a lot of factors I could have overlooked.
I’ve been a little unfocused in my efforts the past few days, simply because I don’t have a main project to get cracking on right now. There are a few small things that I’d like to do on the side, but I’m a little wary to start working on one lest I get stuck doing that and not thinking about what my main goal should be these days. Now that I’ve done this simulation, I think I’ve run out of short- term useful things to get done, so tomorrow I may have to decide what to do next. Fortunately, if indecision reigns, I can just put things off by reading a few papers that have piled up on my desk …