spectral modeling

In the morning I spoke with Tsalmantza about our spectral modeling project, which we are using to find gravitational lenses, black-hole binaries, and quasar redshifts. Well, we aren't, but we hope to be. We have a smoothing or softening parameter—a continuous model-complexity parameter—and Tsalmantza proposed a simple cross-validation test to set it. In the afternoon I tried to start writing words about the project.