Statistical Challenges in Astronomy

ISBN-13: 9781441930484 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 506 str.

Eric D. Feigelson; G. Jogesh Babu

Opis

Digital sky surveys, data from orbiting telescopes, and advances in computation have increased the quantity and quality of astronomical data by several orders of magnitude in recent years. Making sense of this wealth of data requires sophisticated statistical and data analytic techniques. Fortunately, statistical methodologies have similarly made great strides in recent years. Powerful synergies thus emerge when astronomers and statisticians join in examining astrostatistical problems and approaches. The volume focuses on several themes: .The increasing power of Bayesian approaches to modeling astronomical data .The growth of enormous databases, leading an emerging federated Virtual Observatory, and their impact on modern astronomical research .Statistical modeling of critical datasets, such as galaxy clustering and fluctuations in the microwave background radiation, leading to a new era of precision cosmology .Methodologies for uncovering clusters and patterns in multivariate data .The characterization of multiscale patterns in imaging and time series data As in earlier volumes in this series, research contributions discussing topics in one field are joined with commentary from scholars in the other. Short contributed papers covering dozens of astrostatistical topics are also included."

Spis treści

BAYESIAN METHODS // Statistical Challenges in Medieval (and Later) Astronomy / Power from Understanding the Shape of Measurement: Progress in Bayesian Inference for Astrophysics / Hierarchical Models, Data Augmentation, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo / Bayesian Adaptive Exploration / Bayesian Model Selection and Analysis for Cepheid Star Oscillations / Bayesian Multiscale Methods for Poisson Count Data // LARGE ASTRONOMICAL DATASETS // NASA's Astrophysics Data Environment / Statistical and Astronomical Challenges in the Sloan Digital Sky Survewy / Challenges for Cluster Analysis in a Virtual Observatory / COSMOLOGY // Statistics of Galaxy Clustering / Analyzing Large Data Sets in Cosmology / The Cosmic Foam: Stochastic Geometry and Spatial Clustering across the Universe / Statistics and the Cosmic Microwave Background / Inference in Microwave Cosmology: A Frequentist Perspective / Nonparametric Inference in Astrophysics // MULTIVARIATE CLUSTERING // Random Forests: Finding Quasars / Interactive and Dynamic Graphics for Data Analysis: A Case Study on Quasar Data / Computational Astrostatistics: Fast and Efficient Tools for Analyzing Huge Astronomical Data Sources / Clustering in High-Dimensional Data Spaces // TIME SERIES AND IMAGE ANALYSIS // Advanced Tools for Astronomical Time Series and Image Analysis / Frequency Estimation and Generalized Lomb-Scargle Periodograms / Multiscale Methods in Astronomy / Threshold Selection in Transform Shrinkage / The Statistical Challenges of Wavelet-Based Source Detection // SUMMARIES // Reflections on SCMA III / An Astronomer's Perspective on SCMA III // CONTRIBUTED PAPERS

O autorze

The quantity and quality of astronomical data has increased by orders of magnitude in recent years; similarly, statistical methodologies have also made great strides recently. This volume shows how powerful synergies emerge when astronomers and statisticians join in examining astrostatistical problems and approaches. Its principal theme is the statistical methods needed to model fundamental characteristics of the early universe on its largest scales.