Statistical Challenges in Astronomy

by Feigelson, Eric D.; Babu, G. Jogesh

• ISBN13: 9780387955469
• ISBN10: 0387955461
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

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 dataAs 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.

Table of Contents

Preface	v
Acknowledgments	vii
Contributors	xvii
Statistical Challenge in Medieval (and Later) Astronomy	1	(18)
Virginia Trimble
Power from Understanding the Shape of Measurement: Progress in Bayesian Inference for Astrophysics	19	(22)
Alanna Connors
Commentary	36	(5)
Eric D. Kolaczyk
Hierarchical Models, Data Augmentation, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo	41	(16)
David A. van Dyk
Commentary	55	(2)
Michael A. Strauss
Bayesian Adaptive Exploration	57	(14)
Thomas J. Loredo
David F. Chernoff
Commentary	70	(1)
David A. van Dyk
Bayesian Model Selection and Analysis for Cepheid Star Oscillations	71	(18)
James O. Berger
Commentary	85	(4)
Thomas J. Loredo
Bayesian Multiscale Methods for Poisson Count Data	89	(14)
Eric D. Kolaczyk
NASA's Astrophysics Data Environment	103	(10)
Joseph H. Bredekamp
Daniel A. Golombek
Statistical and Astronomical Challenges in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey	113	(14)
Michael A. Strauss
Commentary	124	(3)
David A. van Dyk
Challenges for Cluster Analysis in a Virtual Observatory	127	(16)
S. G. Djorgovski
Commentary	138	(5)
Dianne Cook
Statistics of Galaxy Clustering	143	(18)
Vicent J. Martinez
Enn Saar
Commentary	156	(5)
Rien van de Weygaert
Analyzing Large Data Sets in Cosmology	161	(14)
Alexander S. Szalay
Takahiko Matsubara
The Cosmic Foam: Stochastic Geometry and Spatial Clustering across the Universe	175	(22)
Rien ven de Weygaert
Statistics and the Cosmic Microwave Background	197	(18)
Andrew H. Jaffe
Commentary PICA	212	(3)
Inference in Microwave Cosmology: A Frequentist Perspective	215	(6)
Chad M. Schafer
Philip B. Stark
Commentary	217	(4)
Andrew H. Jaffe
Nonparametric Inference in Astrophysics Pittsburgh Institute for Computational Astrostatistics (PICA)	221	(22)
Commentary	236	(1)
Michael A. Strauss
Commentary	237	(3)
Jeffrey D. Scargle
Rejoinder by PICA	240	(3)
Random Forests: Finding Quasars	243	(12)
Leo Breiman
Commentary	252	(3)
Eric D. Feigelson
Interactive and Dynamic Graphics for Data Analysis: A Case Study On Quasar Data	255	(10)
Dianne Cook
Commentary	263	(2)
Fionn D. Murtagh
Computational AstroStatistics: Fast and Efficient Tools for Analysing Huge Astronomical Data Sources	265	(14)
Robert C. Nichol
Commentary	276	(1)
Fionn D. Murtagh
Commentary	277	(2)
Dianne Cook
Clustering in High-Dimensional Data Spaces	279	(14)
Fionn D. Murtagh
Advanced Tools for Astronomical Time Series and Image Analysis	293	(16)
Jeffrey D. Scargle
Commentary	303	(4)
Thomas J. Loredo
Commentary	307	(2)
Peter E. Freeman
Frequency Estimation and Generalized Lomb-Scargle Periodograms	309	(22)
G. Larry Bretthorst
Commentary	325	(6)
Thomas J. Loredo
Multiscale Methods in Astronomy	331	(12)
Jean-Luc Starck
Threshold Selection in Transform Shrinkage	343	(22)
Iain Johnstone
Commentary	360	(5)
Jean-Luc Starck
The Statistical Challenges of Wavelet-Based Source Detection	365	(12)
Peter E. Freeman
Reflections on SCMA III	377	(10)
John Rice
An Astronomer's Perspective on SCMA III	387	(8)
Joseph Silk
Ensembles of Classifiers	395	(2)
D. Bazell
A Model for Brightest Galaxies Using Extreme Value Statistics	397	(2)
S.P. Bhavsar
J.P. Bernstein
New Statistical Goodness of Fit Techniques in Noisy Inhomogeneous Regression Problems with an Application to the Problem of Recovering of the Luminosity Density of the Milky Way from Surface Brightness Data	399	(2)
Nicolai B. Bissantz
Axel Munk
Measuring the Galaxy Power Spectrum with Multiresolution Decomposition	401	(2)
Yaoquan Chu
Finding Gamma-Ray Pulsars with Sparse Bayes Blocks	403	(6)
A. Connors
A. Carraminana
Analysis of the Fractal Structure of the Horsehead Nebula	409	(2)
Srabani Datta
On the Statistics of the Gravitational Field	411	(4)
A. Del Popolo
Cross-identification of Very Large Catalogues	415	(2)
S. Derriere
Minimal Spanning Tree Technique	417	(2)
A. Doroshkevich
A Statistical Chromatic Study of Nearby Galaxies	419	(2)
Michel Fioc
Detection of Non-Gaussianity on the Sphere Using Spherical Wavelets	421	(2)
J. Gallegos
Characterising Anomalous Transport in Accretion Disks from X-ray Observations	423	(2)
J. Greenhough
A Bayesian Analysis of the Radio Binary LS I +610303	425	(4)
P.C. Gregory
Accounting for Absorption Lines in High Energy Spectra	429	(2)
Chistopher Hans
David A. van Dyk
X2-method: An Automatic Classification Technique	431	(2)
Evanthia Hatziminaoglou
Wavelet Analysis of a Large Period Change in the Mira Variable R Cen	433	(2)
G. Hawkins
Nonparametric Statistical Models of Astronomical Systems	435	(4)
William D. Heacox
Likelihood Estimation of Gamma Ray Bursts Duration Distribution	439	(4)
Istvan Horvath
Nonparametric Density Estimation and Galaxy Clustering	443	(4)
Woncheol Jang
Teaching Bayesian Statistics Through Simulation	447	(2)
William H. Jefferys
New MCMC Methods to Address Pile-up in the Chandra X-ray Observatory	449	(2)
Hosung Kang
Modeling Stellar Microflares	451	(2)
Vinay Kashyap
Canaries in the Data Mine: Improving Trained Classifiers	453	(4)
V.G. Laidler
R.L. White
Wavelet Analysis of Heteroscedastic, Unevenly Spaced Data: The Case of OJ 287 Revisited	457	(2)
Harry Lehto
Estimating Large-Scale Structure From QSO Absorbers: Using Across-Line Information	459	(2)
J.M. Loh
Point Source Detection on the Sphere Using Wavelets and Optimal Filters	461	(2)
E. Martinez-Gonzalez
Constraining the Cosmological Constant from Large-Scale Redshift-Space Clustering	463	(2)
Takahiko Matsubara
Alexander S. Szalay
Multivariate Monte Carlo Methods with Clusters of Galaxies	465	(4)
J.R. Peterson
A New Tool for Automated Classification of Astronomical Images	469	(2)
Ninan Sajeeth Philip
Parameter Estimation via Neural Networks	471	(4)
Nicholas G. Phillips
A. Kogut
Correlations at Large Scale	475	(2)
M.J. Pons-Borderia
Constraining Cosmological Models by the Cluster Mass Functions	477	(4)
Nurur Rahman
Sergei F. Shandarin
Analysing Cosmic Large Scale Structure using Surrogate Data	481	(2)
C. Rath
Delaunay Recovery of Cosmic Density and Velocity Probes	483	(2)
W.E. Schaap
R. van de Weygaert
A Large Proper Motion Survey of the Pleiades Cluster	485	(4)
J. Souchay
E. Aleshkina
Bayesian Spectral Analysis of ``MAD'' Stars	489	(2)
Nondas Sourlas
Stellar Membership in Open Clusters Using Mixture Densities	491	(4)
Antonio Uribe
Comparison of Object Detection Procedures for XMM-Newton Images	495	(4)
Ivan Valtchanov
Astronomical Aspects of Multifractal Point-Pattern Analysis: Application to the DENIS/2MASS Near-Infrared and BATSE Gamma-Ray Data	499	(2)
Roland Vavrek
Higher-order Correlations of Cosmological Fluctuation Fields	501	(2)
Licia Verde
Bayesian Multiscale Deconvolution Applied to Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy	503	(2)
C.A. Young
Index	505