ASPCS
 
Title: Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy IV
Volume: 371 Year: 2007 View this Volume on ADS
Editors: Babu, G. Jogesh; Feigelson, Eric D.
Synopsis:
This is the fourth in a series of international conferences for the vanguard of researchers in the cross-disciplinary field of astrostatistics. Both astronomical and statistical communities now recognize the wide array of fascinating methodological issues faced by the modern astronomer. Ranging from terabyte wide-field surveys to small-N samples, from cosmology to the search for Earth-like planets, astronomical research can no longer be pursued with a small toolbox of familiar statistical methods.

Over thirty distinguished scholars from both fields presented invited talks and commentaries on leading problems in astrostatistics. The methodological challenges of inferring cosmological insights from the cosmic microwave background fluctuations, the distribution of galaxies in space, gravitational lensing, and galaxy structure wre describe in detail. Time series analysis is discussed in a variety of contexts: sparse Poisson data, multiply-periodic systems, gravitational wave detection, and most dramatically in the search for extrasolar planets. Here sophisticated Bayesian model selection with MCMC computations plays a critical role. Other topics covered include image processing, analysis of mega-datasets from large surveys, and small-N problems in both astronomy and particle physics. The volume ends with cross-disciplinary overviews and software tutorials. The book will be valuable to graduate students and researchers in both astronomy and statistics who seek insights into this promising avenue of cross-disciplinary research.

ISBN: 978-1-58381-240-2 eISBN: 978-1-58381-305-8

Paper Title Page Authors
Cover   
Volume 371 Cover Babu, G.J.; Feigelson, E.D.
Front Matter   
Volume 371 Front Matter 1 Babu, G.J.; Feigelson, E.D.
Conference Photo   
Volume 371 Conference Photograph 2 Babu, G.J.; Feigelson, E.D.
Part 1.
Cosmology
  
Spatial Statistics of Cosmic Microwave Background Maps 3 Szapudi, I.
Setting the Statistical Significance of Detections of Non-Gaussianity in the WMAP Data 18 Cayon, L.
Validation of Statistical Models for Spatial Point Patterns 22 Baddeley, A.
Discussion on Baddeley Paper 39 Loh, J.M.
Turning AGN Microlensing from a Curiosity into a Tool 43 Kochanek, C.S.; Dai, X.; Morgan, C.; Morgan, N.; Poindexter, S.; Chartas, G.
Statistical Challenges of Weak Gravitational Lensing 59 Bernstein, G.
Part 2. Small-N Problems   
The Small-N Problem in High Energy Physics 75 Cowan, G.
Bayesian Methods in Particle Physics: From Small-N to Large 87 Prosper, H.B.
Discussion on Cowan and Prosper Papers 98 Woodroofe, M.; Sen, B.
How To Win with Non-Gaussian Data: Poisson Goodness-of-Fit 101 Connors, A.; van Dyk, D.A.
Part 3.
Astronomical Surveys
  
Analyzing Data from Astronomical Surveys: Issues and Directions 121 Loredo, T.J.
Discussion on Loredo Paper 138 Jang, W.
Photometric Calibration - An Intriguing Statistical Problem for the LSST 142 Axelrod, T.
Discussion on Axelrod Paper 158 Ghosh, J.K.
The Characterization, Subtraction, and Addition of Astronomical Images 160 Lupton, R.
Discussion on Lupton Paper 173 Willett, R.; Silva, J.
The Virtual Observatory: Core Capabilities and Support for Statistical Analyses in Astronomy 177 Hanisch, R.J.
Bayesian Model Selection and Extrasolar Planet Detection 189 Ford, E.B.; Gregory, P.C.
Discussion on Ford and Gregory Paper 206 Ghosh, J.K.
Statistics of Optical Colors of KBOs and Centaurs 210 Romanishin, W.; Tegler, S.C.
Discussion on Romanishin and Tegler Paper 220 Zhu, Z.
Current Challenges in Bayesian Model Choice 224 Clyde, M.A.; Berger, J.O.; Bullard, F.; Ford, E.B.; Jefferys, W.H.; Luo, R.; Paulo, R.; Loredo, T.
Discussion on Clyde et al. Paper 241 Jefferys, W.H.
Multiscale Analysis of Photon-Limited Astronomical Images 247 Willett, R.
Discussion on Willett Paper 265 Scargle, J.D.
Nonparametric Estimation of Dark Matter Distributions 268 Wang, X.; Woodroofe, M.; Pal, J.; Walker, M.; Mateo, M.
Discussion on Wang et al. Paper 280 Feigelson, E.D.
The Shape of Things to Come? 284 Hendry, M.A.
The Promise and Challenge of Multidimensional Visualization 288 Inselberg, A.
Part 6.
Periodic Variability
  
On Detecting Periodicity in Astronomical Point Processes 305 Bickel, P.; Kleijn, B.; Rice, J.
Discussion on Bickel, Kleijn and Rice Paper 321 Scargle, J.D.
Periodicities in Variable Stars: A Few Issues 324 Koen, C.
Periodicity in Gravitational Waves 341 Woan, G.
Discussion on Koen and Woan Papers 354 Meinhausen, N.; Rice, J.
Part 7.
Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
  
A Particle Physicist's Perspective on Astrostatistics 361 Lyons, L.
A Statistician's Perspective on Astrostatistics 373 Berger, J.
An Astronomer's Perspective on Astrostatistics 382 Lahav, O.
Part 8.
Tutorials
  
Interactive Data Visualization and Pattern Discovery with Mirage 391 Ho, T.K.
A Brief Introduction to R for Astronomers 395 Hunter, D.R.
Part 9.
Posters
  
Applications of Metropolis-Hastings Algorithm to Solar Astrophysical Data 401 Adamakis, S.; Morton-Jones, T.J.; Walsh, R.W.
Membership in the Open Cluster M67: Working from Proper Motions via the EM Algorithm 403 Uribe, A.; Barrera-Rojas, R.-S.; Brieva, E.
Likelihood Source Matching Applied to the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South 405 Cardamone, C.N.; Urry, C.M.; Virani, S.; Gawiser, E.
Recovering the Star Formation Rate in the Solar Neighborhood 407 Cignoni, M.; Degl'Innocenti, S.; Moroni, P.G.P.; Shore, S.N.
Spectral and Spatial Bayesian Segmentation of Hyperspectral Astronomical Data Cube 409 Petremand, M.; Collet, Ch.; Flitti, F.
Dependence of Microlensing on Source Size and Lens Mass 411 Congdon, A.B.; Keeton, C.R.
A Maximum Likelihood Method for Identifying the Components of Eclipsing Binary Stars 413 Devor, J.; Charbonneau, C.
Gas Mass Fraction from XMM-Newton and Chandra High Redshift Clusters and Its Use as a Cosmological Test 415 Ferramacho, L.; Blanchard, A.
The Quasar Luminosity Function as a Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process 417 Hugeback, A.; Coram, M.A.; Jester, S.
Multisource Data Fusion and Super-Resolution from Astronomical Images 419 Jalobeanu, A.
Likelihood Simulation for Bounding Non-Gaussianity in the CMB 421 Jennings, K.; Treaster, A.; Cayon, L.
Unbinned MLE for Low-Count Spectra 423 Arzner, K.; Guedel, M.; Briggs, K.; Telleschi, A.; Schmidt, M.; Audard, M.; Scelsi, L.; Franciosini, E.
Nonparametric Multivariate Analysis of SDSS Quasars by Convex Hull Peeling 425 Lee, H.
Event Analysis for GLAST—A Detailed Statistical Analysis 427 Morris, R.D.; Cohen-Tanugi, J.
Bayesian Parameter Estimation for X-ray Observations 429 Ptak, A.
Revealing the Star Formation History of SDSS Ellipticals: A PCA Approach 431 Rogers, B.; Ferreras, I.; Lahav, O.; Bernardi, M.; Kaviraj, S.; Yi, S.K.
Bayesian Analysis of RR Lyrae Distances and Kinematics 433 Jefferys, T.R.; Jefferys, W.H.; Barnes, T.G. III; Dambis, A.
Inverting Color-Magnitude Diagrams to Access Precise Star Cluster Parameters: A Bayesian Approach 435 Jefferys, W.H.; von Hippel, T.; Scott, J.; Stein, N.; Winget, D.E.; DeGennaro, S.; Dam, A.; Jeffery, E.; van Dyk, D.A.
Fitting Narrow Spectral Lines in High-Energy Astrophysics using Incompatible Gibbs Samplers 437 Park, T.; van Dyk, D.A.; Siemiginowska, A.
Modeling Astronomical Time Series with Stochastic Differential Equations 439 Vio, R.; Andreani, P.; Madsen, H.; Mannella, R.; Rebusco, P.
Steep Functions in Astronomy: The RQSO z-Cutoff Debate 441 Wall, J.V.
Separating Physical Components from Galaxy Spectra by Subspace Methods 443 Yip, C.-W.; Szalay, A.; Connolly, A.
Reconstruction of the Galaxy Cluster Mass Distribution 445 Zhu, Z.; Williams, L.
TIRAVEL — Template Independent RAdial VELocity measurement 447 Zucker, S.; Mazeh, T.
Back Matter   
Volume 371 Back Matter 450 Babu, G.J.; Feigelson, E.D.