Bayesian functional data analysis in astronomy

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Loredo, Thomas, Budavari, Tamas, Kent, David, Ruppert, David
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866913481096167424
author Loredo, Thomas
Budavari, Tamas
Kent, David
Ruppert, David
author_facet Loredo, Thomas
Budavari, Tamas
Kent, David
Ruppert, David
contents Cosmic demographics -- the statistical study of populations of astrophysical objects -- has long relied on *multivariate statistics*, providing methods for analyzing data comprising fixed-length vectors of properties of objects, as might be compiled in a tabular astronomical catalog (say, with sky coordinates, and brightness measurements in a fixed number of spectral passbands). But beginning with the emergence of automated digital sky surveys, ca. ~2000, astronomers began producing large collections of data with more complex structure: light curves (brightness time series) and spectra (brightness vs. wavelength). These comprise what statisticians call *functional data* -- measurements of populations of functions. Upcoming automated sky surveys will soon provide astronomers with a flood of functional data. New methods are needed to accurately and optimally analyze large ensembles of light curves and spectra, accumulating information both along and across measured functions. Functional data analysis (FDA) provides tools for statistical modeling of functional data. Astronomical data presents several challenges for FDA methodology, e.g., sparse, irregular, and asynchronous sampling, and heteroscedastic measurement error. Bayesian FDA uses hierarchical Bayesian models for function populations, and is well suited to addressing these challenges. We provide an overview of astronomical functional data, and of some key Bayesian FDA modeling approaches, including functional mixed effects models, and stochastic process models. We briefly describe a Bayesian FDA framework combining FDA and machine learning methods to build low-dimensional parametric models for galaxy spectra.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_14466
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bayesian functional data analysis in astronomy
Loredo, Thomas
Budavari, Tamas
Kent, David
Ruppert, David
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Applications
Cosmic demographics -- the statistical study of populations of astrophysical objects -- has long relied on *multivariate statistics*, providing methods for analyzing data comprising fixed-length vectors of properties of objects, as might be compiled in a tabular astronomical catalog (say, with sky coordinates, and brightness measurements in a fixed number of spectral passbands). But beginning with the emergence of automated digital sky surveys, ca. ~2000, astronomers began producing large collections of data with more complex structure: light curves (brightness time series) and spectra (brightness vs. wavelength). These comprise what statisticians call *functional data* -- measurements of populations of functions. Upcoming automated sky surveys will soon provide astronomers with a flood of functional data. New methods are needed to accurately and optimally analyze large ensembles of light curves and spectra, accumulating information both along and across measured functions. Functional data analysis (FDA) provides tools for statistical modeling of functional data. Astronomical data presents several challenges for FDA methodology, e.g., sparse, irregular, and asynchronous sampling, and heteroscedastic measurement error. Bayesian FDA uses hierarchical Bayesian models for function populations, and is well suited to addressing these challenges. We provide an overview of astronomical functional data, and of some key Bayesian FDA modeling approaches, including functional mixed effects models, and stochastic process models. We briefly describe a Bayesian FDA framework combining FDA and machine learning methods to build low-dimensional parametric models for galaxy spectra.
title Bayesian functional data analysis in astronomy
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14466