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Main Authors: Sugiyama, Sunao, Park, Minsu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14021
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author Sugiyama, Sunao
Park, Minsu
author_facet Sugiyama, Sunao
Park, Minsu
contents In many fields including cosmology, statistical inference often relies on Gaussian likelihoods whose covariance matrices are estimated from a finite number of simulations. This finite-sample estimation introduces noise into the covariance, which propagates to parameter estimates, a phenomenon known as the Dodelson-Schneider (DS) effect, leading to inflated uncertainties. While the Massively Optimized Parameter Estimation and Data compression (MOPED) algorithm offers lossless Fisher information-preserving compression, it does not mitigate the DS effect when the compression matrix itself is derived from noisy covariances. In this paper, we propose a modified compression scheme, powered MOPED ($p$-MOPED), which suppresses noise propagation by balancing information retention and covariance estimate noise reduction through a tunable power-law transformation of the sample correlation matrix. We test $p$-MOPED against standard and diagonal MOPED on toy models and on cosmological data from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Year 3 weak lensing survey. Our results demonstrate that $p$-MOPED consistently outperforms other approaches, especially in regimes with limited simulations, offering a robust compression strategy for high-dimensional data analyses under practical constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_14021
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Data Compression with Noise Suppression for Inference under Noisy Covariance
Sugiyama, Sunao
Park, Minsu
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
In many fields including cosmology, statistical inference often relies on Gaussian likelihoods whose covariance matrices are estimated from a finite number of simulations. This finite-sample estimation introduces noise into the covariance, which propagates to parameter estimates, a phenomenon known as the Dodelson-Schneider (DS) effect, leading to inflated uncertainties. While the Massively Optimized Parameter Estimation and Data compression (MOPED) algorithm offers lossless Fisher information-preserving compression, it does not mitigate the DS effect when the compression matrix itself is derived from noisy covariances. In this paper, we propose a modified compression scheme, powered MOPED ($p$-MOPED), which suppresses noise propagation by balancing information retention and covariance estimate noise reduction through a tunable power-law transformation of the sample correlation matrix. We test $p$-MOPED against standard and diagonal MOPED on toy models and on cosmological data from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Year 3 weak lensing survey. Our results demonstrate that $p$-MOPED consistently outperforms other approaches, especially in regimes with limited simulations, offering a robust compression strategy for high-dimensional data analyses under practical constraints.
title Data Compression with Noise Suppression for Inference under Noisy Covariance
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14021