Astrostatistics
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Astrostatistics
（Interdisciplinary statistics）
Chapman & Hall, 1996
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Description and Table of Contents
Description
Modern astronomers encounter a vast range of challenging statistical problems, yet few are familiar with the wealth of techniques developed by statisticians. Conversely, few statisticians deal with the compelling problems confronted in astronomy.
Astrostatistics bridges this gap. Authored by a statistician-astronomer team, it provides professionals and advanced students in both fields with exposure to issues of mutual interest. In the first half of the book the authors introduce statisticians to stellar, galactic, and cosmological astronomy and discuss the complex character of astronomical data. For astronomers, they introduce the statistical principles of nonparametrics, multivariate analysis, time series analysis, density estimation, and resampling methods.
The second half of the book is organized by statistical topic. Each chapter contains examples of problems encountered astronomical research and highlights methodological issues. The final chapter explores some controversial issues in astronomy that have a strong statistical component. The authors provide an extensive bibliography and references to software for implementing statistical methods.
The "marriage" of astronomy and statistics is a natural one and benefits both disciplines. Astronomers need the tools and methods of statistics to interpret the vast amount of data they generate, and the issues related to astronomical data pose intriguing challenges for statisticians. Astrostatistics paves the way to improved statistical analysis of astronomical data and provides a common ground for future collaboration between the two fields.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Statistics in Greek and Renaissance Astronomy
Celestial Mechanics and the Rise of Mathematical Statistics
Contemporary Links Between Astronomy and Statistics
Statistical Consulting and Software
OVERVIEW OF ASTRONOMY
Units, Nomenclature, Catalogs, and Telescopes
Stars
The Galaxy
Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology
THE CHARACTER OF ASTRONOMICAL DATA
Types of Astronomical Data
Astronomical Measurement Errors
Summary
OVERVIEW OF STATISTICS
Exploratory Data Analysis
Probability Distributions
Estimation
Hypothesis Testing
Nonparametric Tests
Multivariate Analysis
Time Series Analysis
Spatial Statistics
Wavelets
Density Estimation
Sampling Designs
RESAMPLING METHODS
Description of the Bootstrap Method
Some Simple Applications
Estimating the Sampling Distribution
Bootstrap Confidence Intervals
Bootstrap for Regression Models
Summary
SPATIAL STATISTICS
Recent Astronomical Problems
Spatial Distribution of Galaxies
Sources in Photon-Counting Detectors
Gamma-Ray Burst Distributions
Summary
LINEAR REGRESSION
Introduction
Recent Examples from the Astronomical Literature
Unweighted Least Squares Lines
Error-in-Variables Models
Summary
MULTIVARIATE CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS
Some Multivariate Problems in Astronomy
Applications of Multivariate Methods
Some New Methods
Multivariate Classification
Multivariate Statistical Software
Summary
TIME SERIES ANALYSIS
Variable Phenomena in Astronomy
Examples of Astronomical Time Series
Periodicities in Irregularly-Space Observations
Computer Software
Summary
CENSORING AND TRUNCATION
Recent Research Problems
Statistics for Censored Data
Statistical Methods for Truncated Data
Software
Summary
SOME ASTRONOMICAL CONTROVERSIES
Tifft's Quantized Redshifts
Arp's Quasar Alignments
Segal's Chronometric Cosmology
Gott's Longevity of Civilizations
REFERENCES
INDEX
by "Nielsen BookData"
