Modern Statistical Methods for Astronomy

Eric D. Feigelson is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. He is a leading observational astronomer and has worked with statisticians for twenty-five years to bring advanced methodology to problems in astronomical research. G. Jogesh Babu is Professor of Statistics and Director of the Center for Astrostatistics at Pennsylvania State University. He has made extensive contributions to probabilistic number theory, resampling methods, nonparametric methods, asymptotic theory and applications to biomedical research, genetics, astronomy and astrophysics.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Probability; 3. Statistical inference; 4. Probability distribution functions; 5. Nonparametric statistics; 6. Density estimation or data smoothing; 7. Regression; 8. Multivariate analysis; 9. Clustering, classification and data mining; 10. Nondetections: censored and truncated data; 11. Time series analysis; 12. Spatial point processes; Appendices; Index.

'Feigelson and Babu, two of the leading figures in the new discipline of astrostatistics, have written a text that surely must be considered as the standard text on the subject. The book presents astronomers with an up-to-date overview of the foremost methods being used in astrostatistical analysis, providing numerous examples, as well as relevant R code, for how these methods can be used in their research. The text is useful to astronomers who are new to serious astrostatistical analysis, as well as to seasoned researchers.' Joseph M. Hilbe, Chair, ISI International Astrostatistics Network, Arizona State University/Jet Propulsion Laboratory