Related papers: The Lutz-Kelker Paradox
We use a Bayesian approach to derive the distance probability distribution for one object from its parallax with measurement uncertainty for two spatial distribution priors, viz. a homogeneous spherical distribution and a galactocentric…
We show that the errors due to atmospheric refraction are present in the magnitudes determined with the Difference Images Analysis method. In case of single, unblended stars the size of the effect agrees with the theoretical prediction. But…
Gaia parallax measurements for stars with poor astrometric fits -- as evidenced by high renormalized unit weight error (RUWE) -- are often assumed to be unreliable, but the extent and nature of their biases remain poorly quantified. High…
Standard maximum-likelihood estimators for binary-star and exoplanet eccentricities are biased high, in the sense that the estimated eccentricity tends to be larger than the true eccentricity. As with most non-trivial observables, a simple…
Estimating a distance by inverting a parallax is only valid in the absence of noise. As most stars in the Gaia catalogue will have non-negligible fractional parallax errors, we must treat distance estimation as a constrained inference…
We present a new method for detecting and correcting systematic errors in the distances to stars when both proper motions and line-of-sight velocities are available. The method, which is applicable for samples of 200 or more stars that have…
Photo-z errors, especially catastrophic errors, are a major uncertainty for precision weak lensing cosmology. We find that the shear-(galaxy number) density and density-density cross correlation measurements between photo-z bins, available…
New data from ongoing galaxy surveys, such as the $Euclid$ satellite and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), are expected to unveil physics on the largest scales of our universe. Dramatically affected by cosmic variance, these…
Neutron stars are observed to undergo small, abrupt rotational speed-up. This phenomenon is known as glitch. In pulsar timing observations, detection of a neutron star glitch is constrained by the time of occurrence of the event relative to…
Bayesian nonparametric statistics is an area of considerable research interest. While recently there has been an extensive concentration in developing Bayesian nonparametric procedures for model checking, the use of the Dirichlet process,…
Parallaxes of W UMa stars in the Hipparcos catalogue have been analyzed. 31 W UMa stars, which have the most accurate parallaxes ($\sigma_{\pi}/\pi<0.15$) which are neither associated with a photometric tertiary nor with evidence of a…
Deviations from kinetic equilibrium of massive particles caused by the universe expansion are calculated analytically in the Boltzmann approximation. For the case of an energy independent amplitude of elastic scattering, an exact partial…
Jeffreys-Lindley paradox is a case where frequentist and Bayesian hypothesis testing methodologies contradict with each other. This has caused confusion among data analysts for selecting a methodology for their statistical inference tasks.…
The present determination of the absolute magnitude $M_V(RR)$ of RR Lyrae stars is twofold, relying upon Hipparcos proper motions and trigonometric parallaxes separately. First, applying the statistical parallax method to the proper…
For the vast majority of stars in the second Gaia data release, reliable distances cannot be obtained by inverting the parallax. A correct inference procedure must instead be used to account for the nonlinearity of the transformation and…
Different options can be used in order to measure the shear from observations in the context of weak lensing. Here we introduce new methods where the isotropy assumption for the distribution of the source galaxies is implemented directly on…
A fast and practical method is described for calculating the microlensed flux variance of an arbitrary source by uncorrelated stars. The required inputs are the mean convergence and shear due to the smoothed potential of the lensing galaxy,…
With recent advances in modelling stars using high-precision asteroseismology, the systematic effects associated with our assumptions of stellar helium abundance ($Y$) and the mixing-length theory parameter ($\alpha_\mathrm{MLT}$) are…
CONTEXT. The Gaia EDR3 parallaxes constitute the most detailed and accurate dataset that can be currently used to determine stellar distances in the solar neighborhood. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement in their calibration…
The Jeffreys-Lindley paradox displays how the use of a p-value (or number of standard deviations z) in a frequentist hypothesis test can lead to an inference that is radically different from that of a Bayesian hypothesis test in the form…