Practical Guidance for Bayesian Inference in Astronomy

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2302.04703
• Publication Date: 2023-01-01
• Authors: Gwendolyn Eadie; Joshua S. Speagle; Jessi Cisewski-Kehe; Daniel Foreman-Ma...; Daniela Huppenkothen; David E. Jones; Aaron Springford; Hyungsuk Tak
• Keywords: FOS: Computer and information sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; FOS: Physical sciences; Applications (stat.AP); Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Statistics - Applications; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

In the last two decades, Bayesian inference has become commonplace in astronomy. At same time, choice of algorithms, terminology, notation, and interpretation varies from one sub-field astronomy to next, which can lead confusion both those learning familiar with statistics. Moreover, between statistics literature, too. this paper, our goal is two-fold: (1) provide a reference that consolidates clarifies terminology notation across disciplines, (2) outline practical guidance for Highlighting we cover topics such as specification likelihood prior distributions, using posterior distribution, predictive checking. It not intention introduce entire field data analysis -- rather, present series useful practices astronomers who already have an understanding "nuts bolts" wish increase their expertise extend knowledge. astrostatistics astroinformatics continues grow, hope paper will serve helpful jumping off point deeper dives into literature.