Commission B3 Astroinformatics and Astrostatistics
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Next IAU-IAA Astrostats & Astroinfo online seminar: 14 Mai 2024 / 16:00 (UTC)
Javier Carrón Duque (Instituto de Física Teórica, Madrid, Spain)
Going Beyond Gaussianity and Isotropy in Cosmology: Minkowski Functionals and other statistics
Abstract: Homogeneous and isotropic Gaussian fields are fully described by their 2pt correlation function. However, these assumptions are not always met in the study of cosmological fields. In order to extract further information, the cosmological community has adopted a rich variety of statistics. One of the most interesting is Minkowski Functionals (MFs), powerful statistical tools used to describe the geometry and topology of observable fields. They have seen diverse applications, such as blind tests of non-Gaussianity in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), enhancing parameter constraints, and analyzing Large Scale Structure (LSS). In this talk, I will demystify MFs, focusing on their mathematical underpinnings and demonstrating their versatility in cosmological research. I will particularly highlight recent advancements in applying MFs to CMB polarization, which opens new avenues for testing Gaussianity and isotropy. Finally, I'll introduce 'Pynkowski,' an accessible public Python package we developed for computing MFs and other statistics across various data types, also including theoretical predictions. This talk aims to elucidate the role of MFs and similar higher–order statistics in modern cosmology and encourage further exploration of their potential.
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