2012-11-03

exoplanet significance

Fergus and I got together to discuss how to present the significances of the exoplanet detections he is making with the P1640 coronographic spectrograph. I opined that if the model we are using was truly generative—if the model included a quantitative likelihood or probability for the data given the model parameters—then there would be a few straightforward choices. The model is very close to meeting these criteria but not quite there. We discussed relevant hacks. On the side, we started a discussion of imaging using masks, which is a branch of astronomical instrumentation where we might be able to have an impact using non-trivial imaging priors.

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