[ArXiv] Bayesian Star Formation Study, July 13, 2007
From arxiv/astro-ph:0707.2064v1
Star Formation via the Little Guy: A Bayesian Study of Ultracool Dwarf Imaging Surveys for Companions by P. R. Allen.
I rather skip all technical details on ultracool dwarfs and binary stars, reviews on star formation studies, like initial mass function (IMF), astronomical survey studies, which Allen gave a fair explanation in arxiv/astro-ph:0707.2064v1 but want to emphasize that based on simple Bayes’ rule and careful set-ups for likelihoods and priors according to data (ultracool dwarfs), quite informative conclusions were drawn:
- the peak at q~1 is significant,
- lack of companions with a distance greater than 15-20 A.U. (a unit indicates the distance between the Sun and the Earth),
- less binary stars with later spectral types,
- inconsistency of undetected low mass ratio systems to the current data, and
- 30% spectroscopic binaries are from ultracool binaries.
Before, asking for observational efforts for improvements, it is commented 75% as the the upper limit of the ultracool binary population.
hlee:
Yet, I wonder why Allen chose the term “best fit” for statistical inference after obtaining posterior distributions. Quite cross-cultural, built upon the great insight in the data set as well as statistics.
07-16-2007, 3:31 pm