Statistical Methods in Astrophysics

Foundations of principled inference from data, primarily in the Bayesian framework, organized around applications in astrophysics and cosmology. Topics include probabilistic modeling of data, parameter constraints and model comparison, numerical methods including Markov Chain Monte Carlo, and connections to frequentist and machine learning frameworks. The course is organized around tutorials and a final project, providing hands-on experience with real data.. Prerequisite: programming in Python or a similar language at the level of CS 106A. Recommended but not required: probability at the level of STATS 116, CS 109 or PHYSICS 166/266.