3-7 July 2017
Africa/Johannesburg timezone

Systematic model construction by squared series expansions

4 Jul 2017, 15:20
20m
A303A (Engineering Building 51)

A303A

Engineering Building 51

Oral Presentation Track G - Theoretical and Computational Physics Theoretical and Computational Physics 1

Speaker

Mr Antonie de Beer (Student)

Description

In data analysis it is often difficult to understand which parameters in a model are relevant and which are not. The number of parameters must also be optimised in a systematic way. In the Bayesian framework, the optimal set of parameters is determined by maximising the model evidence (eg via the Savage-Dickey density ratio), which is made up of a likelihood and a prior probability. Commonly encountered orthogonal series expansions are, however, necessarily oscillatory and hence cannot describe positive definite likelihood probabilities. Expanding square roots of the likelihood permits us to achieve positivity. The argument for using square roots is reinforced by the constraints to the model by the Savage-Dickey density ratio and the Jeffreys prior.

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD, N/A)?

Msc

Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

Yes

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

Prof. Hans Eggers
eggers@physics.sun.ac.za
Stellenbosch University

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

No

Primary author

Mr Antonie de Beer (Student)

Co-authors

Hans Eggers (Stellenbosch University) Dr Michiel De Kock (Stellenbosch University)

Presentation Materials

There are no materials yet.